Dessy Sagita – HIV/AIDS is a growing health problem in Indonesia, but as the rate of infection shows no signs of slowing down and the disease becomes more prevalent, prevention campaigns continue to run into brick walls.
"There are still many people who object to the use of condoms on moral or religious grounds and oppose campaigns around safe sex," Sugiri Syarief, the head of the National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN), said in Jakarta on Sunday.
The BKKBN aims to increase condom use among sexually active people to 2.5 percent by 2014, but this seems a tall order as condom use nationwide stood as low as 1 percent. Sugiri said his agency could not engage in frank and open campaigns on condom use as it had done before, for fear of igniting conflict.
"We have to be very selective of where we run this sort of awareness campaign," he said. "Before, we would run these campaigns in areas where we could reach out to a lot of people, but we ran into a lot of resistance." Sugiri said that in 2012, the BKKBN would carefully select the areas where to campaign, so it would not run foul of so-called morality and religious leaders.
He said the condom-use campaigns would only be rolled out in the run-up to World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, as funds were limited.
Health Ministry figures show around 70,000 people in Indonesia are infected with HIV, while more than 20,000 of them have contracted AIDS. However, these figures are only the tip of the iceberg, as UNAIDS estimates almost 300,000 people in Indonesia have the virus and engage in unprotected sex.
Several years ago, the BKKBN ran a high-profile condom-use campaign that included installing condom vending machines in key areas. However, the program was cut short after a year in the wake of intense public protests that culminated in an attack by unknown assailants on the BKKBN offices in West Nusa Tenggara.
This year's campaign will be aimed at a younger generation and the message will be passed on through rap songs that "will get through to the youth," Sugiri said on Sunday on the sidelines of a contest to pick the winning song for the campaign.
At the event, which featured local rap artists Iwa K and Yacko, Sugiri said younger people were most at risk of contracting HIV, so prevention campaigns had to target them. The rap contest to mark World AIDS Day in Indonesia first began in 2006, with aspiring musicians from across the country submitting their entries in the hope of winning.
Sugiri said the contest was not just an opportunity for a moment in the spotlight. Most of the rappers had experienced the dangers of drugs and unprotected sex but had become aware of the importance of reproductive health, he explained.