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em>JP/Wendra AjistyatamaUnlikely questions lead to unlikely consequences.

Take the case of  Esthi Susanti Hudiono, for example.

Thanks to her work with the Hotline Surabaya Foundation, the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) announced her the winner of this year’s SK Trimurti Award, which recognizes efforts in fighting for freedom of expression and gender equality.

Esthi’s path into the whirlwind of activism and journalism began as a teenager asking herself, “Am I crazy?”

She might be, if crazy means an interest in literature and philosophy when all your friends are
into boyfriends, or if it means protesting against what you see as a discrimination while your friends are engaging in petty rebellion like smoking cigarettes.

To try find the answers about her mental well-being, Esthi decided to take guidance and counseling as her major at Satya Wacana University in her hometown in Salatiga.

She graduated and became a teaching counselor in a high-end private high school in Surabaya. She recalls being favorite among the students, perhaps partly due to her slight frame and youthful features.

Esthi became disenchanted with her job due to low pay and inequalities she perceived in the educational system, despite her effort to “give candidates of capitalism a conscience”.

The teacher’s social scene also failed as well to excite her. She says it was hard to imagine herself being married to a practical, conservative educator.

Esthi’s next career move took her to the newsroom of the newspaper Surya — a world she was already familiar with through her involvement in her university’s press, and parents magazine in the school where she was a counselor. She was also a correspondent for Mutiara weekly

Thanks to her experiences and educational background, Esthi was made editor for Surya’s Keluarga Sejahtera (Happy Families) column and was responsible for an advice hotline in 1990.

“At that time I thought I had a good chance of making a difference. To help people in trouble,” Esthi said.

The column received thousands of calls and letters each year, with most of them from women and teenagers asking about sex-related issues.

During her time at Surya, Esthi became acquainted with Dede Oetomo, an activist for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights and the founder of human rights organization GAYa NUSANTARA.

It was through him that she learned about the growing AIDS problem in Indonesia and she proceeded to develop an AIDS-related program.

Esthi was faced with the choice between abandoning the hotline to return to her journalism work, or to resign and continue the hotline’s work outside the company, she chose the latter. Hotline Surya became an independent foundation called Hotline Surabaya.

One of her considerations back then was that there were plenty of candidates for editorial positions but only a few would want to do what she does with her foundation.

Again, one thing led to another. Simple questions like why is it so hard to wear a condom to prevent the spread of HIV led Esthi to explore the AIDS issue, especially in the context of its spread among sex workers. She discovered it to be related to a myriad of other issues such as gender and sexual exploitation.

Hotline Surabaya started dealing with issues like child sexual exploitation and trafficking,

Its outreach programs include training sex workers to organize and empower themselves through education, health, and welfare programs using the cooperative method.

Accompanied by foundation staff, sex workers who have been trained in empowerment programs visit brothels and pimps to conduct talks and workshops.

“In the past, many pimps opposed our programs, but since we are in Java, people still had the courtesy to welcome us as guests. So it was generally OK as long as we didn’t take the prostitutes away,” Esthi said.

Pimps are not the only ones eyeing Hotline Surabaya with suspicion. Many parents are reluctant to allow their children to take up internships or work in the foundation due to its association with people with HIV/AIDS and sex workers.

Adding to the burden of stigma in her work are technical snags, like lack of funding and failed programs. Esthi said that she thought several times of quitting. In her own words, “I am not a hero”.

But it seems like the universe disagrees with her plans to leave work, at least for now. One particular incident during her attempts to quit became a milestone in her HIV/AIDS activism.

She has been aware that interventions in places like brothels would make very little difference if not accompanied by a structural policy intervention. So, in 2001, Esthi decided to take up the gargantuan challenge of pushing for bylaw that addresses the HIV/AIDS issue.

“I got laughed at because initiators of bylaws are supposed to be the executive or legislative officials, not an ordinary member of society like me. The City Development Body said ‘You trying to make a bylaw is mission impossible’,” she recalled.

She told those who doubted her that they should not “put the problems up front” and that one should work towards a goal before saying something is impossible. But in her heart, she made a promise that should the effort fail, she would leave her work in activism.

Esthi began researching, working together with colleagues who were experts in law, and approached various officials, including the Home Ministry at that time.

She engaged with the media, participated in a radio talkshows for a year and found the East Java AIDS Awareness Community.

To her surprise, her hard work and effective tactics combo succeeded. The bylaw on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Mitigation, which stipulates 100 percent condom usage in high risk areas, was passed in 2004 and became an example for other regions.

 “When it was passed, I turned weak. It meant I am not allowed to leave this job,” Esthi laughed.

There was also a time when she had to live on bank loans because she used her savings to build a shelter in a red light district, but unexpected cooperation with the National AIDS Commission and the shrewdness of her financial staff helped clear the crisis.

Nowadays, Esthi copes with the stress in her work by engaging in hobbies such as swimming and meditation.

According to her, the Hotline Surabaya Foundation currently focuses its work on the roles of men in preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS, because those carrying the virus nowadays are mostly men who conduct in high-risk sex and then transfer the virus to their partners.

These partners, in turn, can be housewives who are unaware of their husband’s sexual activities.

The National AIDS Commission’s data on the cumulative number of AIDS cases from 1987 to March 2012 revealed 3,092 cases among housewives, putting the profession second in number of cases after the category of business owners, which is revealed to have 3,546 cases in the same period.

Up to this day, even with the bylaw passed, the epidemic that is AIDS is yet to be contained, Esthi said.

Stigma and low awareness of the issue is also prevalent, as she witnessed herself in 2005 when a technician asked whether it is possible to catch HIV by installing an air conditioner in the room where she counselled HIV positive people.

After over 20 years of activism, countless challenges with still more yet to come, Esthi’s own words seemed to answer the question she posed to herself in high school.

“This is a crazy person’s world. It’s not a career. You can spend forever inside it,” she said.

But, again, if crazy means caring enough to fight for things that no one else cares about, maybe she has been looking at the wrong dictionary all this time.