Strengthening Student Capacity as Agents of Change in HIV/AIDS Prevention

Abstract

Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) remains one of the biggest public health challenges in the world, including in Indonesia. The objective of this community service program is to strengthen the capacity of students at the University of North Kalimantan as agents of change in HIV/AIDS prevention through TB-HIV screening and HIV/AIDS awareness activities. The activity was held on December 1, 2025, at the Tanjung Selor Women's Building, involving 101 students and cross-sectoral support, including the Health Office and speakers from Timor Leste. The intervention was carried out in three stages: (1) coordination and licensing with the campus, health office, professional organizations, and venue providers; (2) implementation of TB screening through interviews using screening forms, HIV screening through blood sampling, and hybrid HIV/AIDS awareness raising using lectures and discussions with presentation media and leaflets; (3) evaluation through pre-tests and post-tests to measure the effectiveness of awareness raising in increasing student knowledge. The pretest results showed that prior to the socialization, most students (81.2%) already had good knowledge about HIV/AIDS, while 12.9% were in the adequate category and 5.9% were still in the poor category. After the awareness campaign, there was a more positive shift, with an increase in the proportion of good knowledge to 85% and adequate knowledge to 15%, and no students remaining in the poor knowledge category. These findings indicate that HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns are effective in increasing knowledge, particularly among groups that initially had low knowledge, while also reinforcing the role of health education as a key strategy in preventing and reducing stigma against people living with ODHA on campus