Funds promised for midwives in remote areas
Funds promised for midwives in remote areas
JAKARTA (JP): The government will offer funds to midwives working in remote areas, State Minister of Population/Chairman of the National Family Planning Board (BKKBN) Haryono Suyono announced yesterday.
The government will provide Rp 2 billion (US$900,000) to midwives serving in out-of-the-way areas, Haryono said.
He told reporters that the funds would be provided in soft loans through the state-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) in cooperation with a U.S. non-governmental organization, PROFIT.
However, he declined to mention how much each midwife would be entitled, saying that details were being worked out by BRI.
He only said that the midwives should repay the loans in three to four years, depending on their financial capabilities. He also said that the government would only provide the funds to midwives in remote villages, not to those living in the cities.
Haryono said the government needed to encourage midwives to serve in remote areas due to their increasing demands for medical services.
He noted a 50 percent increase in the use of contraceptives provided by the government last year. Contraception by injection was chosen by nearly 10 million while one and a half million IUD's (intrauterine device) were inserted.
"The government, with its community health centers, cannot meet the increasing demand for services without help from private midwives and doctors," he said.
Haryono said the midwives can use the funds to renovate or repair their houses to be used as clinics.
He said the midwives could provide the services in the afternoon or at night after their regular work in the morning at the government-run community health centers.
According to Haryono, Indonesia still needs many more midwives in order to place at least one midwife in each of the country's 65,500 villages by the end of 1999. According to the latest data, as of October 1994, the ministry registered only 15,120 midwives.
He predicted the increase in demand for midwives and private doctors in remote villages would be in line with the continuous Poverty Alleviation Program (IDT) this year.
He said that the government would distribute IDT funds of Rp 400 billion ($181.7 million) to poor villages to improve their welfare.
"More families in villages are expected to use the funds to run home industries, animal husbandry, and trade, instead of farming," he said.
Haryono said the government offers protection, in terms of insurance policies, to participants in the family planning program.
The nominal values of the policies range from Rp 1,000, Rp 2,500, Rp 10,000, and Rp 40,000, depending on the financial capability of the participants of the program, he said.
"The government will even bear the insurance policies of poor families." he added.(imn)