Public wary about wearing ribbons

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The Tebet railway station in South Jakarta was hectic on Wednesday morning. Dozens of commuters hastening out of the station to the exit gate were met by activists from the Pelita Ilmu Foundation, that concerns itself with HIV/AIDS issues, who handed out leaflets and gave away red ribbon pins.

"Would you mind wearing this ribbon as a sign of your awareness of HIV/AIDS, sir?" an activist asked a man.

The man smiled and replied, "I already know about HIV/AIDS, but I don't have HIV or AIDS, so I don't think I want to wear the ribbon".

The activist was taken aback for a moment, before smiling back and allowing the man to leave. Other commuters just smiled and walked away without paying much attention to the ribbons or leaflets.

"Many people still lack information on HIV/AIDS. It goes with the meaning of the ribbons, which represents the inverted letter 'V', meaning that our fight against HIV/AIDS has not yet been successful. We need to raise public awareness of HIV/AIDS to a higher level," said YPI case manager Tika Surya Atmaja, better known as Ati.

That was why, Ati said, that YPI were handing out red ribbons at various public places including the railway station and Cijantung Mall in East Jakarta, as was it hoped to reach people from different sections of the community and boost their curiosity about HIV/AIDS.

YPI also held a free, two-hour art performance in the afternoon at the Gadjah Mada Plaza in Central Jakarta to commemorate World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.

"The message that we want to convey is clear. Our fight against HIV/AIDS has not reached the end. We have only just begun, and we must keep fighting to raise public awareness about HIV/AIDS, which will hopefully lead people to find proper information about the disease," said YPI chairman Muhaimin Toha.