United Kingdom Pledges $45M Over Three Years To Fight HIV/AIDS in Indonesia

The U.K. government on Wednesday announced it will donate about $45.8 million over three years to Indonesia to help the country fight HIV/AIDS, Antara News reports (Antara News, 5/18). The funds will go toward HIV prevention programs and efforts to improve access to quality treatment for HIV-positive people in Indonesia, according to the Associated Press (Associated Press, 5/18). "The government will also intensify a campaign on the preventive measures of HIV/AIDS by religious and cultural approaches from the elementary school to the university," Alwi Shihab, Indonesia's coordinating minister for people's welfare, said. The funds will be managed by Indonesia's Commission on HIV/AIDS Prevention, with financial management assistance from the U.N. Development Programme and technical assistance from UNAIDS (Antara News, 5/18). According to U.N. figures, between 90,000 and 130,000 HIV-positive people live in Indonesia, with high prevalence rates among commercial sex workers, injection drug users and prisoners, according to the Associated Press. "The scale of the potential problem in Indonesia has only come to light in the past two years," Martin Dawson, deputy head of the U.K. Department of International Development in Jakarta, Indonesia, said, adding, "There is an opportunity here to tackle the issue before it has an impact on the economic development of Indonesia, before it becomes a really serious problem" (Associated Press, 5/18).