Contemplation: Two high school children visit part of an interactive exhibition that illustrates the life experiences of HIV-positive people. The exhibition, held in Discovery Mall, Kuta, runs through to Aug. 13.
(photo by R. Berto Wedhatama)
She’s called Tasya, she’s three years old, and she is living with HIV. Born of a former injecting drug user father and an HIV-positive mother, Tasya has never known a life without antiretrovirals (ARV), but her story does not end on a sad note. Tasya is now living with her mother and attends the Sekolah Ceria pre-school where she receives support from her teachers and is accepted by her peers.
“This just shows that people should never give up, no matter the circumstances,” Ari, a 15-year-old student from State Senior High School No. 1 in North Kuta, said Monday, commenting on Tasya’s mother’s struggle to get support and treatment for herself and her daughter.
The story of Tasya is one of five real life stories that visitors could experience at the One Life, Do Something interactive exhibition held at the Discovery Mall in Kuta, Bali, between Aug. 9 and 13, 2009. The other stories relate the life of Retno and Ahmad from Indonesia, Srey Mom from Cambodia, and Anjali from India.
While located a little far from the main plenary hall of the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), the exhibition is well placed at where youths between the ages of 15 and 25 years old – an important key population in the AIDS response – mostly frequent.
“We want to educate the general public, bringing the life experiences of HIV positive people to light in the hope of reducing some of the stigma and discrimination that are usually associated with them,” Sari Estikarini, exhibition organizer World Vision Indonesia’s media relations, told The 9th ICAAP Post.
“Because very often discrimination is practiced by people closest to them – family members, friends, health service
providers,” she added.
Visitors are provided with MP3 players to guide them through the exhibition. Upon entering Tasya’s life corridor exhibition, you are greeted with the usual things related to babies – talcum powder and cotton balls, baby clothes and a makeshift batik cloth swing. But continue on through the corridor, you will discover bottles of pills and doctor’s prescriptions – things one would not usually associate with babies.
The corridor then opens up to a mock voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) clinic, where visitors can get sample results of an HIV test – “reactive” for a positive result, meaning you are infected with HIV, and “non-reactive” for a negative result.
Writings on the wall and the MP3 recording set the mood for people to contemplate getting these lab test results – teaching them how to avoid transmitting the virus to other people, as well as how to stay safe from being infected.
“This is where people can really feel how it is for people with HIV finding out for the first time they are infected, and in the next room, we provide a mirror for people to reflect on this experience, and make a life resolution” Sari said, explaining that the whole exhibition can be seen in 20-minutes, with a three-minute interval between each visitor.
They are then invited to write these life resolutions on a piece of cloth in the “Yard of Hope” section of the exhibition. They leave with a World Vision Indonesia bracelet to remind them of the experience, and a chance to browse through more information on HIV and AIDS on one of the laptops provided at the exhibition.
“We also provide a special room in case visitors are really interested in getting an HIV test,” Sari said.
The One Life, Do Something exhibition will also open in Surabaya on Oct. 9 to 11, and in Jakarta on Nov. 13 to 15, Nov. 20 to 22, and Nov. 27 and Dec. 1. For more information on the exhibition, visit www.onelifeevolution.com.
[This story was published in the 9th ICAAP congress newspaper, The 9th ICAAP Post]
