Summer camp for children impacted by HIV/AIDS opens in Beijing

China's first lady Peng Liyuan (third from left) and Melinda Gates (first from left), co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, attend the opening ceremony of the summer camp "Love in the Sun" on July 23, 2017. [Photo provided to China Daily]

China's first lady Peng Liyuan attended the opening ceremony of a summer camp for children affected by HIV/AIDS in Beijing on Sunday.

Society as a whole is responsible for supporting children facing difficulties, said Peng, whose efforts in promoting public health, particularly HIV/AIDS intervention, date back at least 10 years.

The summer camp "Love in the Sun" is an annual event held by the Chinese Association of STD and AIDS Prevention and Control. It aims to raise public awareness and allocate more support particularly for children affected by HIV/AIDS.

Peng was appointed as a WHO goodwill ambassador for tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in 2011. In China, she became the health ambassador for HIV/AIDS prevention for the Ministry of Health in January 2006 and the national ambassador for TB control and prevention in March 2007.

Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, signed a cooperation agreement on behalf of the foundation with China's National Health and Family Planning Commission that promotes health efforts for poverty reduction and HIV/AIDS intervention.

Under the agreement, the foundation promised a donation of $16.5 million for China to combat the poverty and AIDS epidemic.