[procaare] Spotlight: The War on AIDS: Where are we?

["Pro-CAARE" <procaare@healthnet.org>]

Spotlight : The War on AIDS: Where are we?
Rico Gustav, Indonesia
**************

 An article from the HDN Key Correspondent Team
 7 April 2008

"Bella detesta matribus," or "Wars are the dread of mothers," is 
one of many famous quotes from the Roman poet Horace. This 
pronouncement has certainly been proved true in Bogor, an hour's 
drive from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, where a very 
different war from the ones waged with spears and catapults is 
being fought.
Bogor's battle is against stigma, discrimination and HIV.

Tasha, a 28-year-old community activist from the city, discovered 
she was living with HIV seven years ago after her husband Adam was 
diagnosed with the virus. At the time, the high school sweethearts 
were married and were expecting their first baby.

As soon as they found out they had HIV they went to the doctor to 
see what they could do to prevent their child from contracting the 
virus. After a great deal of effort and emotional stress, Tasha 
gave birth to a beautiful baby boy and 18 months later, her doctor 
confirmed that her son Adjie did not have HIV.

A mixture of relief and happiness came over the couple and, in 
their own way, they celebrated the start of their family.

Tasha and Adam believe that helping other people, particularly drug 
users and people living with HIV, is one of the few things that 
makes sense in the senseless world they have seen.
Both struggled with drug use for some time and once they had 
managed to stay clean they decided to work with an organization 
that provided programmes for drug users and people living with HIV.
One day, staff at a school who had heard about Tasha and Adam asked 
them to come and talk to their students' parents about HIV. The 
couple agreed to help put a face to the HIV epidemic and soon they 
were being paid US $300 a month for their work.

Since then, they have been asked to speak at a variety of functions 
and they have been interviewed by the press and on television. 
Although Tasha and Adam prepared themselves for the stigma and 
discrimination that can often come with admitting to being HIV 
positive, they never experienced it.

Some people have even shaken their hands, hugged them and said 
encouraging things such as, "You are a great person", "I admire 
your braveness", or "Be strong! I believe they will find a cure!"
Years after Adjie was born, Tasha became the manager of a treatment 
centre for female drug users and Adam was put in charge of the 
organization's drop-in centre for drug users. Life seemed to be 
going well.

But in September 2007, Tasha received an unexpected call while she 
was working on a project in the province of Aceh. The call was from 
the principle's office at Adjie's kindergarten, insisting that 
Tasha come to the school immediately to discuss an urgent issue. 
Unable to reach Adam, who was attending an HIV conference, Tasha 
rushed back to Bogor.
When she got there Tasha was relieved to find that Adjie was 
unharmed, at least physically. She rushed to the principal's office 
to find out what was going on. The headmaster and several teachers 
were expecting her and when they started to explain what the 
problem was, Tasha felt tears roll down her cheeks.

One of the other parents had seen an article about Tasha and Adam 
in a magazine and out of fear and a lack of understanding of HIV, a 
number of parents had demanded that Adjie be removed from the 
school.

While Tasha had been away in Aceh, the parents and several teachers 
had striped Adjie to see if he had any rashes, which they believed 
would be an indication that he had HIV. They stopped him from 
drinking water from the children's dispensers and questioned the 
four-year-old about his status.

Most of the other parents told their children Adjie had a disease 
and would not allow them to play with him. Soon only four of Adjie's 
30 classmates remained.

Tasha and Adam are still struggling to defend their son's right to 
an education and fair treatment. His school, fearing bad press, 
have decided to allow Adjie to stay but his teachers still complain 
to Tasha and Adam that other parents have threatened to remove 
their children if Adjie is allowed to stay.

The National AIDS Commission has expressed its sympathy for Tasha, 
Adam and Adjie, but offer sympathy only, saying it is too expensive 
to take the school to court in Indonesia.
Taking Adjie out of the school would only cause the situation to 
repeat itself elsewhere, leaving Tasha, Adam and Adjie with no 
choice but to continue to try to give the other parents and the 
wider community information about HIV.

Tasha and Adam are pushing the school to provide other parents with 
the information they need on the virus and to create a specific 
policy on HIV. But they both fear that the stigma and 
discrimination have taken a toll on their son, whose personality 
has changed since the problems at school started.

"What really broke my heart was when I heard from one of the 
parents (who supports Tasha and Adjie) that my son asked her 
'Aunty, do you love me? Why do my friends run away from me when I 
want to play with them'. It just broke my heart," Tasha said.

She also said Adjie was now quieter, more rebellious, harder to 
talk to and that he preferred to be alone. Adam said, "We're afraid 
that this incident will crush Adjie from the inside and will affect 
him for the rest of his life."

"We can already see the change. My son doesn't even listen to me 
anymore," Adam said.

It is sadly ironic that Tasha and Adam's dedication to helping 
others has cost them their son's rights and security. It is also 
ironic that while child protection laws exist in Indonesia, it is 
considered too expensive to pursue claims. What good are these laws 
if they only exist on paper?

The world has been at war with HIV for 26 years now and Indonesia 
has been battling the epidemic for about 22 years. Are we winning 
this war? Are we making any progress at a grassroots level?
Yes, we have come up with some great aspirations such as 'Universal 
Access', the 'Declaration of Commitment', '3 by 5', but we have 
failed to protect a four-year-old child from destructive and 
painful discrimination.

Yes, we are making progress with antiretroviral drugs, and 
treatment programmes but people are still dying of AIDS-related 
illnesses.

Seriously, where are we in the fight against HIV?


The KC Team is coordinated by Health & Development Networks (HDN).
Website: www.thecorrespondent.org  Email: info@thecorrespondent.org

Source: SEA-AIDS : April 15, 2008