Youth Friendly Service (YFS) is a sexual and reproductive health service for all young people. It wants to provide an answer to problems that are occurring among young people related to their sexual and reproductive life. But why it should be friendly? And what is  YFS?

Friendly services will help to eliminate barriers that might be faced by young people in accessing sexual and reproductive health services. Those barriers can come from both inside and outside of a person. Examples of internal barriers are feeling shy, hesitating and fear of discrimination felt by young people who want to access the services. Some of the extern barriers can be about being treated with disrespect by the health provider, non comprehensive services, hard to get to the location, or a high cost of the services. So how can it be called youth friendly services?

Youth friendly service delivery is about providing services based on a comprehensive understanding of what young people in that particular society or community want, rather than being based only on what providers believe they need. It is also based on an understanding of, and respect for, the realities of young people’s diverse sexual and reproductive lives. It is about creating a service which young people trust and feel is there for them and their needs.  Services that should be provided in a clinical setting are HIV and STI services, general services, youth counseling and contraception for youth. Providers should be trained to work competently, sensitively and respectfully with young people on their sexual and reproductive health needs. Services must be confidential, non-judgmental and private. Services should be accessible to all adolescents and young people irrespective of their age, marital status, sexual orientation or ability to pay.

Youth friendly services are also shown by the decoration of the location and special rooms provided for young people. The place should be decorated based on what youth likes, so they will feel comfortable to be in the place. Low cost, an accessible location and convenient clinic opening hours for young people are also characteristics of youth friendly services. It’s better if the clinic can be open not only in the morning, but also in late afternoons (after school), on some evenings and during weekends.

By providing youth friendly services, it is expected to increase the number of young people who will access the services and it also could help them in fulfilling their needs related to sexual and reproductive health. Go find out the nearest places in your home that provides youth friendly services! And don’t feel hesitate to come and get them!

Photo: Thanks to PKBI Bali

As the youth program of the IPPA Bali Chapter, Kisara was established in 1994 and has been conducting various activities to promote sexual and reproductive health and rights among young people in Bali ever since. The activities are giving information and comprehensive sexuality education and also providing health friendly services for all young people in Bali. What is Online Counseling? KISARA created a special account on Facebook only for counseling called KISARA Online Counseling. KISARA noticed that Facebook is the most frequently accessed social media by young people and KISARA saw this as opportunity to give access for young people to information and counseling service. Online Counseling can be accessed live from 14.00-17.00 WITA and from 18.00-21.00 WITA (Bali time zone), from Monday to Friday. There is 1 youth counselor who will be online for young people who have questions, want to share something, or have counseling, or simply are pleased to have a chat with the counselor. Convenience and confidentiality are always the priorities. The youth counselor will also do updates about reproductive health information during his/her online time.  It's so cool, isn’t it? Young people can get information ànd counseling service all at the same time and place at KISARA Online Counseling. All you need to do is just sit down in front of your computer! So don’t wait too long, add KISARA Counseling as one of your friends on Facebook and ask your friends to join as well! Click KISARA Counseling. For updates about KISARA’s activities please visit KISARA’s website.

Viva Youth, Viva KISARA ^^

I discovered buzzfeed yesterday. - I know, it's already ‘old news' but for me it was a excited discovery! Anyway, by clicking my life away reading through their posts I came across two stories that I want to share. First of all, check out this one. It's about thirty years worth of HIV awareness posters... Some of them are quite funny, some of them more serious, but I especially love the ‘If you can't keep it zipped, keep it covered' - Well to be honest, I just fell in love with the slogan- Do you guys have any favorites or do you remember a fun campaign that this site didn't think of? Be sure to let us know!

The second story I wanted to talk about is an overview of personal portraits from people living with HIV. All of them are different stories and different people. And that's basically the clue, isn't it? HIV doesn't discriminate, it can affect anyone.- So protect yourself, pretty please? -

Source: Designers Against AIDS website

I must say I was extremely shocked when I first saw this HIV/AIDS awareness video by MTV Staying Alive Foundation. Why? The first time you sleep with someone you don't know so well, you simply don't think about his or her previous sexual partners. This fact does not mean that, in a way, you are not also sleeping with them. And this is even more true if we consider the fact that they might've 'forgotten' to use a condom...
Have you ever thought about the fact that some of them might not have been 'your type'? Have a look at the spot and take a minute to reflect. You can be relaxed and enjoy your time with your new mate but just use a condom. I don't think you want to think about all those not-charming-at-all expartneres while you're trying to enjoy your time together.. Or do you?

Source: Designers Against AIDS website

Hi Hi Hi everyone! Finally we are back at the beginning of a new week. It’s time start our routines that require a lot of energy and good spirit. Starting this week, I would love to begin by sharing my activities of last week.

