A story we heard recently goes like this: “Do you have a condom?” I told her I didn’t. “I don’t want to have sex if you’re not protected. You never know what could happen.” I told her not to worry, that it was no big deal if we didn’t use a condom this one time. So we had sex. It was fun and made us both feel great.I never stopped thinking about what happened since then. And although I’ll never give up responsibility for my son, or be ashamed of him, I will always know that a mistake caused all this. We should have used a condom that day. Not only to protect ourselves, but to protect everyone around us who was affected by our behavior. My girlfriend became a mother at 14 and had to leave school. Her life was ruined and mine was changed forever. Had we been responsible that one day five years ago, things might have worked out better. In the last three years I’ve probably spent 10 days with my son. It could've been even worse of course, so please always have safe sex. You never know what might happen, from getting pregnant or infected with a STD such as HIV. Be safe!

Since we started our Youth For A Better World education center at the end of 2009 we have received over 120 international residential students here and around 60 interns who live in Belgium and go home at night. We're now on a summer holiday break but are looking for new interns starting the end of September, beginning of October. Are you creative, outgoing, independent, do you love social media, fashion and design, do you adore cats (we have 5 of them here) and is your English (specially written) very good? Then please write an email with your motivation to: info@designersagainstaids.com before August 28 and we will get back to you asap! Meanwhile, this is what our intern Luna wrote about her experiences here this spring:"The first half of my internship has passed and it literally flew by. I would love to do a recap with you guys. What have I learned since I started here at Designers Against AIDS? The first week I got here, I immediately got the chance to cook up a campaign for Valentine's Day. The funny thing is that I wanted to apply the strategies I learned in school, but it soon turned out I didn't quite need them. Don't get me wrong, I want to study a few more years after this, but I just understood right then and there that you learn something by doing something. At Designers Against AIDS, you get a lot of responsibilities. I heard from a few others that they just have to correct papers, or- as cliché as it gets- go make coffee. I have always liked Photoshop, so much that I took a subsidiary course. Unfortunately, we mostly saw Indesign and Illustrator there (which I also love, of course). In this one month at Designers Against AIDS, I got the opportunity to improve my Photoshop skills even further. As I said, you only learn by doing it and, well, I got a lot of opportunities to do so. When I drove to Deurne that first day, I was a little stressed. I kept hoping that the atmosphere at Designers Against AIDS would be good. When I arrived, nothing was more true. Everyone is friendly and nice and jokes are a daily matter here at DAA. Let me draw up a quick conclusion here: when being an intern at Designers Against AIDS, you get to learn a lot because you get a lot of responsibilities...and you get to make coffee - for yourself! When you're good at something, you get the chance to show it, because you will always get the opportunity to work on it. Also, you don't have to be afraid if you haven't got it all figured out. There's enough guidance for everyone here at Designers against AIDS! The people who work here are funny- or would you rather sit behind a desk with grumpy people? If you're a cat lover, you've come to the right place too: there are 5 cats here, who are dying to meet you (figuratively speaking)! On top of all that, you get the chance to work with celebrities and well-known designers. So what are you waiting for?!"

Life… there is no true definition of life, it differs from one person to another, but I guarantee that most of you heard a lot about life. Some say life is simple; life is good, life is short, life is an adventure and many more opinions, but I rather stick with ‘life is full of choices’. Do you guys agree? Since we were small, we’ve been faced with many choices; the most common one is between yes or no. Life is indeed beautiful, short and full of adventure, but it mostly happens based on the choices we make. And making mistakes is a part of life, am I right? Since we are all human beings and all of us are going to die anyway, everyone want the best for their life. But sadly, some people forget that we are social beings and think only about themselves, while we all live side by side as humans. Helping people is a choice and can you imagine the happiness that will come not only for yourself but also for the people you help? You might even save someone’s life! Life is happening right now and you must make a choice to take a chance, or your life will never change. So choose wisely!   Visit our blog and website to get to know more

Today I went to a bazaar in North Jakarta. The bazaar offers apparel and a F&B section and I stayed in the F&B section for hours: I'm the kind of girl who loves to try new things, especially when it comes to food. So little by little I peeked around the F&B section and I ended up buying a lot of food. Not because I was starving to death, but just because I was curious enough to try those foods – in which case nothing can stop me –, so I asked for some recommendations regarding food I didn’t know yet. Then I realized that people nowadays are full of curiosity to try something that they haven't tried before, for instance regarding sex. And it occurred to me, what if someone has sex and ends up getting infected with HIV because they had unsafe sex? They surely must regret it!   What I'm trying to say is, nothing can stop us trying whatever it is that we want to try, but I believe that most people welcome getting some good advice, just the same as recommendations in the food bazaar. So from now, why don't we give advice instead of telling people to hold back their curiosity, just because they want to try things that we don’t like ourselves? At least they will take it into consideration, which in the end might save their life. Withholding information because you want to push your own beliefs on other people is just wrong- and in some cases more unsafe than the actions you would like to prevent. Psst Indonesia Against AIDS has a new ambassador!Visit our Blog and News to know more! 

