Alcino Araujo, head of the Teki-Teki Surikmas neighborhood. Photo: CWS
In Timor-Leste, which shares its island with Indonesia’s West Timor, there is a dangerous combination of a lack of understanding about the transmission of HIV and a strong stigma against those who are HIV-positive. CWS works in partnership with the East Timorese Defense Force, whose acronym is F-FDTL, the Ministry of Health and the United States Department of Defense to combat this combination.
One of the military members supported by CWS in this program is F-FDTL Corporal Afonso. He provides voluntary HIV testing and counseling to help hundreds of fellow soldiers at the Metinaro training base. Corporal Afonso also helps answer questions at frequent information sessions, where soldiers ask questions ranging from government policies to support people living with HIV to ways to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Sergeant Manuel, another peer educator, is particularly adept at answering difficult questions. Given the sensitive nature of having these conversations in close communities, this skill is crucial. Sergeant Manuel has been recognized for his outstanding work as a facilitator of education sessions. He was one of the first to volunteer to be a peer educator in the program, and he now leads training sessions for family members of personnel at the Metinaro training base.
Alcino Araujo is the head of the Teki-Teki Surikmas neighborhood. After joining a CWS-supported information session, he told staff, “We have many young men and women in this neighborhood who need this information, and I want them to have it.”
CWS is well known and respected in Timor-Leste for this important work, which is done in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense as part of a continuing global effort to reduce HIV infection and its most negative consequences, including a patient developing and being ill from AIDS.