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.