Article JOB

JOB: ZERO discrimination, FULL acceptance

We, Milena, Sause, Elijah, and Sandra participate in the summer project GANTARI with UNILA.
Together with local communities, we aim to decrease the stigma related to people living with
HIV/AIDS and improving sexual preventive education in schools.

One of the great communities we visited is called Jaringan ODHA Beidaya, or shortly ‘JOB’. JOB was
established in 2015 through a community discussion, because people living with HIV/AIDS felt the
need to stand up for the fullfillment of their rights. JOB provides a safe place for people who are
living with HIV/AIDS, and support people who had experience with violence, discrimination and
stigma related to this illness. As 90% of the people in the community are infected with HIV or AIDS
itself, JOB is a place where personal stories can be shared and where support can be found. Besides,
there are many other activities organized, such as education about nutrition, preventive talks,
developing an HIV center, providing short term shelter for people needing consultation in the city,
and doing creative work that is sold for fundraising. By doing so, JOB aims for zero discrimination
towards people who are living with HIV/AIDS in 2020.

We spent two days at this community and we were especially impressed by the personal stories they
told us. We would like to share one of the stories with you. The real name of the women is left out
because of privacy reasons, from now we will call her M.

- High school lovers, got married

- Men started to show symptoms like skin rash, weight loss, infection around his mouth.
- Doctor did not know what it could be. Went to a different hospital where a blood test was
executed and AIDS was discovered. M and her husband were devestated and found it hard
to accept and could not tell anyone.
- All their savings were spent on medicine (2.000.000 every week) and when they run out of
money, her husband went to his old village to escape from dealing with the disease and
finding peace.
- M could not accept this and told the families about the problem.
- Her husband went back to the city and needed to visit the hospital because his condition
was critical.
- At this point her husband admitted his previous drug abuse to a random stranger as being
the cause for the illness. M was devestated because he never admitted this to her.
- The doctors pushed M many times to take a blood test as well, but she wanted the situation
of her husband to improve first.
- Later, it turned out that she was infected with AIDS too. Her husband was shocked that
affected his physical situation. Lastly, her husband died in 2007.
- Together, they had two children and after his death it turned out that her youngest child got
was infected as well.
- Nowadays they have to deal with many struggles. Taking medicine every day, that is not fully
supported by the government, being discriminated and stigmatized, and avoided in social
situations.
In response to this story, we would like to clear some wrong beliefs many people have about
HIV/AIDS.

Statements:

HIV/AIDS can be transmitted by touching, such as hugging or shaking hands.

- Information about HIV/AIDS

- (Stories of people living with HIV/AIDS)
- Request: website