World AIDS Day In Indonesia

By Margaret Conley, ABC News, Indonesia
The HIV epidemic in Indonesia is among the fastest growing in Asia.  The continued spread is largely attributed to injecting drug use. “Injecting drug use remains the major contributor to the dramatic expansion of the epidemic outside of Papua, especially when it interfaces with commercial sex or recreational sex with multiple partners, each of which are major at-risk behaviors in their own right,” according to a Aksi Stop Aids Program in Indonesia. Syifa’s father was an injecting drug user.  She is now a 7-year-old orphan living with AIDS. The government, through the Indonesian National AIDS Commission and Ministry of Health, supports nonprofit organizations, such as Family Health International and Tegak Tegar to reduce risk and provide assistance to those with HIV/AIDS. As of now, the group is a small percentage of one of the world’s most populous nations.  “There have been an estimated 8,700 deaths due to AIDS in Indonesia,” according to UNAIDS and the  U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.  “As of June 30, 2008, 43 percent of all reported cases of AIDS had been transmitted through heterosexual intercourse and 49  percent through injecting drug users.” Nonprofit organizations provide support to the community. “When someone gets HIV, they think there is no hope, says Juharto, a coordinator at Tegak Tegar.  “Sometimes they don’t see there is a life in the future, so we want to show them.” Prevention plans and treatment services are supplied; and help is offered in any way possible. Once a month, 32-year-old Astuti delivers powered milk to Syifa, who now lives with her grandmother. Those who help are living examples of hope. When Andung Nursehan was 25 years old, she learned that both she and her 3-month-old baby had contracted HIV from her husband, an injecting drug user. “My feel[ing] is angry,” recalls Andung when her baby died two months later — “confused, confusion, sad and sorrow.” Andung now handles finance at Tegak Tegar and shares her personal story with others living with HIV. “If you have HIV in your body, it’s not over,” she says, smiling bravely.  “It’s not the end of the world.  We can reach our dream, we can do our activities normally.” (Pictured above: Astuti and Syifa, left to right / Photo by Margaret Conley)

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