Suherdjoko and Ainur Rohmah, Kudus/Semarang – World AIDS Day, which fell on Dec. 1, was commemorated in a number of regions across Indonesia on Monday with calls for an end to discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS.
In Kudus, Central Java, some 200 HIV/AIDS activists comprising high school and university students as well as members of the regency Community Health Information Center staged a theatrical rally.
Distributing brochures on HIV/AIDS, they called on people to show respect toward those with HIV/AIDS.
"People with HIV/AIDS have been subject to discrimination," rally coordinator Azwar Anas said on the sidelines of the rally on Monday. Kudus peer group coordinator Eni Mardiyanti said 14 individuals in 72 recorded cases of HIV/AIDS in the regency had died this year, two of whom were children under five years of age.
Calls for an end to discrimination were also voiced by NGO Lentera Asa's activists in Semarang city, as they marked World AIDS Day on Monday in the Tugu Muda area by distributing flowers to passersby.
200 activists stage rally calling for respect for those with the disease 14 HIV/AIDS related deaths in Kudus this year, including two children under 5 Difficulties accessing ARV treatment in Gorontalo
Lentera Asa director Ari Istiyadi called on the government to provide opportunities for people with HIV/AIDS to work and have decent livelihoods without discrimination. "We also call on people not to stigmatize and discriminate against them," Ari said.
Semarang City AIDS Commission (KPA) secretary Bambang Soekardjo said that to help improve people's awareness, the city administration had established so-called AIDS Caring People groups in 47 subdistricts.
The administration had also disseminated information regarding symptoms to officials in local offices of the Religious Affairs Ministry, to be passed on to future brides and grooms.
As of September this year, Central Java noted 3,767 cases of AIDS and 9,032 cases of HIV, in which 10 percent of AIDS cases were found in teenagers.
Nationally, according to data from the Health Ministry, as of September this year, 67 percent of HIV/AIDS transmissions were via heterosexual relationships.
In Gorontalo, World AIDS Day was marked with activities ranging from campaigns, the distribution of brochures on the disease and blood donor sessions involving civil servants on Monday.
A 33-year-old man with HIV/AIDS who asked for anonymity said he was often stigmatized and discriminated against in his community because of the disease he had.
"Excommunication happens everywhere, even within my own family," said the man, who had become an activist and member of a HIV/AIDS peer group providing counseling to people with HIV/AIDS.
Separately, Gorontalo provincial KPA secretary Irwansyah said people with HIV/AIDS in the province still found it difficult to access antiretroviral (ARV) medication because it was only available at the state-run Aloei Saboe Hospital in Gorontalo city.
"In fact, people with HIV/AIDS are spread in five regencies and a city in Gorontalo province," said Irwansyah, adding that some lived far from Gorontalo city.
He said the commission was continuing to push for ARV services to be available in every hospital, especially as the spread of HIV/AIDS in the province was relatively high, with 174 cases as of November this year.
Irwansyah expressed optimism that the province would be able to achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goals, which required that zero new HIV/AIDS infections occur.
[Syamsul Huda M. Suhari contributed to the article.]