AIDS activist Green soldiers on

AIDS activist Green soldiers on

Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Cordial and warm, that is the first impression of activist
Chris W. Green. He speaks excellent Indonesian, and quickly says
that he likes to be called babe (father in the Betawi language of
native Jakartans) instead of Mr. Green or even pak Chris Green.

Sixty years old, Green has spent half his life in Indonesia --
a country he says he chose to stay in for no particular reason,
except its tropical weather.

"I can't stand cold," said Green, who was born in London,
speaking on the sidelines of an AIDS workshop.

Renowned as a tireless campaigner in the fight against AIDS,
Green was once a fighter of another sort, serving in the British
army in Malaysia. He said that Indonesia was among the countries
in Asia that "never made denials that there were no HIV/AIDS
cases and even the government also issued a presidential decree
in 1995, while other Asian countries had not yet acknowledged the
issues."

Of course, it's not a completely glowing report card for the
government. HIV/AIDS, with its complex social and cultural
issues, and the big taboo of sex, inevitably has the potential
for stereotyping, for seeing people with AIDS as "them".

"I often hear officials who say that with iman and takwa
(faith and devotion to God), we can avoid AIDS. That makes people
think that those who get HIV/AIDS are not the kind of people that
have faith and devotion to God," Green said, bursting into
laughter.

With his deep concern about health issues, friends and fellow
activists often address him as an "engineer" of medicine (he is
an alumnus of the Loughborough College of Advanced Technology in
England).

He began to educate himself about HIV/AIDS and related issues
in 1991, after losing a friend to the disease. Four years later
he established the Spiritia Foundation -- an Indonesian Network
of People with HIV/AIDS -- together with activist Suzana Murni,
who herself contracted HIV.

The foundation is a peer-group forum for people with HIV/AIDS
(PWAs) to share and obtain information on the disease.

As his main concern was to befriend PWAs, Green, who is
single, is among those who does not take for granted what
textbooks told him.

"You can't not get emotionally involved, that's nonsense. For
doctors or nurses, it is still possible, however, not to be
personally involved with their patients," he said.

"For social workers like we who always have to befriend the
PWAs through their fears and hopes, it is very unlikely that our
emotions would not get involved. How can we share feelings with
them if we do not have any sympathy or empathy for what they
suffer?"

Working with PWAs means total immersion, getting involved with
their daily lives and with their family, Green added.

He admitted that he often felt burnt-out -- "the job feels so
frustrating when our friends are ailing or die" -- but the
feeling is quickly overcome when he meets with more PWAs, giving
them more information and updates on treatment.

"Too bad that most of the time, I meet those who are not given
correct information. If the woman gets pregnant, she is told to
abort the pregnancy. For me, if (getting pregnant) is their
decision, why not? However, in this matter, there is the baby,
which is not asked for its opinion before the decision is made,"
Green says deploringly.

In 1998, Green started to work on other issues, particularly
injecting drug users, who are also at high risk of HIV/AIDS.

Collaborating with a number of nongovernmental groups, he
recently launched an Indonesian translation of Guidelines for
drug harm reduction (Pengurangan dampak buruk narkoba) which was
originally issued by the Asian Harm Reduction Network (AHRN).

The booklet -- part of a more complete manual for reducing
drug-related harm -- was launched in Jakarta and Denpasar.

Now he sees that the momentum has swung to the drug issue, and
that many people have started to establish groups, are working in
the field and there are more donations.

"I'll retire from the issue and return to AIDS," he said.

While others continue to turn their back on the issue of AIDS,
choosing to look at it from the moral perspective instead of
saving lives, Chris Green will keep soldiering on.