I was once angry with God, myself, says woman with HIV
A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Unlike her peers, Yanti may commemorate International Women's Day, which falls on March 8, with past regret -- but hope for the future.
Yanti was forced to resign last year from her company in Kebon Sirih, Central Jakarta, after her colleagues filed a petition with the firm's director, saying they would not work with a person who had been diagnosed HIV-positive.
Worse, her fellow church members alienated her after they learned of her condition.
Yanti tested positive for HIV in 2002, acquiring the virus from her husband, who died in 2001 from complications ensuing from the disease.
"I was once angry with God and myself. Why did He give me such a heavy burden," said Yanti, a 37-year-old mother of two.
"I was forced to quit my job at a private company and my church ostracizes me because of HIV," she told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Yanti is among thousands of women in the country who have suffered -- and continue to suffer -- from HIV, although many of them have acquired the virus unknowingly.
The government has warned of an increasing trend in the number of women living with HIV/AIDS, and that women may surpass the number of men living with the virus.
Half of the 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the world are women, while 22 percent of the 90,000 to 130,000 Indonesians living with the virus, as of December 2003, are women.
Director of the United Nations Information Center (UNIC) Jakarta Abdullah Saleh Mbamba believed the high number of women with HIV/AIDS was linked to the female physiology.
"Physiologically, women are more vulnerable to HIV infection ... and laboratory tests show that male semen contains a higher percentage of the virus than female secretions per unit volume," Mbamba said recently.
He said domestic violence and sexual abuse of women also made women more vulnerable to HIV infection. In Sudan, for example, it has been reported that HIV infection rates among expectant mothers were 6-8 times higher in war-torn areas than in demilitarized zones.
Mbamba claimed that poverty and lack of education among women also contributed to the higher HIV rate, as these could make women vulnerable to unsafe sex and abusive relationships.
International Labor Union (ILO) Jakarta director Alan Boulton concurred with Mbamba, saying that women faced the risk of sexual abuse in the home and the workplace, which contributed to the HIV infection rate.
Yanti said it was her tough spirit that had made her keep working until she was forced to quit.
Her former manager, who had studied medicine, placed her under close observation of immunologist Samsuridjal Djauzi at the University of Indonesia's school of medicine, after he became aware that she had contracted the virus.
However, soon afterward, she felt her friends begin to distance themselves from her, although she had never spoken of her health.
"Whenever I made a phone call, I knew they cleaned the telephone set. They also refused to use a toilet I had used," she said.
She wondered why even her church alienated and discriminated against her.
When her husband died, Yanti said after her priest learned that her husband had died from HIV/AIDS, he suggested that her husband's body be taken directly to the cemetery for burial.
"I asked the priest for a consolation prayer on the third and seventh day of my husband's death, which is customary. But he rejected my request," she said.
Yanti has been living with her parents following her husband's death. However, the priest asked her parents to remove her from the house, for fear that she would transmit the virus to members of her family.
Yanti said her family's support had helped her survive.
"I should not let myself get down, despite all the trials, as I have to take care of my six-year-old daughter and three-year- old son," she said. Her son is also HIV positive.
Besides the support from her parents, Yanti said she received great assistance from Samsuridjal, founder of the Pelita Ilmu Foundation for people living with HIV/AIDS.
She said Samsuridjal invited her to join the foundation as a volunteer to help its awareness campaign and its campaign against the discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS.
She said she received Rp 30,000 (US$3.5) each time she came to the foundation's office in Tebet, South Jakarta, to work.
"The foundation helped me obtain free anti-retroviral drugs from a French foundation. Drugs for my son are partly financed by another foundation for people with HIV/AIDS," she said.
After she began working as a volunteer, Yanti's grudges against her former colleagues and fellow church members faded.
"They just don't know that HIV is not transmitted through hand shakes or other direct physical contact," she said.
Yanti told her story on Thursday during an International Women's Day seminar with the global theme: "Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS".
"I hope there will be no more discrimination against women with HIV/AIDS in the workplace," she said.
Dr. Nafsiah Mboi, chairwoman of the National Committee for HIV/AIDS Prevention, asserted the importance of education, including sex education, among women and girls, to prevent the spread of the virus.
"Public support for people living with HIV/AIDS is also significant," Nafsiah said.