One of my activities was welcoming the visit from the Manado AIDS commission (KPA Manado). KPA Manado came to Bali to visit some organizations concerned with HIV/AIDS issues. One of those organizations is IPPA Bali (PKBI Bali). And young people from Kisara, including me, had the opportunity to take part in the discussion on behalf of the IPPA Bali chapter.
Aim of the visit is to learn the prevention strategy of HIV/AIDS and the situation of HIV/AIDS here in Bali. From the discussion, it was known that a high number of HIV/AIDS cases in Bali occur in the age group 20-29 years.vBali is benefiting  of the presence of many NGO’s in Bali, so there’s a good partnership between NGO’s and the local government there. NGO’s and the government work together to provide HIV/AIDS services in order to ensure that every person can  have easy access to HIV information, testing and treatment. Moreover, most of the STI and HIV services available in Bali (including STI and HIV services in the IPPA Bali clinic) are free! Everyone can access these services without facing any problems. After the discussion, KPA Manado went around the PKBI office to take pictures and they also saw the PKBI clinic.So, for those of you who live in Bali, have you got the correct information about HIV/AIDS from the organizations around you? Have you visited your nearest health care center to do a HIV  test? If you haven’t, please check this link to know where to go to get the information and get tested--> http://www.baliagainstaids.org/help--information---bahasa.html

By: Ratna ^^

Photos source: Thanks to Google.

Last week, the Brazilian Minister of Health had to drop a HIV awareness campaign where one of the slogans was "Eu Sou Feliz Sendo Prostituta" - "I'm Happy Being A Prostitute". Wow! OK, the aim of the project was to fight the stigma against sex workers and it was a nice try. Sadly, a rephrasing was really needed and now it's too late for it. But the campaign will go ahead with the rest of the slogans, like "Not ashamed of using a condom", and this is positive, since the overwhelming influence of the Roman Catholic Church in this country can make for some unwise decisions. And I personally appreciate the efforts of the Health Minister of Brazil in making big statements and talking about controversial issues. Last year the same authority had to drop a video for the carnival celebrations that featured a gay couple. Clumsiness is OK when it comes to being provocative.

Source: Designers Against AIDS website

What is unsafe sex? Why do I need a condom? Is buying a condom embarrassing? Do condoms reduce sensitivity?

Let the characters from Fur TV give you an exhaustive answer. In 2008 The MTV Staying Alive Foundation produced a series of HIV/AIDS awareness spots after the success of the comedy show Fur TV. The "Rubber Rocks. Use A Condom" campaign is just HILARIOUS. Why? The show's main characters are puppets acting in the worse ways a real man could do. But they do it better. There is Fat Ed, blue and hyper-violent compulsive drinker; Mervin, orange, retarded and sexual pervert; obviously, like The Muppets Show, Fur TV also has a green frog puppet, which is Lapeño Enriquez (Peenie), a Brazilian Casanova that is extremely-hung - if you know what I mean.
This is the perfect recipe to be appealing to a young audience, talk about big issues and give intelligent answers as well. I can't stop laughing or, as a friend of mine taught me, "ik kan niet meer"!

Source: Designers Against AIDS website

For World AIDS Day, Apl.d.Ap of the band Black Eyed Peas has sent the following message to Designers against AIDS:

“From the considerable amount of time I’ve spent in the Philippines – not just to visit my family but also to work on various initiatives through the Apl Foundation – I’ve seen first hand the devastation that the lack of AIDS awareness has had on the global nation. World AIDS Day is a fantastic opportunity for us to get together to promote health consciousness, not just as citizens of the world but as human beings.” – Apl.de.Ap, member of the Black Eyed Peas and founder of the Apl Foundation.

Source: Designers Against AIDS website

This afternoon Bali Against AIDS (BAA) did an interview with the Executive Director of the IPPA Bali Chapter, Mr. Ketut Sukanata, related to the “Training of Trainer (ToT) on HIV/AIDS” program that has been conducted in Bali by collaborating with GIZ, the Bali Hotel Association (BHA) and the Indonesia Planned Parenthood Association (IPPA/PKBI). It’s not the first Training of Trainer (ToT) on HIV that was held in Bali, but the thing that makes us at BAA interested to write about this initiative is because of the target of this ToT activity: empolyees of the hospitality industry (hotels, clubs, bars...).
Mr.Ketut Sukanata, as one of the facilitators of this event, explained that this ToT was targeting the hotel staffs in Bali and that the BHA helped to find the best and most motivated participants to join this training course. But why the hotel staffs, you may ask?
This is the real action of HIV prevention in the work place, Mr.Ketut said. This 4 days ToT aimed to increase the awareness of all hotel staffs in Bali about HIV/AIDS issues and it's expected that after their training they will take part in helping in the further prevention of HIV-AIDS in Bali in the future. After the training it 's also expected of each participant to give the information they have to 100 people in their work place and network. And not just theoretical information either: those 100 people will also be given a goodie bag, which contains a booklet, a red ribbon brooch, a bookmark, a brochure and interactive modules that can be used to learn more about HIV/AIDS.
Interested to see the interactive modules? Mr.Ketut Sukanata gladly showed them to BAA -and he also allowed us to put them on our website too, so that more people will have a better understanding about HIV/AIDS. Many thanks to Mr. Ketut Sukanata for these important steps in the fight against HIV/AIDS!