USAID, RI start anti-AIDS project

USAID, RI start anti-AIDS project

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia and the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) has started a US$ 26.7 million
project aimed at containing the spread of AIDS.

Hidajat Hardjoprawito of the Indonesia's Ministry of Health
and Charles F. Weden of USAID on Monday signed the HIV/AIDS
Prevention Project (HAPP) which will support the existing anti-
AIDS campaign.

USAID will contribute US$20 million of the total funds.

Among the programs to be carried out are campaigns to increase
public awareness of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, which
causes the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

The project will also seek ways to improve diagnosis and
provide counseling for HIV patients and other sexually-
transmitted diseases, and to expand access to services that
prevent the diseases' transmission.

The Indonesian government has already made HIV/AIDS prevention
a national priority, developing last year a National AIDS
Strategy and a Five-year Plan of Action for containing the spread
of the virus.

President Soeharto launched on Saturday a family AIDS-
awareness movement, putting the onus on families to prevent, and
fight against, the deadly disease.

"The HAPP project is designed to directly support the
Indonesian government's ongoing efforts to promote family
resilience by combating HIV/AIDS," Weden said.

In support of the National AIDS Strategy, the project will
provide information and education to increase public awareness of
how HIV/AIDS is transmitted and how it can be prevented, Weden
said.

"This effort will encourage people to reduce behavior that
places them at risk of infection and will seek to dispel the
various myths that still surround HIV/AIDS," he said.

"The project seeks to engage all members of society in the
fight against HIV/AIDS," explained Joseph Carney, who heads up
USAID's Human and Institutional Resource Development Office.

AIDS was first reported here in 1987. As of last December, 67
Indonesians are known to have AIDS and at least 208 others have
tested HIV positive.

A number of officials, however, have said that the actual HIV
figure could be 200 times higher, and could reach 50,000 by the
end of this year. (swe)