Last week on 1 December, to commemorate World AIDS Day 2021, Campaign.com along with Sensitif VIVO held a discussion whose topic revolves around HIV/AIDS in Indonesia. The discussion highlights the long journey that has been taken to obtain the inclusive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). SRHR is needed to reduce the number of HIV/AIDS cases in the country.

Four experts in gender participated in this online discussion as speakers. It includes doctor and gender and global health researcher Putri Widi; Devi Asmarani, the co-founder and chief editor of online media highlighting gender perspectives Magdalene; Ni Putu Candra, a human rights lawyer who is also the founder of Bumi Setara; and Nissi Taruli Felicia, founder of Indonesian deaf feminist community FeminisThemis. 

The main outcome of this discussion is in order to achieve the program to free Indonesia from HIV/AIDS by 2030 that was initiated by the government, it is important to encourage all parties to participate in fulfilling the SRHR of every individual.

In the online discussion Devi Asmarani talked about inequality that still prevails in 

sex education. According to her observation along with the Magdalene team, they found that in Inodonesian society sex education is often considered taboo. 

“Materials that focus on sexuality, consent and other issues such as gender relations are still very minimal. Policy makers still do not have the courage to implement a formal and comprehensive sexuality education curriculum, considering the high perception that often associates sexuality with morality”, explained Devi.

Putri Widi also said that the unequal sex education as well as the lack of access to

health facilities as the driving factors why the number of HIV/AIDS cases in Indonesia continues to increase.

Hence, to overcome it, first, the government needs to acknowledge the existence of this gap. Second, they have to implement concrete actions to fulfill SRHR as well as to make it inclusive and accessible for everyone. In order to be truly inclusive, these actions taken must involve marginalised communities for instance people with disabilities. 

Moreover, according to Ni Putu Candra, so far she has noticed efforts done by various

groups to bridge the gap in terms of SRHR fulfilment for people with disabilities. However, most of those are still very new/not well-developed and tend to be unstructured. 

Nissa Taruli Felicia shared the reality on the ground. She said that people with disabilities do not receive enough sexual education, even the basic ones. Hence, they tend to be victims of sexual violence. 

“According to our research last year, the misconception deaf people about HIV/AIDS is still very high. Of the 85 people we surveyed, only around 30% know about AIDS,” said Nissi.

With that being said, as a social startup focusing on issues of equality, health, education, and environment, Campaign.com is committed to continue to be part of the solution to

various social problems. To do so, Campaign.com is currently and will continue working with various community organisations, communities and business. 

For this HIV/AIDS issue, Campaign.com assists Raja Youth Center Jambi to conduct  a social campaign titled “Aku Tau dan Aku Jauhi Virusnya”. The campaign is sponsored by Sensitif VIVO.  Proceeds from the campaign will be allocated to fund educational activities about HIV/AIDS for youth.