Chief Executive’s Message

The year 2021 finally marked our official 30^th Anniversary.  During these 30 years, we have faced many difficult times such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges it posed us.

The Foundation was created with the mission to limit the spread of HIV infection in the community through the provision of the VCT service, education on HIV prevention, and advocacies to curb all types of discrimination toward HIV/AIDS.  Our other flagship service is the Support Service for people living with / affected by HIV.  And the year 2021 also marked the introduction of our brand new and successful mobile VCT service throughout Hong Kong.

The world is still focusing on the threat of COVID although Omicron has been widely seen as less severe compared to all previous coronavirus variants.  Nevertheless, HIV continues to be a major global public health issue and AIDS remains an incurable disease.  As of the end of 2021, 40.1 million people have died from AIDS-related illnesses since the start of this epidemic and there are currently around 38.4 million people living with HIV globally.

Since 1984, the accumulated number of HIV infections in Hong Kong has finally passed the threshold of 10,000 (the cumulative number of reported cases was 11,317 as of March 2022).  But Hong Kong is still considered a region of low HIV prevalence.

REPORTED CASES OF NEW HIV INFECTIONS in 2021 – 2022

As of the first quarter of 2022

2021 has once again proved to be challenging for all of us who have been working for the Foundation.  These challenges were not only concerning the provision of effective services for PLHIVs but also how to stay competitive among others and how to provide something flexible amid the still unresolved COVID-19 pandemic.

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR WORK

1. HIV PREVENTIVE & SEXUAL HEALTH PROGRAMME FOR MSM

The Foundation was not only able to maintain the provision of the programmes to encourage every MSM community to sustain a safe lifestyle with regular HIV tests and safe sex adoption, but we were also able to continue to pilot the HIV self-testing scheme targeting Young MSM groups.

Something more worth noting was that despite the tough social distancing restrictions imposed by the Hong Kong Government, we were among a very few local HIV-related NGOs that insisted on conducting continuous, intensive voluntary counselling and testing (“VCT”) services including Centre-based Testing, Outreach Testing, Self-testing “Guy Home Test”, Mobile Vehicle Testing and a Specially Themed “MSM Testing Day” to increase the testing rate of MSM groups.

2. “PEER POWER” – HIV PREVENTION AND SEXUAL HEALTH PROGRAMME FOR ETHNIC MINORITIES

The project aimed to curb the spread of HIV, particularly among the members of ethnic minorities (EM) by implementing a series of sexual health programmes on HIV prevention education.

With unique experiences gained from the past years, in 2021, despite the social distancing policies, we strengthened our network with EM communities by collaborating with other parties, with more frequent outreach services and several large-scale testing days for the EM communities, motivating more EM participants to gain HIV and sexual health-related knowledge so as to ensure that they were not deprived of opportunities to keep learning new sexual health guidance.

3. HIGH-RISK GROUPS” – A PROJECT TO ACHIEVE A USER-FRIENDLY VOLUNTARY HIV TESTING AND COUNSELLING SERVICE AS WELL AS EDUCATION SERVICE FOR PEOPLE WITH HIGH-RISK BEHAVIORS

“High-risk Groups” was formerly named “Male clients of female sex workers (MCFSW) and people with high-risk behaviours.   In 2019, we renamed it “High-risk Groups” since all of the main targets under this group shared one common feature: engaging in risky sexual behaviour, in terms of occupation (or work nature), hobbies, and other behaviour.   Most importantly, we included young heterosexual people in this project; a group aged below 16 and that, though equally vulnerable to the virus, has not seen government funding to support them.

We not only provided front-line services, but we also provided key messages for members of the public to be well informed of prevention knowledge.  The Foundation staff conducted a large-scale public survey: “Findings on the Sexual Behaviour of Male Clients of Sex Workers Before and After the Outbreak of COVID-19”.  A press conference was held in December 2021 which received an overwhelming response from both the media and members of the public.

4. EMPOWERMENT AND SUPPORT SERVICES FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV (PLHIV)”

This project aimed to empower PLHIV, enhance the quality of their lives and involve them in HIV prevention so as to prevent secondary infection also through maintaining a concept of U = U (Undetectable = Untransmittable).

To continue our services during the pandemic, our team converted some of the original physical groups and talks from physical to virtual events. We also used different channels and Apps to communicate with our clients. This further strengthened the use of Telehealth among our patients and staff members.

5. OTHERS (non-ATF Funded)

Public Education

During the ongoing COVID-19, in a bid to sustain our public education work, first, our public education campaign inclusive of education booths and HIV prevention education at our outreach centre for members of the public who came for an HIV test was put in place.  Second, in celebration of our 30^th Anniversary, we produced a programme named the “Anti-Discrimination Education Campaign” which invited 9 special guests who are elites from the field of HIV/AIDS on various themes.  This rarely-run programme debuted on the HK01 platform and was rerun on our official YouTube channel.

Publicity

In the year 2021, three promising TV stars and YouTubers were recruited as our new ambassadors – Ms. Asha Cuthbert, Mr. Jacky Tong & Mr. Neal Fan. These new faces successfully showcased a refreshing look that truly cheered up members of the public during a time when social distancing might have caused some people to feel melancholy.

Fundraising

During a year permeated by the gloomy outlook due to the unresolved pandemic, we were truly thankful to receive some significant donations from various enterprises. To name but a few, Gilead Sciences, Inc., Sa Sa International Holdings Limited (donation box campaign), AEON (donation box campaign), Hung Fook Tong (donation box campaign), etc. We must express our sincere gratitude to those who have always chosen to stand firm with us.

We also held the flag selling activity on September 4th with passionate involvement from volunteers, students, parents, and our staff members across Wan Chai, North Point, and Central.

LOOKING AHEAD

The Foundation will continue to:

1) help HK maintain a low HIV prevalence;

2) co-operate with our counterparts in the Mainland in accelerating their response to HIV/AIDS; and join with global forces to fight against the AIDS epidemic.

3) set to stick to these critical concepts:

1. the 4^th 90%, namely the 90% of people living with HIV can have a good health-related quality of life even amid the unresolved coronavirus situation; and
2. the concept of Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U) was co-realized by PLHIV and the ones who care about HIV/AIDS.

4) Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) still remains a pilot study in Hong Kong as of 2021-22 when most of the other regions in the world have already launched it in their own public health systems.  As PrEP has been widely recognized as one of the most effective HIV prevention methods, the Foundation will insist to call on HKSAR to officially approve PrEP medication for populations at high risk of HIV.

Our ultimate goal is to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.  We will never concede to this virus even if Mainland China and Hong Kong are still fighting hard to control COVID-19.

THANK YOU!

Eris, S.S. Lau
Chief Executive

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