PATH celebrates new China office
PATH’s staff in China recently celebrated a move to a new office location in Beijing’s central business district. Guests from many of the organizations with whom we collaborate attended a ceremony to mark the office-opening. They included staff from the National Immunization Program of the Chinese Centers for Disease Control, the China National Biotec Group, the China Children and Teenagers’ Fund, the China Family Planning Association, and the Cancer Institute of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
The new office is an important next step for PATH’s work in China, which began in 1979: one of our early projects in the country was a partnership with the National Family Planning Commission and Ministry of Health to build counseling skills for service providers. However, it wasn’t until 2003 that we opened our first registered office in the country. There were two staff.
The new office houses four staff offering expertise in clinical trials, behavior change, evaluation, marketing, and product introduction. Our work in China now spans the fields of youth reproductive health, HIV/AIDS prevention, cervical cancer prevention, nutrition, and vaccine introduction and development.
Together with our partners in China, PATH has introduced hepatitis B vaccination into routine immunization, launched sexual health and HIV prevention programs, and developed improved cervical cancer screening tests. HIV prevention activities from the Family Planning Association have been broadly shared, adapted, and applied. The Guangxi Women’s Federation is expanding youth curricula to be used throughout the province. In addition, 13 million doses of Japanese encephalitis vaccine from Chengdu Institute of Biological Products have been exported to India for their immunization campaign.
We are currently implementing several new projects in China, including advancing rotavirus vaccine development, investigating market needs and introducing fortified rice into China, and designing and implementing an appropriate health curriculum for adolescent girls to increase health knowledge, improve attitudes, and encourage healthy behaviors. The new office will accommodate even more new staff and bring success to these efforts!
Li Yanqiu, secretary general of the China Family Planning Association, and Hong Ping, deputy director of the Liaison Division of the International Cooperation Department, present a painting to Janet Vail, PATH's China country program leader, in honor of PATH’s new office in Beijing.
Posted May 9, 2007.