CONTROL MEASURES: A doctor conducts free HIV tests for rural migrant workers in Jiyuan City, Henan Province

As dusk descended on Beijing at 6:30 p.m. on October 13, Zhu Xiaoping, a migrant worker from east China's Anhui Province, sat before a temporary stage on a construction site with his co-workers. It was one hour before the official beginning of the show, and the construction workers were waiting patiently, dressed in uniforms supplied by their employer especially for the occasion. For the migrant workers who had been sweating all day long on the construction site, such entertainment was a rare break from the grind of daily life.

The show, themed Fluttering Red Ribbon on Thousands of Construction Sites, was part of an AIDS prevention project launched jointly by the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) and the International Labor Office of the International Labor Organization. The project aims to disseminate AIDS prevention knowledge to construction workers through art performances, posters and promotional movies.

Basic course

As they sat waiting for the show, Zhu and his colleagues were given free brochures and CDs on AIDS prevention. Most rural migrant workers like Zhu read the materials carefully and some discussed the topic in low voices.