Food for thought: Avoiding a 'lost generation'
Food for thought: Avoiding a 'lost generation'
Ida Indawati Khouw and Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Street singer Ropah is mother to Ida, 5, Saripah, 3, and
Yuliana, three months old. Since her husband is unemployed, she
bears the weight of supporting her family, earning a daily income
of Rp 5,000 (50 U.S. cents).
Living beside the railway track between Sawah Besar and Mangga
Besar stations, Ropah's children do not get enough to eat. In
medical terms, they are undernourished.
"I usually buy nasi bungkus (rice accompanied by fried tofu,
tempeh and vegetables) for Rp 3,000 and split it three ways for
my husband, myself and the kids," she told The Jakarta Post.
Ropah and her husband eat once a day to ensure their kids eat
more. Ropah also breast-feeds Yuliana.
"When I don't get enough money, I simply just buy rice and eat
it with salt."
The economic crisis that hit in mid-1997 has burdened the
family. Before the crisis, Ropah's husband managed to bring home
extra money. The cost of living was much cheaper then, and the
family was able to have decent meals.
"We used to have at least an egg or fish in our daily menu,"
she said.
Ropah is not alone.
Her neighbor Dariah, 30, also has to struggle to stay alive.
Dariah relies on her husband's paltry income to feed their
children Nurdin, 7, Neneng, 5, and Syarifudin, 11 months.
Her husband, Udin, sells secondhand goods in the Karang Anyar
market and earns Rp 10,000 per day.
The money is enough to provide a meal of rice, tempeh, tofu
and vegetables twice a day without any variation.
Dariah breast-feeds Syarifudin and gives him rice porridge
with a bit of kecap (soya sauce).
Syarifudin only weighs six kilograms, far below the standard
of 10 kg for his age. His scrawny body can hardly support his
head. His motor skills are also far below those of well-fed
babies of the same age. He sits weakly in his mother's lap most
of the time.
If they are not helped, these children may become part of the
"lost generation" that experts have constantly warned us about.
The theme for this year's World Food Day, Fight Hunger to Reduce
Poverty, is particularly appropriate for Indonesia.
The Helen Keller International Indonesia (HKI) deputy country
director, Roy Tjiong, said that a great number of Indonesia's
children were predicted to have a low intellectual capacity and
stunted growth in the future due to undernourishment.
"The children's condition is worsened by the fact that the
parents must buy everything, including clean water, for their
daily needs. Living in a slum area, they don't have a safety net
at all, including a place for a home garden (to meet their
nutritional needs)," he said.
High levels of acute malnutrition are usually only found in
emergency or disaster conditions, and indicate that there is a
very serious lack of food at the household level, according to a
report from a World Health Organization expert committee.
But what kind of hunger is suffered by Indonesians?
Roy said the malnutrition problem here was not in the quantity
of food intake but the quality, as the poor will reduce the
intake of micronutrient-rich foods (such as milk, eggs and meat)
due to the increase in prices and their decreased purchasing
power after the crisis.
"Poor families still prefer to consume rice -- thinking they
will be full -- but they reduce side dishes, including meat,
which is needed for the development of children between six
months and 23 months," he said.
The condition results in a "hidden hunger", due to
deficiencies in micronutrients of vitamins, trace elements (such
as iron) and essential fatty acids.
It will not take long to see the negative impact.
Roy said more than 65 percent of children under two years old
in the country were affected with anemia, which impairs the
immune system and reduces physical and mental capacity.
Efforts are being made by worldwide donors, as well as local
organizations, to prevent this generation from suffering this
needless tragedy.
Last January, the UN-sponsored World Food Program (WFP)
launched a new fortified food intervention program by selling
sachets of a soya-blended dietary supplement with enriched
vitamins and minerals called Delvita for children aged six months
to 24 months old for Rp 100 each.
"We will allocate 300 tons of Delvita every year, distributed
through mothers who join the monthly training on nutrition
education," said Philip J. Clarke, the WFP representative here.
He said it was a shocking fact that 60 percent of deaths
occurring in children under five years of age could be explained
by malnutrition.
Reports show that cases of malnutrition have increased
sharply. Malnutrition now kills 450 preschool children every day
or 170,000 every year.
The Delvita program, which concentrates on Greater Jakarta,
Bandung, Semarang and Surabaya, aims to reach 70,000 mothers and
children.
"Due to mothers' lack of knowledge on the proper food for
children, we offer education on nutrition to them with the help
of local non-governmental organizations," Clarke said.
The bimonthly sessions provide health and nutrition education
and counseling, and also serve to monitor the growth of children.
The WFP has distributed annual donations worth US$60 million
to Indonesia in the form of food, especially rice, to help the
country solve its hunger problem.
All of the efforts are to prevent the much-feared "lost
generation" from becoming a reality.