Communities join forces to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS

Various communities joined forces on Thursday to commemorate World AIDS Day by urging the general public to be more aware of the threat of the disease against the younger population as well as to stop discrimination against people living with the disease.

Dozens of We Love Teenagers (Kisara) activists and members of the Denpasar AIDS Mitigation Commission (KPA) declared the Youth Movement to Zero HIV Infection in front of the mayor’s office. They distributed fliers and red ribbons to passing motorists, asking them to play their part in preventing the spread of the disease.

“Teenagers are very vulnerable to HIV – that’s why there should be a youth movement dedicated to prevention efforts,” Kisara’s coordinator I Gusti Agung Mahendra said.

Run by volunteers, peer educators and concerned physicians, Kisara has grown into an influential organization providing counseling and assistance for troubled teenagers. Premarital sexual relationships, unwanted pregnancies and reproductive health are the major focuses of the organization.

Some 5 kilometers to the south, at a busy intersection on Jl. Sudirman, dozens of bankers distributed red roses to passing motorists, reminding them to stop any kind of discriminatory acts targeting people living with HIV/AIDS.

The campaign was organized by the Denpasar office of Bank Indonesia. Previously, on Wednesday, it organized a seminar on AIDS, during which the Denpasar office’s head Jeffry Kairupan underscored the importance of ending discrimination in the workplace.

Bali AIDS Mitigation Commission (KPA Bali) forecast that the number of HIV/AIDS cases in the resort island would continue to increase.

“The number of vulnerable groups has increased and the NGOs’ outreach efforts to identify new HIV/AIDS sufferers have became more effective. These two factors will contribute to the increase in the number of reported HIV/AIDS cases,” KPA Bali executive Prof. Nyoman Mangku Karmaya said.

As of September, the cumulative number of people living with HIV/AIDS on the island had reached 5,000 people. Up to 75 percent of those people contracted the disease through heterosexual relationships, while those in homosexual relationships, and injecting drug users made up 4 percent and 16 percent, respectively, of the total.

The largest existing joint outreach program, which is funded by Global Fund, in the last two years has succeeded in reaching and providing education materials for as many as 24,000 individuals in high-risk groups. Out of the 24,000 individuals, 16,300 are men who frequently seek the service of female sex workers, more than 4,400 are female sex workers, more than 1,200 are men who have sex with men, and 300 are transgenders.

The program, which is being carried out by several local NGOs, has managed to provide care, support and treatment for more than 900 people living with HIV/AIDS. “Sex workers who do not apply prevention measures and their customers who refuse to apply such measures, could turn into active sources of transmissions,” the outreach program’s coordinator, I Ketut Sukanatha, said.