
This particular arisan served as the occasion to plan a program for 8 areas in Makassar so that the local health clinics can refer pregnant women to GC for testing. This program was pioneered in Jakarta by another organization, which with support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, is being extended to other parts of Indonesia. The women will keep meeting regularly for the arisan and to make sure the program moves forward - should be good.

Tonight I went with a couple friends to the waterfront here in Makassar. The city is really trying to spruce up the waterfront - they've moved all the food stalls down to one end and have added a big plaza. It should have spectacular views of the sunset - I'll try to check that out soon. One of the folks who came with us is a person living with AIDS who's getting support from GC staff. I won't reveal anything more about the person on this blog to protect confidentality, but it was very interesting to learn a little about what the person is experiencing. Sadly, this is a change from when I was doing HIV/AIDS work here 14 years ago, 7 years ago, even just 3 years ago - more and more persons are getting diagnosed with HIV, getting ill with diseases to the point they get defined as living with AIDS, and even passing away. It lends a new urgency to what I'm trying to do here. Just in the last two days I'm already getting a bunch of interesting ideas for how to focus my research.
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