NGOs target young people in anti-AIDS drive

JAKARTA (JP): As sex becomes a common practice among city teenagers, non-government organizations are targeting young people in their anti-AIDS work.

They are targeting junior and senior high school students, university students and young people who work in prostitution.

An executive of the Indonesian Family Planning Association, Hari Purnama, said yesterday that the organization proposed to conduct sex education and counseling for high school and university students in the city.

"Our project would include students of 1,300 junior high schools, 1,000 senior high schools and 10 universities throughout the city, prostitutes in the Kramat Tunggak red light district and entertainment centers on Jl. Mangga Besar," Hari told reporters after a meeting to review the AIDS prevention program in the city, which is being financed by the World Bank.

Data released by the ministry of health shows that the number of people in Jakarta infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) which causes AIDS had reached 105.

It is estimated that a total of 312 people have HIV/AIDS in Indonesia.

Hari said the proposal was part of a new public health policy which includes sectors outside of the medical sector in preventing the spread of the deadly disease.

"This kind of project has never before been implemented in Indonesia, but it has proven effective in other countries," Hari said.

Hari said the program included encouraging teachers to have all their students attend briefings on AIDS and safe sex. Panderers are to make it a rule that all their prostitutes attend such presentations.

Hari said that research provided strong indications that sexual intercourse is common among students nowadays and that, therefore, it is important to educate them about safe sex.

"It is better to educate them about sex than leave them in the dark. Thereby, youths will know their responsibilities and can avoid cases such as unwanted pregnancy, sexual-transmitted diseases and abortions," he said.

While acknowledging that sex education was still a sensitive issue in predominantly-Moslem Indonesia, Hari said it was nevertheless important that it be undertaken.

Rita Kuriasuti, AIDS program coordinator with the city health office, takes a similar position.

"Whether we like it or not, it is a fact that now there is a tendency for people to have sex at a younger age," she said.

Jakarta, along with Riau, has been appointed by the National AIDS Commission as a pilot project for a government-funded aids prevention program, which will be financed with a loan from the World Bank.

Four NGOs have proposed projects through which they would participate in the program, which will start in the 1996/1997 fiscal year. The three-year program will cost Rp 27 billion (US$12 million).

"The two places have been chosen as models because of their high AIDS prevalence," Mawarwati, an official from the ministry of health, told reporters,

Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said that the city administration would play an active role in combating the disease.

"It is important to start the program as soon as possible and not to wait for the loan. We (the city administration) will use our own budget to start it," he said.

Surjadi said that AIDS was a problem that needed an urgent solution and that his administration did not want the disease to get out of control.(yns)