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.