East Nusa Tenggara children dying

East Nusa Tenggara children dying

JAKARTA (JP): Thousands of children in Indonesia's poorest
province of East Nusa Tenggara are severely undernourished with
deaths also being reported, Antara said on Monday.

East Nusa Tenggara Vice Governor Pake Pani said in Kupang that
in March 1999, a total of 7,202 children in the province were
recorded as suffering malnutrition. He said medical intervention
had reduced the number to some 4,000 children, but at least 11 of
the children had died.

Pani cited reports from various hospitals, including DR W.Z.
Yohanes Hospital in Kupang which had treated 39 malnourished
children up to June. Five of the children died at the hospital.

In another instance, the Alor Hospital in Kalabahi treated two
malnourished children, who later died as a result of
complications resulting from tropical malaria and respiratory
tract infections.

In East Flores regency, seven children were treated at the
Larantuka Hospital, but one child who was released from the
hospital later died at home, because his parents could not afford
to feed him. In Sikka regency, one of 30 children treated at the
T.C. Hiller also died.

Separately, in Jakarta, State Minister of Population Ida Bagus
Oka said in a hearing with the House Commission VI on health,
social affairs and family planning that more families were now
living in poverty as a result of the two-year economic crisis.

He told Antara that a survey held between January and March
revealed the existence of 45,145,648 families in Indonesia. Some
23.2 percent, or 10,740,149 families, were classified as
impoverished.

He said many families were unable to purchase medications and
contraceptives, while the government's ability to subsidize
contraceptives was also reduced.

"At the moment, two-thirds of the provision of contraceptives
is paid for with the assistance of international donors or
foreign loans."

He said East Nusa Tenggara had 60.8 percent of poor families,
followed by Irian Jaya with 52.5 percent, East Timor with 51.8
percent and Central Java with 40.2 percent.

Oka expressed fears that the poor would increase in number as
a result of a baby boom fueled by a lack of contraceptives.

Meanwhile, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has
announced a US$50 million expansion in Indonesian relief efforts
to help the urban poor cope with the crippling economic crisis.

In a media release, the organization said it had increased its
emergency operation to include five of the neediest major cities
in Java. The extended program will run from July 1 through June
2000 and feed 1.7 million people at a cost of $135.8 million, up
from $88 million.

"The economic crisis has seriously undermined food security in
Indonesia," said deputy country director Thomas Keusters. "There
has been a perceptible increase in malnutrition among women and
children because the families have almost no money to buy food."

Urban children are paying perhaps the heaviest price for the
economic collapse, because many parents are pulling them out of
school to send them to work in order to supplement the family
income, Keusters said.

The WFP operation will consist of a variety of "food for work"
projects because they address the needs of the hungry poor most
directly. Other assistance will include nutritional supplements
for pregnant women, rice rations for female-headed households,
and orphanages and shelters for street children.

In Semarang, the capital of Central Java, Minister of Health
F.A. Moeloek said on Sunday the maternal mortality rate here had
dropped from 540 per 100,000 live births in 1986 to 390 per
100,000 live births.

"The rate, however, is still too high," Moeloek said after
officiating at a meeting of obstetricians and gynecologists. He
pointed out that Singapore's maternal mortality rate is 10,
Thailand's 50, Malaysia's 59 and the Philippines 100 per 100,000
live births.(swe/har)