In a simple classroom in a country school there, more than 30 teenagers are taking part in a slide show on sex education. Afterwards, they huddle amongst themselves, talking quietly until a volunteer stands up to discuss the proper way to use a condom.

In May of last year, the Red Cross Society of Guangxi began working with Australia's Melbourne University on a trial program in seven of the region's border counties to help stop the spread of AIDS.

Young people are considered the most likely group to become infected with the HIV virus. Statistics worldwide show five out of every 11 new AIDS virus infections occurred among people aged 11 to 24.

"The purpose of our program is to get young people to spread the message of how to protect themselves from the HIV virus and how to prevent it from spreading," said Long Junsheng, secretary-general of the Guangxi Red Cross Society.

He Yijun, a senior staff with Guangxi Medical University, was one of the first group of 108 people to be trained for the program. When they complete the training, the young educators will be sent to the seven-county area to work.

The methods they use to tell the teenagers the truth about AIDS vary from role-playing, storytelling, and quizzes to slide shows.

"We come from a similar age group and backgrounds and have similar interests so it's easy to communicate. We're welcome wherever we go," said He.

In addition to the message about the need for prevention, the young educators correct any misconceptions about AIDS the teenagers may have.

So far, this method has proved effective and nearly 2,400 young students, farmers and workers have taken part.

The local Red Cross did a survey afterwards and found that more than 80 percent of the high school students were confident in what they knew about AIDS, compared with 2 percent before the program.

Long said they were encouraged by the success and that they are trying to use this new teaching method in other cities like Nanning, Liuzhou and Guilin.

"Changing people's behavior is an important way to prevent AIDS, but it's not easy. Only awareness can bring strength," He said.

Traditionally, Chinese regarded discussing sex as shameful and taboo and sex education was mostly limited to a description of the reproductive organs.

"The topic of sex was taboo in our hometown. We knew little about HIV, except that it killed. The peer-group education expanded my horizons and I think it is my duty to tell others what I now know," said 22-year-old Nong Qingming, a farmer who took part in the program.

China had 30,736 confirmed HIV cases at the end of last year, with 1,594 full-blown AIDS cases, and 684 people who died of it. But experts warn that the actual number in China could be as high as 850,000, with a large number of unreported cases.

Guangxi itself has 30 full-blown AIDS cases and 3,745 HIV carriers, with 60 percent of them aged 30 or below.

(China Daily July 29, 2002)