Spotlight 4: Chengdu Tongle Health Counseling Service Center, China

They are committed to addressing priority health concerns like HIV and AIDS, helping foster a sense of gay community and culture, as well as promoting gay rights.

Consisting of 20 staff and nearly 500 volunteers, it is regarded as the largest LGBT NGO in China.

Whilst offering many services and programmes, Chengdu Tongle is best known for its Comprehensive HIV Prevention Model, which integrates three pillars of HIV prevention: 1) intervention; 2) counseling and testing; and 3) care services for people with HIV.

These three elements are built into a one-stop service model.

Within their prevention work, Chengdu Tongle targets MSM through gay venues, social networks and the internet. This enables the service to reach different groups of MSM with different socialising habits.

Chengdu Tongle was the first NGO to provide HIV counseling and testing to MSM in China. In 2007, they began offering HIV testing and counseling to MSM as an alternative to being tested at government agencies (like the CDC) or hospitals.

Previously, all HIV counseling and testing was implemented by government-based hospitals, and this is still the case for the majority of the country.

Building on this success and their strong links with the community, Chengdu Tongle established support groups to provide care and support to people with HIV.