Hi readers, how are you guys doing today? I hope you’re doing well, just like me. Today I’m going to share my thoughts about growing up. Hope you guys enjoy! Over the course of time, each of us is growing up, to become a better version of ourselves. When I was a kid, I always dreaming of growing up but the reality is… as I grew up, I always wanted to stay the old me, a little kid who has nothing to worry about. But life goes on and I’m not Peter Pan. Have you heard the phrase of "Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life"? I have heard it a million times and as I’m in my early 20’s I always think what kind of job I would enjoy the most and what I will be going to do for a living -and here I am now, at the office, writing this story in front of my computer screen. I have 3 jobs at the moment: in Marketing Communication, handling two different kinds of fields and I’m a Social Media Platform Manager For 'Asia Against Aids-Back To Zero: Indonesia'.   If you’re asking me how I can handle all three jobs, I don’t know how to answer it correctly, but one thing I know and that’s that I pretty much enjoy it. It’s not only about commitment, but also how strive in order to make it happen. There are times when I get tired and dizzy, but I’m happy to do all these jobs. I know it’s weird… but I love what I’m doing and that’s all that matters.Visit our blog to get to know more about us! 

What is the most romantic thing that a boy has ever done for you? Did he give you a bouquet of flowers, make a song about you or propose to you on a bended knee? Well, as for me, a boy once woke up early in the morning and drove for 40 kilometers just to watch me compete in a horse riding competition. I was so happy !A 17 year old girl in Kazakhstan experienced romance on a whole new level recently... She shared her worries about her upcoming Unified National Testing with her boyfriend, Ayan Zhademov (20). The never-ending worries of his girlfriend and the love he has for her, made him decide to 'replace’ her, by taking the test in her place. Ayan wore his girlfriend's white blouse and skirt, a wig and a little make-up -he even tried to speak in a high voice!-, then took the test. Unfortunately he was discovered by his examiners and was fined £1,400 for his actions. Love can make us do silly things. And even though what Ayan did for his girlfriend was quiet silly, I also found it very romantic in a way.It’s good to be silly every now and then- except when it comes to making love: take your and your partner’s safety seriously- always!

I'm a social media user and I believe that most of you are as well. I often update my status on social media, be it just pictures, my feelings and thoughts, or to share some interesting links. And most of my friends do the same thing: update their status. Not only on social media, but using chat applications as well such as Line Messenger, BlackBerry Messenger and Whatsapp. I can't help thinking: "Well, people tend to update their status. What about their HIV status, have they updated that yet?" Maybe you think that it's unnecessary, but believe me: you have to know your status, especially if you've taken part in any activities that have the potential to infect you with the HIV virus. So guys, have you updated your status yet? Being well informed is more important than ever these days!

Me, my sister and some of my friends wanted to have some fun so today we went to a zoo in Cisarua, named Taman Safari. We had to drive for about half an hour through the toll way and it turned out that the exit way was full of traffic, so we decided to take a short-cut with the goal to arrive faster. In the middle of the journey, we heard weird sound and smoke came out of the car. OMG! First we panicked, then we went looking for some help. Thank heavens that there wasn't something major wrong with our car. After an hour or so we could continue our journey to the Taman Safari. In Taman Safari, we fed the animals from the car along our journey. We were so excited to finally meet the animals! We also took pictures with some of them, including a lion, orang utan and tigers and watched a dolphin show. We had quite a long and adventurous journey -full of laughter of course- and the most important thing is that we are still happy about it. Spending time with my friends will always be time well spent!

Memeza is a dynamic and versatile South African Choir formed in 2005. The choir is made of melodic singers, vibrant dancers and drummers bringing out a spectacular African show which gives a new meaning to the traditional choir performance. Memeza was formed as a project to address social issues through music and dance. The purpose of the choir is to articulate the voices of people in South Africa and through choir they sing about their fights against poverty and HIV/AIDS. At the time this video was shot, the group was doing promotion and presenting their powerful new show 'Mandela in Me', which celebrates the life of the late world icon and carrying his messages of forgiveness, love, peace, and tolerance around the world. A couple of days ago the choir held a show in Luna Park, Melbourne (Australia) with a true fusion of South African spirit and culture, amazing vocals and dance moves as well as their traditional drums. Their amazing performance that combines both original local and international songs made the audiences aghast and left them emotionally charged. Just like them, you can also show your fight against HIV/AIDS. You can’t sing/dance or are not confident enough to do this kind of thing? Well, you’ll always have our website, Facebook page and Twitter that contain information about HIV/AIDS, which you can share with all of your friends, to keep both them and yourself happy and healthy. Let’s fight against HIV/AIDS together! Source: http://www.tribunnews.com/australia-plus/2015/05/26/paduan-suara-afrika-selatan-suarakan-hiv-dan-aids-di-australia?page=1 Watch their practice during a visit to ABC in Southbank, Melbourne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQvSv9ozTF8

