Inspiring story from one of HIV's volunteer..

Internship Report at Yayasan AIDS Indonesia Azumi TSUJIMOTO

I had the internship at Yayasan AIDS Indonesia (YAI) for about 2 months. I found this internship through AIESEC, the students’ organization which manages the international internship for university and college students. There are two reasons why I decided to have the internship at YAI. First reason is related to my major in my university. I study social issues in Southeast Asia in the faculty of Inter-cultural Studies in Kobe University, Japan. And my main theme of study is HIV/AIDS problem in Thailand. I’ve been interested in HIV/AIDS problem not only in Thailand but also in other countries. So I wanted to know the situation of HIV/AIDS problem in other countries in Southeast Asia. I heard that Indonesia was the one of the countries which had highest HIV infection rate in Asia and there were many NGOs which work for HIV/AIDS problem. I’d like to know how NGO try to solve this problem in such a country. Secondly, I want to participate in activities, like in NGO, to solve social issues in Southeast Asia in the future, so it is necessary for me to learn what working in NGO is. I thought that I could learn both of them in YAI. In these 2 months, I participated in some activities in YAI, for instance EIC (Education, Information and Communication), making questionnaire for EIC, making the project plan of new events, and so on. Here I’d like to talk about the detail of my tasks here. EIC is one of the main activities managed by YAI. This is HIV/AIDS education for young people. I often accompanied with volunteers, went to schools and helped them to give a presentation or hand out leaflets and stickers. I think this is a really efficient and valuable activity to prevent young people from HIV/AIDS. I heard that in Indonesia there weren’t enough information and education about HIV/AIDS from schools or the government. They could get the information and education only in biology class and didn’t have health and physical education class. So EIC plays a big role to convey the information and education about HIV/AIDS. In addition in YAI many young volunteers are supporting EIC. Through EIC, not only students but also volunteers can learn about HIV/AIDS and commit the activity to prevent HIV/AIDS. I think EIC is not just a class or education by one-way, but it is a conversation or communication by two-way between students and volunteers. Most of the activities in YAI are like this. In EIC both of them seem to enjoy it. Volunteers enjoy giving a presentation and communicating with young people, and they have a great enthusiasm about HIV/AIDS problem. Students also enjoy hearing the information and asking questions to volunteers. This way of education makes it easy for students to learn about HIV/AIDS and also they can feel this problem familiar. HIV/AIDS problem is a really serious problem especially among young people; therefore I think it is necessary that young people think of it as their own problem, not someone’s problem. I made a questionnaire for EIC as one of my tasks. According to my coworker, they had a questionnaire in the past but they don’t use it now. So I started to make a new one, referring to an old one. The old one is the questionnaire only about evaluation of volunteers as speaker and way of conveying the information. I added other questions, such as about how much young people can understand the information and how young people think of HIV/AIDS. I handed out this questionnaire in one high school and made the result report, using graphs and pie charts. I hope this result will be useful for next activities and the questionnaire will be used and improved from now on, too. I also made a project plan of new event for next year with my coworker. It was a difficult task to make new unique ideas. Some ideas hit upon me, but these were not good ones. I remember well the words that my coworker said when I was thinking of ideas. “The event must be effective for conveying the information about HIV/AIDS, and attractive and enjoyable for young people. If not, it is meaningless.” His words made me surprised and feel his enthusiasm about the event. I could know that it is important to think deeply about the aim and meaning of the event, of course it is the clear fact, but forgettable. Then I tried to make good one again and finally I though of one idea, it was “Drama Competition”. I made a project plan of this idea. This event aimed at increasing knowledge and understanding of HIV/AIDS among students and community through dramas about HIV/AIDS made by students. Making dramas by themselves can be enjoyable for students and they have to learn a lot about HIV/AIDS for making dramas. By playing dramas in front of people from community, many people can get the information about HIV/AIDS. Thanks to making this project plan, I learned the importance of the ability to make unique ideas and of thinking deeply of the aim and meaning of the activity. In this internship, I’ve experienced and learned a lot. I could learn much about the situation of HIV/AIDS problem in Indonesia and how YAI tries to solve it through various kinds of activities. I also could know what is necessary for working in NGO; deep knowledge about the problem, ability to have good communication and, the most importantly, great enthusiasm for the problem. I could learn these things and deal with my tasks not only by my own efforts, but also by a great help from my friendly, kind, respectable and really enthusiastic coworkers and volunteers. I greatly appreciate their help. I’m sure that my experience here made me matured, and will help my study in university and work in my future.