Diverse Forms and Integrated Practices of Pilot Communities for Men's Health Education – Part Three of Zhao Yufeng's Report

2. Diverse formats attract participation and meet needs.

In carrying out the "New Marriage and Childbearing Customs Enter Every Household" campaign, various regions have placed great emphasis on men's health education and promotion activities, resulting in a more diverse range of forms and content. From initial street-level public awareness campaigns, training courses for male citizens, and free medical consultations, the campaigns have evolved into diverse and engaging community-based outreach activities. This aligns with the demands of social progress, attracts enthusiastic participation from community residents, and meets the health needs of male citizens.

In Beijing's Dongcheng District, Hepingli Street, the "Men's Harbor"; in Harbin's Daoli District, Fulewan Community, the "Men's Health Salon"; and in Hangzhou's grassroots communities, "Warm Homes" and "Men's Health Signature" activities, many organizations in Harbin's Daoli District, Tianjin's Tanggu District, Zhengzhou's Erqi District, and Shanxi's Jinzhong City's Yuci District have launched "Men's Health Windows" and "Men's Health Lecture Halls" on cable TV channels and websites, attracting active participation from community residents. While conducting promotional activities, most communities also conducted questionnaire surveys and follow-ups on the health needs of male citizens, and organized physical examinations, training, and free clinics for male citizens based on their health conditions, receiving widespread praise and welcome.

3. Build a platform, integrate and penetrate, and continuously strive for progress.

"Men's Health," as an important component of population culture dissemination and population and family planning education, has become a socially recognized brand and publicity platform, utilized by various media outlets at multiple levels, and providing business opportunities for companies dedicated to developing men's health products. Around October 28th, "Men's Health Day," news media across the country focus on this topic, creating a strong public opinion atmosphere. Community outreach activities, within this strong social context, actively utilize local resources to organize creative self-promotion and self-education activities among the masses.

In Jiangsu Province, Xuanwu District and Honghua Street in Qinhuai District of Nanjing City, and Jianghan District of Wuhan City, Hubei Province, "Male Reproductive Health Consultation Hotlines" have been launched; in Guangzhou City, Liwan District, Caihong Street, the "New Trends in Marriage and Childbearing Spread Across Caihong" series of cultural activities, and in Jinan City, Lixia District, in conjunction with publicity and cultural departments, the "Ten Ones for Focusing on Men's Health" activity, have been carried out; in Liaoning Province, Anshan City, Anxi County of Fujian Province, Kunming City, Wuhua District of Yunnan Province, Qingdao City, Shinan District, and Ningbo City, pilot communities have used community cultural activities to promote men's health knowledge; in Chongqing City, pilot communities have erected large public service billboards with messages such as "Men Also Need Care" and "Let Us Pay Attention to Men's Reproductive Health" along main urban roads and in environmental construction, attracting media and public attention; in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, grassroots communities have held a debate on the topic of "Men's Health" for college students; Shanghai and Beijing are both in the process of building "Population Culture Streets" and "Population Culture Parks," incorporating men's health content as part of their initiatives, reflecting a strong sense of the times and service awareness, and achieving good publicity results.

4. Catering closely to men, providing high-quality service, and enhancing team cohesion.

Faced with new tasks in the new era, the National Population and Family Planning Commission proposed a comprehensive reform strategy for population and family planning work, with publicity and services as the core. The success of men's health promotion is fundamentally due to the strengthened services provided to male citizens. In carrying out men's health promotion activities, each pilot community first conducted questionnaire surveys of the target population within its jurisdiction, making the work more targeted and purposeful.

In most grassroots street communities, through questionnaires, lectures, private messaging systems, hotlines, individual interviews, and consultations with male doctors, men's awareness of reproductive health has significantly improved, and the number of people using condoms has generally increased. After several years of promoting men's health knowledge, incomplete statistics from grassroots communities in Guangzhou's Dongshan District, Dalian, Shenzhen, and Xiamen alone show that the increase in condom use among male citizens is 13% to 16%, and the proportion of men choosing vasectomy has increased by 2 percentage points annually (from 8.2% in 2000 to 14.5% in 2004).

III. Men's health education should focus on encouraging participation.

Focusing on men's health and encouraging male participation is no easy task; without the active participation of male citizens, our work will lose its meaning. Years of practical experience have shown that publicity is guidance and mobilization; our goal is to enhance men's awareness and sense of responsibility in participating in family planning. Where does male participation begin? What are the specific contents of male participation? Male participation is not merely about proactively taking effective measures in contraception and family planning. To awaken men's genuine awareness of social participation, we must recognize their position in society and the family. Men are half of humanity, important members of the family, and a happy family begins with focusing on men's health. Men's concepts, awareness, attitudes, behaviors, and actions directly affect the quality of family life. Therefore, we have found a starting point: first, to address the practical problems and difficulties that men themselves hope to solve. We put ourselves in their shoes, guiding them with correct and scientific knowledge, encouraging them (especially married men) to become our friends. We aim to help them move from being reluctant to speak out to being willing to accept our advice, from confiding in others to boldly seeking expert advice. We encourage them to actively, bravely, and openly participate in our activities. First, we help them understand themselves, discover and resolve reproductive health issues, and realize that erectile dysfunction (ED) is not merely a sexual dysfunction, but a significant warning sign reflecting underlying health conditions. By doing good for men's reproductive health, we can then further cultivate their sense of responsibility regarding marital life, family harmony, raising children, and their social roles. From the surface to the core, from this to that, from the shallow to the deep, we help them understand themselves through ED, their marriage through reproductive health, their family through their marital life, family through family planning, spiritual civilization through family planning, and social responsibility through spiritual civilization.