How does it feel when you hug an AIDS patient for the first time? For Fei Jiehui, a Chinese employee at Standard Chartered Bank, it was a combination of admiration and gratitude.

Since joining the bank in September 2009, Fei has taken part in five AIDS-related voluntary campaigns organized by her company.

In the first half of this year, she and her colleagues attended a lecture from an AIDS patient arranged by the bank, in which the patient shared his life experiences with the employees.

As Fei recalled, this special lecturer seemed very healthy and energetic, and his optimistic spirit infected the audience, changing their previous impression of AIDS patients.

The man has been infected with HIV for more than 20 years and subsequently developed full-blown AIDS.

The patient, who was born with hemophilia, developed HIV after being given a transfusion of infected blood in hospital when he was a child. Later on, he developed hepatitis.

Despite the setbacks, he never lost his confidence in life and makes strenuous efforts to promote AIDS-prevention campaigns, said Fei.

Before the hug, Fei had been well educated with basic facts about the virus, so she didn't worry at all and had a genuine hug with the man.

"At that moment, I was filled with respect for the man and also proud of what I was doing," she said.

The clerk also claimed that her knowledge of HIV and AIDS was quite limited before she came to Standard Chartered Bank.

Fei is just one of thousands of employee volunteers at the bank who raise awareness of AIDS and HIV internally and in the wider community.

Standard Chartered Bank has a 10-year history of developing AIDS-prevention programs, with the first one launched in 2000 in Africa under the title Staying Alive.

In 2003, the program was renamed Living with HIV and was extended to the bank's branches around the world.

Living with HIV aims to reduce the spread of HIV by promoting behavioral change through education, to help protect not only the bank's employees but as many people as possible.

According to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), there were more than 33.4 million HIV carriers or AIDS patients in the world in 2009.

The death rate of people with AIDS-related diseases has dropped more than 10 percent in the past five years as more received treatment.

The bank started to cooperate with the Chi Heng Foundation, a Hong Kong-based charity, in 2006 to fund a summer camp for AIDS-affected children in poverty-stricken areas.

Volunteers from the bank made a journey to Fuyang, in Anhui province, on Nov 26 to care for AIDS-affected children at a camp.

The three-day event included education on AIDS prevention and games involving both children and volunteers.

Fei also participated in the trip and she said that they delivered face-to-face lectures to the children with a range of HIV-education materials.

"Being a volunteer has enriched my life and made it more meaningful," Fei said.

"The program Living with HIV is given much attention not only from the top levels but also local employees, and its success is boosted by the commitment of these local employee volunteers to a great degree," said Louise Vogler, senior credit officer (East China), Wholesale Bank and Living with HIV Lead Champion, Standard Chartered Bank (China) Ltd.

Next year, the program will focus on education for high-risk groups, including high school and university students, she added.

(China Daily December 13, 2010)