The Power Of Transgenders In Jakarta

[lulu]

Background

If we talking about youth, its not limited only in common youth that separated into two differences based on sex, which are female youth and male youth. But we have to remember also the differences of youth that based on gender or sexual orientation, where there are some youth identified as homosexual, lesbian, transgender etc. Especially for young transgender, it can't be forgot that they are among us and an integrated part of life.

Jakarta Communication Forum For transgender record that at least there are about 5000 transgender in Jakarta. This number can increase every year.

Majority of transgenders in Jakarta are unban from villages that are low educated and have no adequate skill to support their needs of life in Jakarta. This condition make them to be sex worker as no choice. If we look deeper, the problems of transgender was started since teenage, when the young people still searching about who they really are?, including their sex orientation that they have. but because of the lack of knowledge and the minim of information about sex orientation that provide in society, (there is no fixed curriculum that includes sex orientation in school) and when a teenager transgender found that his sex orientation is different with the others, he will confuse, but this condition getting bad when he abandoned from family, neighborhood and also school. Most people still regards transgender as a sick people that should be healed. This condition also be worse coz of stigma from the religious leader that regard transgender as a sin and should be destroyed.

The non-understanding on how and where the young transgenders could find the informations about sexuality and the social environment that do not support them, make the young transgender chosen to left their school and family to find their community in order to find the safety feeling and their existence.

This lack of skill and knowledge lead tyransgender to be sex worker, and it it otomatically raise up the HIV & AIDS prevalence in transgender community.

From the latest assestment found that 40 % waria in jakarta are positif HIV.

But we are as community do not just sit away and see, we do together to handle the problems.

And through the Yayasan Srikandi Sejati, we make HIV & IAIDS prevention programs for transgender.

We peovide information about sexualitry, STIs, and HIV/AIDS by outreach, peer assisting, PE recruitment, mothly discussion, support group, and edutainment. All done by waria to waria. We also have referal clinick to VCT and STI test. On this case we do cooperation with others organization.

From the midle of 2007 we also fortuned to be introduced with AIDS Competence and we began to applay this aproach for transgender program.

One of the different thing that happen after we get aids competence is that in every activity that we r doing, we always use the salt process, we never any longer say to much to our assisting partners, but we change to more listen, stimulate and let them decide what actually they want to solve their problems. And also in our outreach programs, we visit to hotspot (the area where transgender live) with other transgender from others hotspots, it's effective for them from different area to share and learn each others, and also it teaches us that outreach activity is no longer a boring stuff with just giving information . AIDS competence has influence so much on every our work.

[Novianty]

Dear Lulu,

Great blog dear...Love to read your sharing experience, well i guess transgender in Pontianak could learn a new way of working especially in outreach program...Nice, and thanks for the knowledge transfer...

Miss u

Novi

[Caca Carillo]

Hi sis!
Much love and light to you I am glad that you found a forum here at AIDS Competence to talk about the plight of the waria, Remember if you have something to say BUT more IMPORTANTLY have the courage to say it you will be heard.
I am so happy that we share the same advocacies for our kind. though looking at "us"as a part of the greater them. I am proud of what you stand for in jakarta. and i have always writen and personally realized that we ( trasgenders) share the same pain, its only hurting personally to each individual "us" because we have to deal with it at a personal basis. so much more for my sister warias, because your lives are magnified by the islam cultural lens. Going home I realized how strong each one of you is(emotionally) to deal with the situation on an everyday basis. because growing up trans in the philippines, i never had to learn from the painful learning process that my waria sisters do. So I look up to your courage and strength sister.
Love and Light
caca

[Yesua Yones D.K.Pellokila]

well Lulu,
i have to learn more on it
so thank you for sharing it through your blog which help people like me to learn more although as virtual only at the intial stage...

best

[Zoengpari]

Hi Lulu....
How r u??? great to read your blog.... go on writing ..................
love maii

[chandra nurhasz]

hi lulu,....

how r u? still in flu? i hope u r in a good health now.

very interesting to read ur blog.
at my area, i see most of us are not getting yet well informed about sexuality. not only in a general society but even among us, people who works on reproductive health issues. i see some of my collageous still looked a little bit 'strange' to our friends, a transgender.

but now, we're happy, we have a simple way to do to spread the spirit of equality by salt visit. we can learn from our transgender friends and then share with others.
so in this year, we plan to get a comprehensive knowledge (by training/workshop) about this issue for us (me, my collageous and our outreach workers. so then we can share better about this to others.

and lulu, at the time later, i will contact u up to hear from u a good resource person where we could learn with.

cheers,
cn

[Abraham Mutluri]

Dear Lalu

Good Morning

I am very happy with your blog. It was giving the clear information on waria scenario at Jakarta. It is good.

In Andhra Pradesh, India i observed so much of discrimination is there on Transgenders. Here the NGOs, CBOs are also need to do the helpful activities to the Transgenders.

With Regards

Abraham Mutluri
Andhra Pradesh
India

[lulu]

deaar laurence
well the strength is that they have close relation each others, that because they have the same feeling as a marginal community. most of them work as sex worker and street singer to fulfill their needs and also they share roon each others while living, some times we find that one roon stayed by more than 5 trans.(the place they live, we call it hot spot)and each hotspot thay have perr educator who skilled with HIV /AIDS nformaton, so the rest who needs information can go to this person.ermmm. my own strenth?
well, my strenth is that i know them well, so it is easier to engage with them direcly, i am one om them. and also young trans here regards me as the role model, so its aier also to me to transfer the skill to them.to reduce vulnerability each others, they remember each others to go to clinic to accest the health services, including teast their HIV status.

[Laurence Gilliot]

Hi Lulu,

Thank you so much for sharing! Héhé I want to know more...

What are the main strengths that you see in the transgender population in Jakarta? What are they doing for themselves, to support each other, to improve their life and situation? What about your own strengths (which you have in large quantity)? What do transgender do to help each other to reduce their own vulnerability to HIV?

Ooooh I'm so curious to know more about it :-) It is really interesting!

Hug from Manila

Laurence

[rebeka sultana]

Dear Lulu,

So happy to see your blog. You have illustrated the waria scenario at Jakarta nicely.
Would like to collaborate with you more.

Best,
Rebeka