Most of the government's efforts to fight the rise in HIV and AIDS by using the mass media have found it difficult to make an impact in poverty-stricken and ethnic minority areas, added Lu Lin, director of Yunnan CDC, who said home visits and face-to-face education were "new tools that complement the government's measures."

But the project is not only about telling people what action to take, it is about getting people thinking. "We don't just feed them knowledge on prevention and control," said Deng Bangyan, TCE team director in Lincang. "We ask questions and listen to feedback. The interactive discussion can change their mind."

But changing people's minds or behavior is a slow process. It took Deng three months after starting the job to convince his first person to take Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) - since then he has helped 30 people in eight months.

"At first people don't trust you. And they are afraid of discrimination if they go to CDC or the hospital to take the test," he said.

Students from Henan Agricultural University visit a construction site in capital city Zhengzhou on Nov 30 last year to hand out leaflets, brochures and condoms promoting safe sex to migrant workers, part of their work for the 21st World AIDS Day on Dec 1. Chen Xiaodong

TCE was started in 2007 and was a joint project by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association (CPMA), Humana People to People (HPP) and the Yunnan Poverty Alleviation and Development Office.

So far, the team have visited about 500,000 households, workplaces and schools in the two years, and offered advice to an estimated 250,000 people. More than 2,000 have already been persuaded to take VCT.

"The model has been successful in Africa so it was worth seeing whether it would also work in China," said Cai Jiming, vice-president and secretary general of CPMA. "Now it is a proven success with visible results."