REASON
(Responding to HIV and AIDS with Love and Understanding)
SCORA CIMSA UNAIR
In the year 2018, 640.000 people were living with HIV. The number of AIDS-related deaths has experienced an increase of 60% since 2010: increasing from 24.000 deaths to 38.000. The 90-90-90 target aims that by 2020, 90% of the people living with HIV will know their HIV status, 90% of the people with a HIV-positive status will have access to treatment and 90% of the people will be using medications will have a suppressed viral load. Reaching the 90-90-90 target would mean that 81% of the population with HIV are currently on treatment and 73% of the population with HIV have a suppressed viral load. However, in reality, there are still many people in the society who don’t have enough knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS. This activity supports the fifth SDGs titled “Gender Equality”, CIMSA’s program “HIV/AIDS and Other STDs” and IFMSA Global Priorities’ “Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights”.
This activity was done to celebrate World AIDS Day 2020, with the aim of increasing public awareness as well as knowledge regarding HIV and AIDS. The first event was a collaborative air campaign with the radio stations Suara Surabaya and PERDOSKI Surabaya on the 30th of November 2020. Followed by a training session with the committee and competition participants–mainly preclinical medical students of Universitas Airlangga’s Faculty of Medicine–was conducted on the 12th and the 13th December 2020 as a means to deepen their knowledge regarding HIV and AIDS. In addition to that, another one of the aims of this session was to train the committee in organizing a community development-based activity as a means to improve public health.
We hope that the impact of the WAD 2020 activity can be felt, accepted and implemented by our activity targets: the loss of negative stigma in the society regarding people with HIV/AIDS (ODHIV/ODHA), an increase in awareness and knowledge within the community, as well as a boost of motivation for medical students to deepen their knowledge regarding HIV and AIDS.
By carrying out this activity, we hope that the society can understand HIV and AIDS, as well as understand the importance of knowing about HIV and AIDS whilst performing attempts to remove the stigma that still exists within the society. We also hope that this activity will continue to be carried out in the following years, with better events as well as a stronger impact on the society.
