Congratulations to Bambang Yulistyo Dwo Mulyanto for receiving the 2025 Dorabjee Award, and Sujata Khadka for being named the 2025 Dorabjee Award Asia recipient.
The Dorabjee awards were established in honour of Jimmy Dorabjee — a trailblazer in international harm reduction policy and practice.
The award supports individuals with lived or living experience who are working in the harm reduction field to attend a conference on drug use and related harms of their choice.
Both recipients will be attending the Harm Reduction International Conference in Bogota, Colombia this month.
Mr Mulyanto, who is also known as Tedjo, is the initiator of the Forum Akar Rumput Indonesia (FARI), a grassroots movement dedicated to supporting people who use drugs across 12 provinces in Indonesia. He founded the Yayasan AKSI Keadilan Indonesia (Act for Justice Foundation) in 2018, to assist people who use drugs arrested in the Greater Jakarta area.
To date, the collaboration between FARI and the AKSI Foundation has provided legal assistance and access to healthcare services for more than 700 individuals.
Their efforts include monitoring the availability of antiretroviral (ARV) medications, sterile syringes, tuberculosis (TB) treatment, and hepatitis C medications in FARI's intervention areas.
The Forum Akar Rumput Indonesia (FARI) carries out its advocacy efforts using WhatsApp group platforms, which serve as channels for disseminating information, receiving case reports and complaints, providing case assistance, and delivering educational outreach.
“This digital approach is a strategic response to the vast and geographically diverse landscape of Indonesia,” Tedjo said.
“Operational support for case management is sustained through a collective funding mechanism contributed by its members — a testament to the strength of community solidarity and mutual support in advancing grassroots harm reduction efforts.”
“Looking ahead, we plan to expand FARI's operations, strengthening our grassroots advocacy networks, and work towards evidence-based drug policy reforms in Indonesia.”
Sujata Khadka is the team leader at Recovering Nepal Women (RN-Women) and has been actively engaged in harm reduction for more than three years, driving policy, practice, and research initiatives for women who use drugs in Nepal. RN-Women is the first national network led by and for women who use drugs and has been implementing gender-specific harm reduction programs, including a needle syringe exchange program, HIV testing, counselling, and sexual and reproductive health services since 2021.
“Our peer-led, community-driven approach empowers women who use drugs to take charge of their health and rights,” Ms Khadka said.
“Recognising our unique vulnerabilities, we prioritise services like hepatitis C testing, overdose management, and referrals to Opioid Agonist Therapy (OAT) and antiretroviral therapy (ART), and address systemic barriers such as access to birth certificates, citizenship, and marriage registration, while working to reduce stigma and discrimination.”
Burnet co-program director of disease elimination Professor Paul Dietze said the recipients exemplify the spirit of the Dorabjee Awards.
“Both Tedjo and Sujata bring deep lived experience, leadership, and vision to their work,” Professor Dietze said.
“Their grassroots efforts are changing lives and advancing harm reduction in meaningful, community-led ways.”
Before moving to Melbourne, Jimmy Dorabjee was the program manager for harm reduction at the Sharan Society NGO in Delhi and the driving force behind the formation of the Asian Harm Reduction Network.
He was associated with Burnet’s Centre for Harm Reduction from its inception in the early 2000s until his death in 2019.
His life and legacy as a former Burnet staff member, researcher, and passionate advocate for harm reduction is acknowledged with these awards, which are sponsored by Burnet.
Read more about the Dorabjee Award here: https://www.burnet.edu.au/the-institute/awards/dorabjee-award/