Who does not wait for the weekend to begin? I think everyone is always excited for the weekend, no-work kind of days, when you can do anything that you have been planning for. This story is about our last weekend, the one that we deeply enjoyed and still cherish -and our best weekend in Bali so far! On Sunday we decided to go snorkeling at Nusa Lembongan. It took just 30 minutes from Sanur, as we took the fast boat to go there. When we arrived, I realized that it surely is a beautiful place: a deep blue sea with tranquil and clear water, with lots of divine rocks surrounding the island, such a beautiful view! We charted a small boat to go to Crystal Bay for snorkeling; it’s one of the best spots to dive and it’s known for its crystal clear water. As we plunged, there were lots of colorful and beautiful coral reefs with colored fishes everywhere, as far as my eyes could see. Under the sea, right there on the ocean floor, it’s genuinely wonderful, it took my breath away! I could spend the rest of my days just swimming around with all those beautiful creatures there. The fishes are friendly: they swim around the divers and gathered with us, some of us even fed them with crackers or bread, to attract more fishes. Sadly we just had half of the day to spend there, but we really enjoyed it and one thing is for sure: I will be back to spoil my eyes with all that amazing beauty under the sea!   If you realize how beautiful nature is, you will make sure to protect is as well as you can- and of course the same is true for your personal health!

What Would You Do If Today Were Your Last Day? For me, there are loads of things I want to do in life, but one thing that I always ask myself is:“What have you done to make the world a better place today?” I know it sounds grandiose and difficult, but why don’t give you it a try too? And I realized that I didn’t want to wait forever to get started if I could do it now, because the sooner the better. That’s why I joined ‘Asia Against AIDS- Back To Zero: Indonesia’ - at least I can help to make Indonesia a better and more healthy place to live in for those millions of young people who live here. This week is the final week of the ‘Asia Against AIDS- Back To Zero: Indonesia’ workshops. However, the progress of our brand new social media platform is getting better and even bigger soon! For the last few weeks, we’ve been working on creating new content, such as to educate you guys about HIV/AIDS, share our perspective with people, but most importantly getting in touch with people from Indonesia and beyond to help support our platform and to spread the news. We’ve been contacting major celebrities and HIV/AIDS organizations to ask them to support us in order to save young people’s lives. This is definitely not an easy thing to do, because we need explain everybody what are we doing and also remind some of them about getting in touch with us. No matter how excited we sound when we call or email them, it seems that this still was not enough in a few cases. But we never give up; it just makes us more passionate! After all, we have a great track record with Designers against AIDS (the NGO that created Asia against AIDS), who already worked with world famous stars such as Rihanna, Katy Perry, Kendall Jenner, Pharrell Williams, Tokio Hotel, Good Charlotte and many, many more. Fortunately, we got some positive responses too from the VIP’s and NGO’s which makes us even more excited! Those responses are the living proof that people still care and strive to help Indonesia to become an even better place for young people to live in. We really hope that young people out there are aware of what happens around them, because we believe that in order to make a change we have to do it together.   The 1000 Dollar question is: do YOU care enough? Show us that you care, because you are the future! Start small, by supporting ‘Asia Against AIDS- Back To Zero: Indonesia’ and you’ll find out how cool it is to care and how happy it will make you.Visit www.indonesiaagainstaids.com to get to know us better 

The Governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, also known as Ahok, speaks out about the use of condoms as one of the ways to prevent a HIV virus prevention. He spoke directly to the citizens and reminded all those men who like to use the service of prostitutes to always use condom, so that they won’t spread the HIV virus when they return to their family back home. What Ahok said could be judged as vulgar by the public, but Ahok deliberately spoke openly and realistically to remind people that they need to prevent HIV/AIDS from being transmitted to innocent people. And by the way, not so innocent people don’t ‘deserve’ to get infected with HIV either. That’s not for us humans to decide! This reminded me of what Brent Whittaker, the Project Manager at Bali Kids, said to us: “If we want to talk about health education, sex education and HIV/AIDS to young people, use the real words. If we’re talking about penis, say penis and don’t say it in any other phrase, for instance using the words ‘it’, ‘elephant’ or anything like that, instead of the word penis. This is what will make it a bigger taboo and it will confuse them as well.” There’s no harm in talking about health, is there? Because leading a healthy life is important and everyone should know about it! Keep healthy, happy and safe!