Jakarta – Indonesia's current economic crisis has led to widespread malnutrition amongst many pregnant women and children, a study conducted by the Helen Keller Indonesia foundation concluded yesterday.
According to the non-governmental organization's report, the social conditions in Jakarta are twice as bad as conditions in Bangladesh.
Coordinator for the United Nations Development Plan (UNDP), Stephen J. Woodhouse, confirmed the results of the study and pointed out at a press conference in Jakarta yesterday, that medical health problems caused by a deficiency in vitamin-A was twice as serious in Jakarta, than in rural areas of Bangladesh.
Social activists, also present during the event, included the head of the Helen Keller Foundation for Southeast Asia, Marthen W. Bloom, and Nafsiah Mboi from Indonesia, who has worked extensively on empowerment programs for low-income families here.
Woodhouse said that the rising levels of child malnutrition in the last two years was having a devastating effect on Indonesia's youth, especially those below the age of three years.
The impact the poor diet will have on the children's later life, Woodhouse explained, would be low intelligence quotient standard as almost 90% of a healthy human's brain cells are formed in the first two years; a development that relies on a balanced diet. "The children will become the slow-learners, and highly susceptible to disease and even death."
In order to help those families suffering from the debilitating economic crisis he said, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef) had begun a Food Complementary Fast Response Program, that is set to re-vitalize Comprehensive Health Service Posts (Posyandu).
"We have bought 9 million packs of Vitadele baby food at Rp4,000 per pack, and we intend to sell them to the needy at Rp500 each. We plan to do this by distributing them to all of the Posyandus in Jakarta. That's 11,000 Posyandus in 2,500 villages throughout Indonesia," he said.
He explained that the program would help Jakartan children as well as 375,000 others in Indonesia. "Unicef is also trying to find private sector, city administration and central government support for this program."
In the meantime, W. Bloom explained how he had been witness to families pawning their property each day just to scrape enough money together to buy food.
He then went on to call on the governor to give offer the needy better access to the Social Safety Net Program (JPS), as well as the Empowerment Fund for Overcoming the Impact of the Economic Crisis (PDM-DKE).
Woodhouse blasted the JPS for seriously deviating from its original aims of helping poor families in Jakarta.
The JPS program, he said, needed to be based on empowering people to help themselves and not simply as a way of providing free medical treatment at the hospitals.
In carrying out an effective program he explained, NGOs needed to be involved so that their input could be considered and an effective plan for poverty relief could be initiated.
The Secretary General at the Department of Health, E. Sutarto, said that even in providing health care, the JPS program intended for the needy, was too bureaucratic. The funds on offer are only disbursed after a long waiting period, rendering the effort virtually useless for seriously ill claimants.
He concluded that the bureaucratic data required could be the root of the problem in local hospitals.