I had again the opportunity to go back to Cau Ngang rural district in Tra Vinh province, a southern region of my country, where 2 ethnic groups: Kinh and Khmer live together. Here, I had the chance to guide women, who are poor peasants about HIV/AIDS prevention. It's really interesting because these women are indeed simple, joyful and eager to study, especially about how to prevent strange diseases - transmitted through sexual activities. That's why, they showed some hesitation with smiling faces.

Returning to HCM City, a big city with about 7 million people, I also had a chance to contact a number of women living in the squatter areas. There some of them work as farmers and others as handicraft makers or doing small businesses. They were very interested because they would like to show themselves as good citizens as others.

In Quang Ninh province, near the Northern border, I had a chance to go to Mong Cai, Uong Bi, Van Don, etc. and make friends and social contacts with drug users and then invite them to participate in gathering activities for all their friends.

Besides, in a poor community of HCM City, called "Ghost village," the inhabitants themselves know how to help the AIDS people, who feel sad and lonely and who hide themselves in their homes because they are afraid of others knowing of their AIDS disease. The helpful attitude of the neighborhood where people act naturally (no stigma or discrimination) make people suffering from HIV/AlDS live peacefully without feeling discriminated against.

These activities aim to push and encourage the local residents themselves to participate in AIDS activities, because they indeed become the most important power, the most numerous and present everywhere. So, the peer education method that, in other words, means the encouragement and the organization of people "being at the same level" facilitates mutual information among people and the care of each other.

That is why communication and the activities of service to others should, at present, be prompted in order to push everybody to participate, without limiting themselves just to work within the health governmental branch and other official organizations.

If we provide quicker, more numerous and wider opportunities for everybody to participate in AIDS activities, we can be powerful enough to face AIDS, a great epidemic which is more and more serious in Viet Nam.