Crisis centers established for family planning

Crisis centers established for family planning

JAKARTA (JP): The state minister of population is setting up
crisis centers to monitor the family planning program throughout
the country, an official said Tuesday.

Maswar Noerdin, first assistant of State Minister of
Population told The Jakarta Post their jobs will include the
supervision of distribution of contraceptives, data gathering of
family planning participants, and providing information and
holding various trainings for the people.

"We realized possibilities of abuse as the ministry has
gathered huge donations from various donor countries," Maswar
said.

He was speaking after a symbolic presentation of a US$352,010
grant from the Japanese government, by Japanese envoy Takao
Kawakami. The grant was allocated to seven non-governmental
organizations providing health services.

Donations so far have also included free contraceptives apart
from various health programs and trainings.

An example of abuse of such donations, Maswar said, was the
ministry's findings that free contraceptives were being sold in
markets in Bengkulu province, southern Sumatra.

Antara quoted him on Monday as saying that several type of
pills such as mycrogynon, microgynon, nordette, planotob and
microdial along with injectable supplies were missing from the
local community health centers, forcing the family planning
participants to buy the contraceptives in nearby drug stores.

Therefore, a joint monitoring team by the ministry and foreign
donors would be established to avoid further wrongdoings, he
added. "But we cannot rush things as we have to wait for further
reports. We have just started this cooperation.

"Preventive action, however, is needed. The monitoring chain
will range from provinces to community health centers," Maswar
added.

Minister Ida Bagus Oka promised to run routine market
operation among others to ensure that contraceptives were
available and that free ones were not sold.

The institutions to receive the grant from Japan were the
Indonesian Red Cross, the Mitra Mulia Foundation in Central
Kalimantan, the Hasan Sadikin hospital in Bandung, West Java, the
Bintang Pancasila Foundation in Bekasi, east of Jakarta, the
Sasana Husada Foundation in North Sumatra and the Sangata village
in East Kalimantan handling the conservation of orang utans.

The ministry is set to receive aid of some Rp 400 billion
donation in the 1999/2000 fiscal year to support the family
planning program here, Rp 107 billion of which is foreign loan.

The 10 foreign donators apart from Japan are from the United
Nations Population Fund, the United States Agency for
International Development, Asian Development Bank, World Bank,
Canadian International Development Agency, AusAID or Australian
Agency for International Development, and the European
Commission.

UNFPA, for instance, has delivered 47,000 implants and 3.4
million injectables worth a total of US$3 million.

"We're lobbying other countries to support family planning in
Indonesia... because there is a tendency of participants' dropouts
amid the crisis," Nesim Tumkaya, Indonesia representative of
UNFPA, said.

He also said UNFPA already had a control mechanism of the
distribution of the contraceptives through coordination with the
ministry and other non-government organizations.

According to the ministry in the previous year 40 percent of
the total 26 million participants could afford their own
contraceptives but as of last year only 30 percent could afford
to do so, the minister said. (edt)