Ceremonies finish AIDS campaign
Ceremonies finish AIDS campaign
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
White drifts of campaign materials with slogans like "No drugs,
No AIDS, No cry" and "We are women concerned with our
reproductive health" littered the entrance to the Indoor Tennis
Stadium in Central Jakarta on Sunday.
The garbage was dumped by the participants of the AIDS Walk
2004 before they entered the Bung Karno Sports Complex to watch
entertainers including Shanty, Andre Hehanusa and pop diva
Krisdayanti.
As Shanty ended her two songs with some advice on safe sexual
behavior to the high school student audience, hundreds of
visitors browsed through dozens of stalls at the AIDS Bazaar.
The stalls included one from an international bank offering
credit cards and another from a condom producer.
"This Sunday's event is the peak of a series of events to
commemorate World's AIDS Day on Dec. 1. The Indonesian AIDS
Foundation (YAI)'s campaign this year is targeting young people
aged between 15 and 20," spokeswoman Franciska R. Tambunan told
The Jakarta Post.
She said YAI remained committed to raising public awareness
about HIV/AIDS.
"This year, the international theme for World AIDS Day is
focused on women and girls who, according to the data, are more
vulnerable to HIV/AIDS," she said.
She estimated about 5,000 people joined the AIDS Walk from
Senayan to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle and back along Jl.
Gatot Subroto to the stadium.
"Officials from nine embassies from countries like Greece,
Pakistan, South Africa, Singapore, China and Croatia, marched
with us," Tambunan said.
Sunday's event was officially opened by Vice President Jusuf
Kalla, who was accompanied by Minister of Health Siti Fadilah
Supari, State Minister for Women's Empowerment Meutia Hatta and
People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Hidayat Nurwahid.
"AIDS in Indonesia is an urgent matter because of its fast
growth rate. The number of the case we have here is still below
that in Thailand, the rate is higher," Kalla said.
He said the government had provided enough HIV/AIDS medicine
for about 10,000 people living with HIV/AIDS.
As of September this year, government data showed that at
least 2,337 Indonesians were known to have contracted HIV and at
least 2,363 had AIDS.
However, most health experts believe the official data is only
the tip of the iceberg. Continuing suspicion and discrimination
against people living with HIV/AIDS also helped hamper surveyors'
efforts to find an accurate estimates of the infected, they said.
Unless publicity campaigns were followed up with government
action and serious financial support, they said pledges from
politicians would remain as lightweight as the HIV/AIDS campaign
litter fluttering in the breeze.