World Aids Big Campaign Day was conducted on December 1, 2013 at FX Lifestyle Center, attended by 800 students from 5 schools and 300 staff of Standard Chartered Bank. The campaign agenda consisted of a fun walk, flash mob, and some creative competitions, such as HIV/ AIDS poster and yell competitions. The objective of this event was to raise awareness among teenagers, employees, and the public about the importance of overcoming the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Through this opportunity, Standard Chartered Bank also announced its latest online multi-lingual e-Booklet entitled “You, Me, and HIV”.
According to data from the Indonesian Ministry of Health (since 1987), HIV/ AIDS has spread to 348 – out of 497 – districts across all Indonesia’s provinces. As of June 2013, HIV and AIDS cases in Indonesia are reported to have reached a cumulative total of 108,600 and 43,667 cases, respectively. Globally the pandemic has affected over 30 million people, mostly in Asia and Africa.
Standard Chartered Bank is firmly committed to fighting the pandemic through the establishment of its Living with HIV campaign, in 2003. The bank has engaged its staff and the wider community to raise public awareness in the issue. The multi- lingual e-Booklet was launched as one of the bank’s initiatives, providing education tools and knowledge in an interesting and creative method. Quoting Country Chief Risk Officer, Standard Chartered Indonesia Muljono Pringgoharjono, “We are fully aware that strengthening education about HIV/ AIDS in Indonesia is essential, especially when HIV/ AIDS infection keeps growing rapidly, and the absence of any vaccine to cure the virus worsens the situation. Therefore we hope through this event, and our newly launched multi-lingual e-booklet, that information about HIV/ AIDS will be widely accepted and easily understandable.”
YCAB Foundation, as an organization initiated in concern of preventing and fighting HIV/ AIDS, has been seriously responding to the HIV/ AIDS pandemic through delivering early education about HIV/AIDS preventive action to teenage students. This early education is channeled through one of its pillars, HeLP (Healthy Lifestyle Promotion). The program implements the HIV/ AIDS preventive campaign to more than 7,000 schools in Jakarta. Of this partnership, Secretary General/COO YCAB Foundation Dr. Iskandar Irwan Hukom stated that overcoming HIV/ AIDS was YCAB’s initiative to accomplish one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), “The initiative to take part in achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is through providing education about HIV infected prevention to Indonesian teenagers with global partnership engagement. We are thankful that Standard Chartered Indonesia has entrusted YCAB Foundation as their partner since 2011 to deliver HIV/AIDS prevention education. We hope that this partnership can be conducted in the long term leading to more teenagers receiving prevention education about HIV/ AIDS.”
Some of the participants of World Aids Big Campaign Day enthusiastically performed their yell, and HIV/ AIDS poster.