Ginan played for Team Indonesia at the Paris 2011 Homeless World Cup, where the team made a spectacular debut. He was awarded the Best Male Player award and has since then been a very inspiring leader for his community.
At 20 years old, Ginan was diagnosed with HIV. Ironically, that is when his whole life turned around.
The young man started using drugs when he was 14. At this point, it seemed that the whole world had turned against him, as he says. But after a few years, he decided to take control of his life: "I had grown tired of living on the streets, doing petty crimes to support my dependence on drugs. In 2000, I asked my family to get me into rehab. But I encountered yet another bump on the road when I was told that I had contracted HIV, possibly through used needles I used to inject drugs."
"The biggest barrier a person with HIV has is self-doubt. When you limit your own ability because you are HIV positive, then you are doomed to failure," he said.
After three years in rehab, Ginan, together with four friends, founded Rumah Cemara, a community-based organisation whose aim is to improve the quality of life of society's outcasts – HIV positive people, drug addicts and the homeless.
The organisation also uses football as a universal language to overcome local stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV/AIDS, and engage both HIV-positive and HIV-negative players.
"In the long run, we would like society to treat us as normal human beings – neither discrimination nor privilege is needed. We would like to change the prevailing mindset that we are a useless, sinful bunch. That's all."
In the lead-up to the Rio 2010 Homeless World Cup, Rumah Cemara was chosen as the Homeless World Cup's national partner in Indonesia. Unfortunately, due to lack of funding, the team could not make it to the tournament that year.
So Rumah Cemara and Ginan waited and made their amazing debut at the Paris 2011 Homeless World Cup.
The trip was made possible thanks to a few donations and sponsorships and to show his gratitude, Ginan decided to walk from Bandung to Jakarta (215 km).
This garnered him nationwide sympathy and recognition.
You can see a short clip summarising his Gratitude Walk here.
Indonesia did not win in Paris but finished 6th overall and were one of the crowd's favourite teams.
When asked about the power of football, Ginan always quotes French author, Albert Camus: "Everything I've learned about human morality and duty, I've learnt from football."
