Commemorating World AIDS Day: Jakarta Stop AIDS Embraces 40,000 Students to Campaign for the Dangers of HIV / AIDS and the Importance of Healthy Living

Jakarta, 28 November 2010– Jakarta Stop AIDS (JSA), a primary program for the prevention of the spreading of HIV/AIDS and the importance of healthy living aimed at students of Junior and Senior High Schools, today held a big event in commemoration of World AIDS Day on 1 December. 200 male and female students who are JSA ambassadors performed a choreographed dance as a sign of the spirit to familiarize the dangers of HIV/AIDS and the importance of healthy living among young people by forming a ribbon (the symbol of HIV/AIDS) right in front of the National Monument square.Besides the choreography by the JSA Ambassadors, this event was also enlivened with fun bike and fun walk activities starting at 07.00 WIB. Attending this event were Nafsiah Mboi, Secretary of the National AIDS Commission, Sinta Kaniawati, General Manager of Yayasan Unilever Indonesia, Taufik Yudi, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the World AIDS Day 2010 Commemoration, JSA Ambassadors, and employees of PT Unilever Indonesia Tbk’s factory, who joined the fun walk.

The JSA program was born and developed from the strategic partnership between PT Unilever Indonesia Tbk through Yayasan Unilever Indonesia (YUI), Yayasan Cinta anak Bangsa (YCAB), the DKI Jakarta AIDS Commission, the Education Office, and the Health Office.
Since it was launched in 2009, JSA has succeeded in obtaining 24,221 members, consisting of more than 24,000 students and 62 teachers; until the end of October 2010 the total number of people participating in the familiarization of the dangers of AIDS and drugs increased to 40,000 students and 100 teachers.

Sinta Kaniawati, General Manager Yayasan Unilever Indonesia said, “Unilever is convinced that health is the parameter of quality of life for the whole society. To achieve a good quality of life, knowledge and implementation of a clean and healthy living behavior is needed. This is what the students (JSA Ambassadors) obtained, they were given training about the importance of maintaining health through the implementation of a healthy lifestyle and transmission of a ‘positive virus’ to their peers. Thus, JSA Ambassadors became peer educators and second layer ambassadors to familiarize the dangers of HIV/AIDS to their peers.

In accordance with the World AIDS Day theme namely “Universal Access and Human Rights”, JSA is present as access for teenagers and provides as much access as possible to the dangers of HIV/AIDS. The event, which was held at the National Monument square was enlivened by performances by Indonesia Youth Regeneration and JFlow.

The program Jakarta Stop AIDS was proclaimed in the form of a Primary School Prevention Program, with the objective to instill awareness about clean and healthy living behavior to avoid and prevent the spreading and transmission of HIV/AIDS since early age, especially among the teen age group.

According to data from the DKI Jakarta Provincial AIDS Commission, based on risk factors, more than 49% of infections in people with HIV/AIDS were caused by sharing injection needles (IDU) among drug users, 47% because of free sex, and the rest caused by deviations in sexual behavior (2%), perinatal infections (1%), and blood transfusions (1%). On average, the age of HIV/AIDS sufferers was between 19 – 25 years. .

“JSA is a small step taken by Unilever Indonesia to prevent the spreading of HIV/AIDS, and by involving students, the young generation which is vulnerable to the transmission of HIV virus, hopes to prevent the spreading of this deadly virus as early as possible,”concluded Sinta.