Ximei

Young farmworker Si-Mei contracted HIV in the mid-1990s. She was not alone. In those days it was not unusual for entire villages to be infected. The country announced a blood and plasma donation campaign, offering payment, and poor farmers were tempted by easy earnings. But catastrophic sanitary conditions – often the blood was not even taken by medical professionals – led to some 300,000 cases of HIV and a subsequent effort at a cover up. Si-Mei has been struggling to this day with the authorities' intimidation. This intrepid woman seeks not only to provide patients with the necessary medicines and social benefits, but also to help them regain the dignity they have lost at the hands of their illness and the Communist regime. (One World)