Various civil society groups, including interfaith forums, women's organizations, and sex workers' associations, will join government officials next month at the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) in Bali to find ways to reduce the rate of AIDS infections.
Officials and civil society group representatives from more than 50 countries in Asia and the Pacific have confirmed their attendance at the congress, the organizing committee said Tuesday.
Committee chairman Zubairi Djoerban said at a press conference the groups had proven themselves key players in the fight against AIDS for years.
"We'll have many discussions and sharing of experiences between the community groups on ways to prevent the spread of AIDS," he said at the United States Information Center in Central Jakarta.
Groups involved in the congress also represent social groups prone to AIDS infections, including injecting drug users, sex workers, gays, lesbians and migrant workers, Zubairi said.
"We hope the forum will allow us to provide more a efficient and effective response toward AIDS infections in the regions," he said.
"We also hope to improve the role of people living with AIDS in the battle against the disease."
Zubairi added the empowerment of the community groups would help Indonesia achieve one of its targets in the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).
The MDGs consist of eight goals that 192 United Nations members have agreed to achieve by the year 2015.
"One of the targets is to significantly reduce or even stop AIDS infections by 2015," Zubairi said.
"The countries that signed up to the MDGs are also expected to be able to provide universal access to AIDS medications by 2010."
Committee deputy chairwoman Nafsiah Mboi said that despite international acknowledgement of Indonesian civil society groups' efforts to combat AIDS, the country was still considered to have had limited success in terms of AIDS prevention.
"Indonesia is still classified in the third of four infection rate and prevention clusters," she said.
"That means the country possesses moderate infection risk rate with limited success in preventing it from spreading."
Indonesia is in the same cluster as China, Malaysia, Nepal, Vietnam and India.
Nafsiah also said recent AIDS statistics in Indonesia represented only a small fraction of the real number.
She cited a 2006 study that indicated there were between 170,000 and 217,000 people living with AIDS that year.
"However, the official data said there were only around 23,000 people living with AIDS by March 2009," Nafsiah said.
"That number was less than 15 percent of our estimate.
"That percentage is only the tip of the iceberg. That also means around 85 percent of people living with AIDS remain hidden or mostly unaware they are living with the disease," she added.
"Our focus now is to move all related community groups to empower themselves. In the end, they will provide us with low-cost and high-impact AIDS prevention policies."
Earlier, AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific (ASAP) president Myung-Hawan Cho said the ICAAP would promote new ways to curb the HIV epidemic in Asia Pacific.
"We're seeking support for finding ways to empower people of Pacific island countries and create a much stronger bridge between Asia and the Pacific," Cho said after a ceremony at the office of chief welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie recently.
He added regional and international cooperation was needed to address HIV transmission among migrant populations.
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