Segment 1

NARRATOR

Compared to many other countries battling the spread of HIV and AIDS, the percentage of the Indonesian population infected with the virus is low. But it's estimated more than 200,000 Indonesians are living with the virus, and other worrying statistics are emerging

DR. NAFSIAH MBOI [Secretary, National AIDS Commission, Indonesia]

According to the UNAIDS report, they said that Indonesia was one of the fasting growing epidemic in Asia. And that is because we have more than 50 percent transmission among the injecting drug users, and that goes very fast.

NARRATOR

Controlling the spread of HIV across this enormous archipelago is a huge task, but Indonesian authorities are taking on the challenge. The growing epidemic has prompted a fresh look at policies including new approaches to education, treatment, prevention, and drug law enforcement.

DR. NAFSIAH MBOI

There can be the death penalty, actually. So what happened was anybody with drugs were put in jail, so our prisons became overloaded. But, for injecting drug users especially, that meant they went underground and they shared syringes, they shared needles among them, which means the infection went very, very fast: from almost zero in 1997 to very high prevalences in 2007.

NARRATOR

Measures to reduce the spread of HIV have been scaled up dramatically with the support of the Australian Government, including new needle and syringe programs and methadone clinics like this one, where registered drug users can come, without fear of prosecution, for assistance to reduce their dependence on heroin. They can also access clean needles, avoiding the need to share syringes, a key cause of infection amongst injecting drug users. It's taken a shift in thinking, but it's an approach Dr. Nafsiah Mboi has worked hard to implement.

DR. NAFSIAH MBOI

If they don't get access to prevention, like condoms and sterile needles, etc, and they don't get access to the medication and service they need, we will fail.

NARRATOR

Work is also underway to ensure health workers have a positive approach to those at risk of contracting the HIV virus. A trip to the methadone clinic is specifically designed to be a non-threatening experience

DR. NAFSIAH MBOI

They are our children and they have the right to be healthy, they have the right to live.

NARRATOR

Across the water in Bali another forward-thinking program is underway. This one is aimed at reducing sexual transmission of HIV. These young women are former sex workers, and their knowledge of the local industry is being used to educate others in safe practices. The island is well known as a holiday destination throughout the region. Unfortunately, it's also where some young Indonesian women get caught up in the sex industry.

FORMER SEX WORKER [Yayasan Kerti Praja volunteer]

I was from a small village in Java and someone came and said there's work for you in a shop.

NARRATOR

Now she has been diagnosed with HIV, a direct result of unprotected sex. She has also joined a team of women working with Australian volunteer Emily Rowe in an outreach program promoting condom use in the Kuta sex industry, and encouraging regular health checks. It's a very successful initiative funded by AusAID.

EMILY ROWE [outreach worker, Australian Volunteers International]

Because they understand the industry, and they understand the way that the male guests think, and because they're not shy, they can talk about all kinds of really, really detailed aspects of the work with the girls.

FORMER SEX WORKER

For me, it's much easier for me to talk about HIV, because I know how it feels, and I know how it feels to be discriminated against, and how it feels when you get sick with HIV.

NARRATOR

According to the women involved in the program, male guests -- as they call them -- are very reluctant to wear condoms. Changing that practice is the principal focus of the group's work.

FORMER SEX WORKER

I think it's very, very important, especially for lots of the guests that are ... maybe they're construction workers, or they're fishermen, and they have very, very low levels of knowledge.

NARRATOR

Teams pay regular visits to brothels and other known sites throughout the city, not only to educate, but to encourage sex workers to visit the clinic for health testing.

DR. PUTRI GESAKMADE [Kerti Praja Foundation]

Because of this organization, we have had a really, really big impact, especially in the sex-work industry, especially with regards to condom use, and helping to treat positive sex workers with ARV treatment and therapy. So we are helping to control the epidemic.

NARRATOR

Dr. Putri's father, Professor Wirawan, established the Kerti Praja Foundation in 1992. It's a medical organization working to provide antiretroviral therapy for patients who need it. That support has now been extended to help meet the health needs of those most at risk: sex workers.

EMILY ROWE

I think that obviously it probably would have begun with one or two that wanted to stop working, and we thought that's such a great opportunity as peer educators, and so it's growing. We just got recently another two volunteers.

NARRATOR

For Indonesian authorities, the strategy to fight the spread of HIV -- sexually transmitted or through the use of infected needles -- is not to ostracise the most vulnerable but to embrace them, reaping the benefits of their street-level knowledge.

DR. NAFSIAH MBOI

So only by embracing them, by recognizing that they are the key populations, will we succeed.