From 11/14/2007 WSJ:
With an initial foundation grant of $50 million and China's chipping in funds of its own, the partnership will push prevention in 12 major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and the island province of Hainan. The aim will be to find people at high risk of AIDS and refer them to voluntary counseling and testing centers, which will offer education and tools to avoid the deadly virus. For people with HIV, the program will stress not passing it on.
The $35 billion Gates Foundation, which was created to tackle problems affecting global health, education and family issues, usually prefers to design its own programs and to put them into practice by teaming with nonprofits. But Beijing's centralized control made it necessary to collaborate with health, security and Communist Party agencies; indeed, it took four years of diplomacy by Mr. Gates before Beijing would permit his organization to register as a foreign foundation.
The Gates-funded AIDS Media Project has produced television spots showing Houston Rockets basketball star Yao Ming and former Los Angeles Laker Magic Johnson -- who is HIV positive -- shooting hoops and sharing takeout food to emphasize that casual contact with infected people is safe.
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