Group demands better care for Acehnese children
The Jakarta Post Jakarta/Banda Aceh
With children being the most vulnerable among the tsunami survivors, the National Commission for Child Protection has demanded the government immediately relocate the children to places where better nutrition, sanitation and protection are available.
"This is an emergency, a very urgent issue that must be addressed quickly. These children are living in a very nonconducive situation that can adversely affect their psychological development," commission chairman Seto Mulyadi said on Friday.
He explained that the children, estimated to account for around 30 percent of the some 600,000 refugees, were living in makeshift camps where dead bodies were a common sight and surrounding areas were filthy.
"Sanitation facilities are also unpleasant, clean water is still difficult to get. These children must be put in a place where they can go back to their world ... a fun world of play.
It is not a problem even if the new place is a bit far from their current place. Reunification with families and going back to their old place can follow after the situation becomes more conducive," Seto added.
He also said that the surviving children lacked good nutrition as they have been consuming food that did not have sufficient nutrients, which are essential for children's growth.
The need for the immediate relocation of children, Seto added, was also urgent considering that aftershocks were still occurring and there was frequent gunfire between the military and the Free Aceh Movement rebels around the refugee camps.
Other issues that need to be resolved are emergency education and dissemination of information about their missing relatives.
"These children need a specific type of education that incorporates the affective side rather than the cognitive. Not too much homework or examinations, but rather teaching through images and analogies," he suggested.
In terms of the possibility of child trafficking, Seto observed that the chances were quite wide open as control and monitoring at existing refugee camps were lax.
"The protection of children is relatively weak there. The situation gets worse as data collection of refugees, including children, remains unclear. In this kind of situation, children can be so frustrated that they are easily influenced when someone promises a better place to live," he said.
He said that to help prevent child trafficking, the government must impose a strict ruling that no Acehnese children can travel outside the province for the time being.
Separately, commenting on the Washington Post's report on WorldHelp's plan to place 300 Acehnese children in Christian homes, head of the disaster coordination team Alwi Shihab underlined that the handling of children who lost their parents and families had been entrusted to four ministries.
"It's not true ... it's a provoking report. I suspect it is aimed at disrupting the harmony of Muslim and Christians. It's not that easy to take the children out of Aceh. The government has imposed a restriction on that," said Alwi, who is also the coordinating minister for people's welfare.
Earlier, Alwi said he had received a commitment from the United Arab Emirates through the Red Crescent to finance all orphanages in Aceh to care for all children left orphans by the tsunami.
Meanwhile, Din Syamsuddin of the Muhammadiyah organization said the government had the responsibility to protect Acehnese orphans, who are chiefly Muslim, from being taken away by Christian groups.