Imaging Our Mekong - Reproductive Health

THAILAND: Male Sex Workers Need Support Too

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:44:12 -0500

By Kieratikarn Techavadranakool

CHIANG MAI, Thailand - "I don't prostitute myself, I sell my skills," says Ton, a 28-year-old who moved from Bangkok to this northern Thai city because "it's a dream place everyone wants to live in".

Over in Laos, Still Taboo

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:13:31 -0500

Kieratikarn Techavadranakool

LUANG PRABANG, Laos – Prostitution, a sensitive issue in conservative Laos, is not always discussed openly. But sex workers, tourists and even government officials acknowledge that it has become more visible these days, amid the increasing openness of this South-east Asian country.

LAOS: Women Wage War on Avian Flu

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 10:37:52 -0600

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Feb 1 (IPS) - Women from ethnic communities in the hilly, northern part of Laos, who have been breeding and growing poultry as a means of livelihood, are also the newest recruits in the struggle against the avian influenza virus.

Straight Talk Makes Headway in HIV and AIDS

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:16:19 -0500

By Lin Gu

KUNMING, China - “I must have been the only fully dressed man to ever hang out in a gay sauna,” recalls Wang Ming, laughing. “No wonder everyone stared at me.”

Looking back at what he has been through since 2002, Wang can only laugh as he recalls the challenges he faced as a timid heterosexual entering what to him was the baffling world of gay men.

CAMBODIA: Beer Firms Need to Do More for Women Promoters

Sat, 10 Dec 2005 00:10:17 -0600

Chheang Bopha

KUALA LUMPUR - The panel discussions and debates at a recent regional conference here on sexual health were a world away from Chana and Sopheap’s daily environment – the din of music, clients’ chatter and unwanted advances at the restaurant where she works as a beer promoter in Cambodia.

HEALTH: It’s Easy to Leave Sex Out of Sex Education

Wed, 21 Dec 2005 04:21:24 -0600

Sutthida Malikaew

KUALA LUMPUR - Many countries now have sexual health education in school, but teachers often focus on the health and biological side of the topic and leave out the very issue they need to address – sexuality, say experts at a regional conference here in November.

A Boy’s Journey to Sex Work

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 04:02:36 -0500

By Lin Gu

CHIANG MAI, Thailand - Sitting at a round wooden table outside Scoopy Ice, a fancy ice cream bar in this northern Thai city, 24-year-old Eak (not his real name) talks softly of the exodus from neighbouring Burma over the years.

MEKONG REGION: Abortions A Health Concern

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 09:08:18 -0600

Mon Mon Myat

KUALA LUMPUR - Khin (not her real name) had abdominal pains so severe she couldn’t even walk properly. She had taken ‘Kathy Pan’, a Burmese traditional medicine, to make sure her menstruation starts, because she was worried. She had missed her period after her boyfriend got her drunk and persuaded her to have sex.

HIV/AIDS is Far and Near

Wed, 31 Aug 2005 21:37:50 -0500

by YANG YAOPING

This village in Zhenkang county, located in the south-west of China, is near the notorious Golden Triangle, an area between Myanmar, Thailand and Laos that is the world's centre of drug production and trafficking.