AIDS awareness for students at a price

Ninth-grade biology students from Gandhi Memorial International School were recently scheduled to attend a lecture by Dr. Jubaeri, a local expert on HIV/AIDS, at the Pokdisus AIDS Center at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital. As there are 70 ninth- grade biology students and the center is able to accommodate only 40 visitors at a time, we had planned on taking two groups to the center, on separate days. Late in the negotiations we were informed by the hospital's accounting section that each visit would require a "donation" of Rp 350,000. This represented a total donation of Rp 700,000 to the hospital for a service which should be provided free of charge, or at least at a minimal cost to students in Indonesia.

The subject of HIV/AIDS is one of the more important issues which young people around the world have to deal with. Governments and foundations, such as Pokdisus AIDS, should take every opportunity to make this kind of information available to people within this age group, regardless of the financial constraints under which these centers operate. It is extremely unfortunate that Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital expects schools to contribute exorbitant amounts of money to receive this information. This is not a responsible attitude for an institution charged with disseminating relevant information on the subject, especially to youth. All students in Indonesia should have the right to access information on HIV/AIDS, which is not impeded by financial considerations.

Our concerns were expressed to Prof. Dr. A. Hariyanto, Director of Pokdisus AIDS, in a letter dated March 16, 1997. Due to the lack of a response from Prof. Dr. Hariyanto, we are utilizing this public forum to urge the hospital to consider limitations placed on schools by requiring them to make unreasonably large contributions. We ask the hospital to review its policy in this regard.

DR. PETER WALBRAN

Biology Teacher

Gandhi Memorial International School

Jakarta