Winning bloggers awarded for helping raise HIV/AIDS awareness

The 10 winners from the blogging competition organised by the Australian Government aid program (AusAID), National AIDS Commission and VivaNews.com are being awarded today.

In commemorating World AIDS Day on 1 December, Indonesian bloggers were invited to help raise awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment through a dynamic online competition. Themed “Youth and HIV”, this competition attracted more than 200 bloggers in Indonesia writing about their own experiences or opinions on HIV/AIDS.

“Indonesia has one of the fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemics in South East Asia. This is one of the many strategies the Australian Government is using to tackle HIV/AIDS and to help those living with the virus,” said the Australian Deputy Head of Mission to Indonesia, Mr. Paul Robilliard.

This competition tapped into Indonesia’s thriving social media scene - 38 million Facebook users and over 3.2 million bloggers - exposing Indonesia’s online community to youth-generated information about HIV.

The top three authors will be awarded fantastic prizes including a MacBook Air computer, camera and Smartphone.

“The top ten bloggers now have a better understanding of the issue. They went out into the field to meet the support groups and see at first hand Australian Government assistance being provided to those living with HIV,” said Mr. Robilliard.

Australia and Indonesia have been working together to tackle HIV for more than 15 years. The $100 million Partnership for HIV has helped 26,000 injecting drug users have access to clean needles, methadone treatment and other harm reduction programs. As a result, there has been a significant drop in HIV prevalence among injecting drug users in Indonesia. This development assistance has also resulted better HIV responses in prisons, improved access to medicines for people living with HIV and enhanced response to HIV in the Papua and West Papua provinces.

Media inquiries:
Mia Salim, Public Affairs, AusAID Indonesia, 08121070237