A recent survey conducted on two islands in the Thousand Islands regency painted a bleak picture of poverty and neglect.
"The problem of malnutrition and anemia cases in these areas requires urgent action," Adi Sasongko from the Kusuma Buana foundation (YKB), an NGO that focuses on health and community building, said Tuesday.
The foundation, in cooperation with the International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group (IPMG) and the Thousand Islands regency, conducted two month-long surveys on anemia, one on infants, children under 5, pregnant women, lactating women and mothers of children under 5, and another on students from Panggang Island and Pramuka Island.
The anemia survey on students was conducted in five schools and eight Integrated Community Health Posts (Posyandu), involving more than 1,800 respondents.
"The first survey showed that the prevalence of anemia cases among pregnant women had been 75.5 percent, whereas the national percentage is 50 percent," Adi said.
After 12 weeks of health education and treatments using supplements, the percentage decreased to 36.3 percent. The prevalence of infant anemic cases remained at 80.8 percent, the second survey, conducted in February and March, showed.
"Infants usually become anemic because their mothers were anemic during their pregnancy," Adi said.
The second survey showed anemic prevalence among children under five was 66.1 percent. The foundation also conducted a nutrition survey on students from 12 elementary schools in the area.
More than 2,300 students from the schools participated in the survey, and the results showed that as much as 28.4 percent of the respondents were suffering from chronic malnutrition according to body weight calculations.
"The cases mostly stemmed from lack of knowledge about nutritional matters. These people mostly eat rice and fish and do not follow a balanced diet," Adi said.
Vegetables are scarce in the islands, and most have to be brought from Jakarta, increasing their prices.
Sex and gender also affected malnutrition and anemic conditions as some families prioritized males in terms of nutrition, Adi explained. The Thousand islands regency, which comprises up to 897.71 hectares in land size, has a current population of 20,736. It became a regency in 2001 after previously having been part of North Jakarta municipality. (dis)