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YKIP and the Annika Linden Foundation are concerned about the rise of substance abuse and HIV/AIDS among young people in Bali. There are more than 600,000 young people in Bali aged 15-24 ~ with more than 200,000 still in school. Furthermore, many teenage children in Bali have to cope with anxiety and stress suffered as a result of the aftermath of the Bali bombings. One way of coping is turning to drugs and alcohol. Most young people become infected with the HIV virus due to a lack of awareness, or turn to drugs and alcohol because they are unaware of the potential dangers.
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YAKEBA: Alcohol, Drug and HIV/AIDS Awareness
in the Schools
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 By funding the YAKEBA (Foundation for Health in Bali) School Awareness program, we are hopeful that we can drive the statistics of substance abuse down while bringing the awareness quotient up.
 This is an interactive project whereby a "teenage-friendly" doctor goes into a school with former drug addicts and an upbeat attitude and a commitment to helping teens learn about the dangers of alcohol and drug use and how these can lead to HIV/AIDS. The doctor provides accurate information relating to HIV/AIDS & drug abuse; thereby increasing the students "awareness" of the current situation in Bali. This is done with cartoons and funny charts via an Overhead Projector with the doctor constantly asking the students questions about themselves and the material. Those students who answer correctly get a "door prize"-writing utensils, notebooks and the like. Those who answer incorrectly are given the right information.
The former addicts then "talk story" - telling of how they got involved with drugs and how it ruined their lives. The addicts are in their late teens or early twenties and easy for the students to relate to ---and listen to (an important factor when dealing with teens).
The students are provided with a list of people and organizations for obtaining further information ~ in particular for those who already have emerging drug/alcohol problems as well as referral information about drug rehabilitation, HIV antibody testing, youth sex education etc
 In 2006, a new program targeting youth in the village youth groups (called STT or Sekeha Taruna Taruni) was started. Instead of going to schools, the team goes into a village or urban kampong and speaks with the youth there.
With this funding, YAKEBA was able to reach 2,102 junior and senior high school students in 2004, 8,329 in 2005 and 2,498 in the first semester of 2006.
 A new program called PET (Peer Education Training) has been put in place for this new school year (July 2006 - June 2007). Two American volunteers, Mariah Ernst and Nicholas Satero from the AWARE program at Bard College are working with YAKEBA staff to create a new curriculum for PET. YAKEBA already had a curriculum in place and translated into Indonesian, which was then combined with the materials from AWARE. The aim of this program is to put peer educators into five Senior High Schools who would disseminate information on narcotics and HIV/AIDS to their fellow students. The initial training of peer educators began in July and will run for two months, followed by weekly sessions at each school. YKIP would like to thank Mariah and Nick for instigating and fundraising for this project.
The Yakeba Team
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Project Coordinator/Moderator I Wayan Agus Mudita. Wayan is a former addict and has been working in the schools project for the past several years. |
| Consultant doctor Dr Christopher Reliano has accompanied Yakeba on dozens of Awareness Presentations. |
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Ex Addicts play a very important role in any Awareness Presentation. They are young and the students can easily relate to what they are talking about. They have "been there" and are eager to tell others about what it was like, what happened and what it is like now. |
Project Consultant Bob Monkhouse is the director of YAKEBA and has been supervising Awareness programs and other YAKEBA projects since its inception.
PET (Peer Education Training) with AWARE
AWARE is a program proposed to YKIP by Mariah Ernst, who spent a year at Santa Josef Senior High School in Denpasar under a Rotary Club Exchange Student program. Mariah is very concerned about the lack of knowledge surrounding HIV/AIDS and came to Bali in June 2006 to work with YAKEBA on a Peer Education Training program.
 AWARE is a program developed by two students at Bard College in New York under the College's community service sector. AWARE's mission statement is to combat AIDS/HIV in countries with escalating rates of infection by engaging local youth in reproductive health education by implementing peer health education programs that work with the values and goals of local communities.
 The program:
- School officials from four Denpasar High Schools hand selected 4 students who are reliable, mature, and exhibit leadership qualities among their peers, to be educated as peer health counselors.
- YKIP and AWARE will provided training on Peer Health Counseling. The training was implemented by Mariah and Nick Shapiro of AWARE and YAKEBA members. The training took place twice a week over 5 weeks.
- During the school year, every day during break for 40 minutes two students hold open door counseling services, students can go into the classroom, use resources like books, watch a films, ask lots of questions, hang out and talk, accumulate knowledge in a laid-back peer environment.
- The Peer Educators are paid small stipends. In return they complete monthly report backs:
"Student report backs include how many students they met with, types of questions, how they answered the questions, for general evaluation." Students receive their stipend upon return of report backs.
- Services Available: During break everyday, or after school, one room with educational films, appropriate books on sexual health, brochures, question box, buttons, stickers. Another room with students available for any questions they might have, or topics they would like to discuss.
This program will run until June 2007.
YKIP would like to thank Mariah and Nick for volunteering their time, energy and fundraising efforts to make this program a reality.
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