Street children taught about AIDS

SEMARANG: The Central Java branch of the Indonesian Family Planning Association is teaching various subjects to street children such as arithmetic, writing, ethics and the dangers of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

Forty-nine street children will be involved in the program starting February and going through to December this year, Antara on Monday quoted the provincial association director, Farid Husni, as saying.

He said apart from providing basic education the children needed to know about sexually transmitted diseases including the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

The program, which is funded by UNICEF, includes 70 girls. Farid added street children in the province were estimated to number 4,000 while before the crisis they reached 3,000.