Foundation promotes safe sex in flesh market
Foundation promotes safe sex in flesh market
By Yoko N. Sari
JAKARTA (JP): A poster saying "I know the right way, sweet and
safe" with an illustration of two thumbs covered with condoms
hangs in a room at the Kramat Tunggak red-light district center
in North Jakarta.
"It really touches my heart to see that the prostitutes hang
that poster in their room. I have never thought that they would
really want to do it," Adi Sasongko, director for health care of
the Kusuma Buana Foundation said.
The foundation, which was established in 1983 with the aim of
improving the health of mothers and their children, started
campaigning against the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
(AIDS) in 1993 after research showed that 29.6 percent of the
women coming to its six clinics suffer from sexually transmitted
diseases.
The foundation provides an anti-AIDS training program for
hookers at the Kramat Tunggak prostitute rehabilitation center,
Sasono said in a seminar on the results of the program carried
out between July and November last year.
The basic goals of the program are to make prostitutes aware
of the danger of AIDS and to encourage them to use condoms each
time they have sexual intercourse with their customers.
Adi said 80 prostitutes have taken part in the program in
which they are taught about the disease and how to have safe sex
using condoms.
"All of the women who have joined the training program, are
increasingly aware of the importance of their health. The only
way to save their health is with safe sex practices," he said.
"The foundation realizes that the red-light district is a
place where AIDS can be spread easily if nobody tells the
prostitutes about the disease," Adi said.
Kramat Tunggak in North Jakarta is the largest red-light
district in the capital. It is overseen by the Jakarta
administration in order to contain the practice of prostitution
so that it's impact on the public is minimized.
Currently 1,860 prostitutes are working at the 11-hectare
brothel complex, which has 270 buildings capable of accommodating
around 2,300 women.
The red-light district is located near Tanjung Priok port and
many of the sailors arriving at the port every day visit Kramat
Tunggak. There is no guarantee that those who frequent the
brothel complex do not have HIV, so the best thing to do is to
inform and train prostitutes about safe sex.
Adi said that the training program is considered to be one of
the most effective ways to disseminate information about safe
sex. It is also intended to improve the prostitute's ability to
convince customers to always use condoms.
He said that the training focused on teaching the women about
their reproduction system, venereal diseases and how to avoid
them, as well as how to maintain their health.
Adi explained that because most participants are not very well
educated -- most have not completed elementary school -- with
some being unable to read and write, the training program is
designed to be simple as possible to enable them to easily
understand it.
"We use their language and use simple tools in explaining
things," he added.
For example, the trainers were forced to explain how to deal
with customers by using large cardboard flash cards showing, step
by step, how to persuade customers to use condoms and how to use
the condoms themselves.
"We also used a model of male genitals to train them how to
put on a condom," Adi said.
He explained that since the topic is a little bit sensitive,
the foundation employed 10 female trainers, including female
medical doctors and female social workers.
Through this kind of approach, the trainees could easily
accept the materials and were more open when asking or answering
questions.
Adi said that the basic goal of the program is to enable
prostitutes to be able to detect any symptoms of sexually
transmitted diseases on their bodies, not to change their
behavior.
"The training is expected to make them aware that whenever
there is something wrong with their health, they have to go to
the doctor as soon as possible," Adi said.
If after the training some of them decide to go home and
change their profession, that is warmly welcomed, he said.
When one of the trainees decided to go home right after
joining the program, the foundation faced a kind of dilemma: On
the one side it was happy that she decided to stop working as a
prostitute, but on the other hand it lost a trainee, who was
expected to spread the information to other prostitutes who have
not yet been trained.
"Basically we expect all of our trainees to become our agents
and set good examples for their friends," Adi said.
He said that due to a lack of funds, the foundation can no
longer continue the training program and the trainees themselves
are expected continue the foundation's mission by informing their
friends.
Adi acknowledged there is a major problem which could not be
solved by the trainers in the promotion of safe sex: The
trainees' boyfriends.
"Trainees who have boyfriends do not use condoms during sexual
intercourse with them," he said. The women say they are reluctant
to use condoms because they think that their boyfriends will not
transmit any diseases.
The foundation found out about this when one of the trainees
was found to be infected with genital herpes, after she refused
to use a condom with her boyfriend. She used condoms every time
she had sexual relations with customers.
"We now tell them that they have to use condoms in any sexual
relations with their partners, including their boyfriends," Adi
said.