World AIDS Day 2010 in Indonesia – Hosted by Ministry of National Education

• © UNESCO Jakarta/Ahmed Afzal

In a groundbreaking national event, covered by national mass media (TV and Newspaper), the 2010 World AIDS Day on 1st of December was hosted by the Ministry of National Education (under direction of DG for Non-Formal and Informal Education) in collaboration with UNESCO, National Commission for UNESCO, National AIDS Commission, UN Partners, local and international NGO’s and numerous other stakeholders.

The 200 plus audience in the MoNE auditorium enjoyed brief comments from the Minister of National Education, Mr. Mohammad Nuh; DG for Non-Formal and Informal Education, Mr. Hamid Muhammad, Secretary of National AIDS Commission, Ms. Nafsiah Mboi; Director of UNESCO Office, Jakarta, Mr. Hubert Gijzen; and others. The activities of the eventful day were coordinated by the Executive Chairman of NATCOM Indonesia, Mr. Arief Rachman along with Dr. Sarsanto of Yayasan AIDS Indonesia. The success of the events is due to hard of work of many generous people, with special recognition from Ms. Ella Yulaelawati as the Director of Community Education and Mr. Gutama as the Secretary of DG for Non-Formal and Informal Education. The audience was entertained by traditional youth dance, readings of poetry, hip-hop and rap songs. Portions of the event were broadcast live on national TV by renowned celebrity models/singers Syahrini and Adi Nugroho of Dahsyat program in RCTI.

The WAD events in 2010 reached new milestones with over 270 documented activities around the nation, which is unprecedented in the history of this country, which has a rapid escalation of new infections in the past 10 years.

UNESCO Office, Jakarta, collaborated with Indonesia National Commission for UNESCO on several activities employing youth to celebrate this important event commemorating the victims of the virus and working together to prevent new infections (especially amongst key populations) while advocating for basic human rights of People Living with HIV. One of the highlights was the UNESCO sponsored poetry writing competition (and the cover design of the Pocket Book) in response to the epidemic, inviting approximately 700 secondary school (SMP, SMA/K) and Community Learning Centers (PKBM) to participate.

The nine winners (three students from junior secondary schools and six students from senior secondary schools) were each given trophies and cash, while recognized on stage by the Minister of National Education. In his opening remarks, the Minister underlined the importance of promoting HIV preventive education and increasing awareness of the HIV and AIDS disease among the students. The objective of this event was to spread and share the information about the preventable virus particularly to young in the education sector and their role in supporting the youth out of school and amongst the young key affected populations.

The poetry scripts of the 100 participants will be printed into Pocket-Books (with the cover designed by the first place winner) titled “Remaja melawan HIV/AIDS/(Youth Challenging HIV/AIDS). The draft Pocket Book was launched during the events on 1st December 2010 by the Minister of National Education. All 100 participants of the poetry competition whose poetries have been chosen to be included in the Pocket Book were given certificates.

Mr. Hubert Gijzen speech on the event (pdf 111kb)

Besides National TV, the event was also recognized by National Print Media in the links below: