AIDS Worker Awarded
Chief Executive's Commendation for Community Service

Mr. Graham Smith, Chief Executive of AIDS Concern, was awarded the Chief Executive's Commendation for Community Service in the Hong Kong SAR 2001 Honours List. The award will be presented in Government House in a ceremony to take place in the afternoon of October 13th.

Mr. Smith has lived in Hong Kong for 12 years and was one of the founding members of AIDS Concern, Hong Kong's first non-governmental AIDS organisation. AIDS Concern was established in 1990 and has taken a leading role in developing outreach prevention programmes targeting the gay community and the local sex industry. "When I first came to Hong Kong there were no community based organisations providing AIDS care and prevention services," Smith said. "I had previously had volunteer experience with AIDS groups in the UK while I was a student and when I met some people here who were interested in setting up a similar organisation I joined them."

Mr. Smith's key role has been in the development of targeted outreach prevention programmes. His front line work has involved visits to brothel's, nightclubs, gay saunas and public toilets to distribute condoms and talk to individuals about issues around sexual health and safer sex. "It is the scarcity of targeted outreach prevention work that concerns me most about Hong Kong's response to AIDS. I think that we don't make enough effort to reach those who need the condoms and the information the most. Quite often vulnerable groups are thought of as "hard to reach" when in actual fact they are not. They just happen to be beyond the scope of existing service delivery mechanisms."

Mr. Smith has recently completed a term as the Co-Chair of Hong Kong first Community Planning Committee. Some external consultants commissioned by the Government's Advisory Council on AIDS recommended the establishment of the committee. The committee brought together sex workers, men who have sex with men, former IDUs, cross-border travellers, youth and people with AIDS to work with academics and professionals in drawing up a list of priority interventions to prevent AIDS in Hong Kong. "It was a very special process to be involved in" commented Smith. "It was the first time in Hong Kong we tried so hard to support vulnerable group involvement in AIDS planning. Many were sceptical that it wouldn't work but actually the results were beyond the expectations of even the more positive among us." The Hong Kong Coalition of AIDS Service Organisations, which ran the Community Planning Process, is currently awaiting the Health and Welfare Bureau's response to the Committee's recommendations.

"It was a great honour to be given this award," Mr. Smith said. "Our work is often considered "controversial" because we target groups who are socially marginalized or because it is mistakenly thought that our efforts to promote safer sex will "encourage sex". Actually what we are doing has a sound basis in good public health practice. AIDS in Hong Kong is primarily a sexually transmitted disease and needs to be addressed as such. Because of the stigma attached to it no response can be effective unless it actively involves those most vulnerable to infection. I see this award as recognition for all those AIDS workers and community members who have been so actively involved in securing vulnerable group participation in Hong Kong's response to AIDS."

For more information contact: Graham Smith, Chief Executive, 9356 5767

October 2001