Govt to stop helping poor children

Govt to stop helping poor children

JAKARTA: The government will soon stop supporting neglected children -- including street children -- due to financial constraints, a cabinet minister said Sunday.

The Minister of Social Affairs Bachtiar Chamsyah said the government would no longer finance thousands of half-way houses for neglected children, whose number now reached 40.7 million due to the prolonged economic crisis.

"The number of neglected children is just too high, and in fact according to the United Nations, the figure stands at 80 million," Antara quoted Bachtiar as saying in Padang, West Sumatra on Sunday.

He said the government had decided to stop receiving foreign loans for the half-way houses because it did not want to burden the country's future generations.

According to Chamsyah, each half-way house had been receiving Rp 130 million per year.

He also revealed that most houses failed to carry out their original missions.

"At least between 70 and 80 percent of the homes did not succeed in their mission. That is why we decided to stop the program," he said. -- Antara