Comic strips spread the word about AIDS threat

Comic strips spread the word about AIDS threat

By Emma Cameron

JAKARTA (JP): Sompret and Kampret are cool. They wear baggy
jeans and slouch hats and have goatees. Because they are so cool
they inject drugs and because they are friends, they share
everything, including needles -- and HIV.

Sompret and Kampret are fictitious, but their story is a
common one which is why it was chosen in the new cartoon by the
Indonesian Comic Society to raise awareness of Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) at Kampung Tenda Semanggi cafes on Jl.
Jend. Sudirman, Central Jakarta, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4.

Dimas can recognize their story. He started using drugs at 16.
"Before, I'm a good boy, good student but bad people are more
fun ... The first time I tried smoking a little dope I got from a
friend, after that I try ecstasy. If dope is okay why not
ecstasy? If ecstasy is okay why not heroin?," he proudly recalled
in English.

Now 19, he is ashamed of who he became. He said while using
drugs "my results in school went down, I became a liar, more
violent ... I stole from my mother."

Although Dimas has not used any kind of drug for a year, he is
reluctant to call himself clean. "It's like a disease, when I say
to you I'm an ex-addict it doesn't work for me." He sees a huge
drug problem in schools that is being ignored. He said "there's a
lot of junkies at my school. They don't want to give the school a
bad name (and admit it). The school always says this is a good
school."

Joyce Gordan, a psychologist at a recovery center which works
with a state mental hospital in Bogor, 60 kilometers south of the
capital, currently wants to set up a needle exchange program,
something that has never been done before in Indonesia.

Her center is a model for the 33 other mental health
hospitals in the country. "It's taboo, if you give away you
encourage, but addicts will use no matter what", Joyce said.

Needle exchange wouldn't have encouraged Dimas, but it may
have helped him. When asked if he shared needles, he smiled
grimly and said, "Yes, of course. I never thought about the fact
that sharing needles is not good, I just used first or joked
about it."

Dimas currently has cirrosis, a cancer of the liver that is
transmitted the same way as HIV and affects about 75 percent of
drug users. AIDS awareness is becoming very holistic with
prevention counseling based not only on the basic idea of 'if you
do this, you won't catch HIV', but also including ideas such as
pregnancy prevention, body awareness and drug abuse and
promiscuity as a sign of a lack of self esteem.

Joyce, who has been a professional in the field for 12 years,
believes the epidemic of AIDS and the problems of unsafe, casual
sex and drug abuse cannot be solved without a country-wide life
education program in schools. The problem at the moment is the
fear that sex education will simply encourage experimentation and
promiscuity.

"If people limit sex education to the physical then you have
a problem. It's about life planning and leaving behind Cinderella
stories," she explained.

She believes that a comprehensive life education program is
complementary to the teachings of Islam which tell people to
understand their own body. At the moment non-government
organizations (NGOs) come into schools on a one off basis with no
opportunity for follow-up.

The ideal is to create a tailor-made program that teachers can
teach on a weekly basis that is appropriate to each age group.
Joyce said the aim is to give children "self esteem so they can
easily say no, skills to make decisions ... Don't stop at the
physical, it's nothing. We must have all four -- physical,
mental, emotional, spiritual."

Life education programs in primary and secondary schools are
well-established in countries such as America and Australia with
parents signing an acceptance form before their children
participate.

The opportunity to implement a program like this in Indonesia
could be near with the new government. "I see Gus Dur as being
open-minded. Nathadul Ulama (the biggest Islamic group in
Indonesia, of which Gus Dur was leader before he became
president) has been doing a lot of sex and gender education,"
Joyce said.

At the moment, Joyce is concerned about the potential AIDS has
in Indonesia. "We have a death sentence", she added.

AIDS breaks down the immune system allowing other diseases the
chance to enter a weakened body. "It's going to be an explosion
that will happen together -- tuberculosis, HIV, hepatitis, all
together. We could lose a whole generation, or two." Joyce said.

Subagio, the creator of the AIDS comic strips, believes the
stereotype that only those who engage in homosexual sex contract
AIDS is over.

"AIDS is not just sex but drugs too. They get it," he said.
The comic strip is an attempt to present a topic which is still a
source of embarrassment for people in an entertaining and non-
threatening way. He sees the problem now as getting across more
specific information, especially in regards to condom use. "They
think they won't be satisfied and if you give one to them, they
see, they look ... How do you use it?"

Some sexually transmitted disease (PMS) pamphlets actually
promote condom use as a means of lengthening the sexual act and
thus actually enhancing performance. It is also not a problem of
accessibility or cost "one brand is Rp. 500 for three. What other
country can you get them that cheap?" he said.

Subagio also sees the importance of starting AIDS education
young. "All people must be told. Children are growing up to be
teenagers, to be parents".

Public awareness and understanding is getting better thanks to
public awareness campaigns such as the comic strip.