wfn.org | Taiwan Church News: AIDS Foundation Calls on Government to Set Youth Care Measures

["Lydia Ma" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>Taiwan Church News

>2963 Edition

>December 8-14, 2008

AIDS Foundation Calls on Government to Set Youth Care Measures

>Reported by: Chiou Kuo-rong

>Written by: Lydia Ma

December 1st was World AIDS Day and local governments and social  organizations across Taiwan marked the occasion by holding forums on  medical care, human rights, and education pertaining to AIDS. A pioneer  in building AIDS centers for adults and babies afflicted with the  disease, Garden of Mercy Foundation held a public forum on measures for  caring for youths with AIDS. This was the first time that Taiwan  addressed the issue of care mechanisms for youths with AIDS in a public  forum.

According to the CEO of Garden of Mercy Foundation Chang Li-shu,  “the government always says there are no problems. But the truth is  that we are encountering problems when offering care.” She admits  that the foundation must deal with inadequate infrastructure and funding  in many instances, such as arranging matters after an AIDS patient  passes away or arranging medical care for a newborn with AIDS.  Furthermore, Taiwanese society does not have any mechanism in place for  taking care of youths afflicted by AIDS, leaving the family of victims  in a difficult position. Because discrimination against AIDS patients  and misunderstanding on the spread of AIDS still exist in Taiwanese  society, parents who want to protect youths with AIDS face an uphill  battle in guaranteeing benefits for their sick children.

According to officials at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in  Taiwan, youths between 10 to 19 years of age afflicted with AIDS  contracted the disease mostly through Ecstasy and Meth parties.  Sometimes homosexuals adults also bribe youths for sexual favors. In  response to these findings, the CDC is urging for better health  education in secondary schools. Schools must not only teach teens how to  protect themselves, but also teach parents how to monitor their  children’s behavior. Chang hopes that the questions raised at the  public forum will push the government to focus on how to enact  legislation protecting youths afflicted with AIDS and improve care  facilities. She emphasized that as long as there is no legislation  protecting both children with AIDS and the organizations that care for  them, AIDS centers do not have the ability to protect themselves right  now when problems arise and they are prosecuted.

Chang also pointed out during the forum that AIDS victims are a minority  in society and they are mostly from financially deprived families.  Hence, some people have advised her gently to let go of the issue for  she had already done enough. To this, she replies, “But we are the  Presbyterian Church. We must do it and keep on doing it.”

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