Homemakers must make ends meet: Soeharto

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto told housewives yesterday he realized they were facing serious economic hardship but hoped they would do their best to provide nutritious foods for their children.

He urged mothers to serve simple but healthy meals for their families because these were important for their health.

"The current economic and monetary crisis causes a heavy burden for housewives, I hope that they will be creative and thrifty in meeting their living requirements," Soeharto said when opening the Family Welfare Movement (PKK) workshop at the State Palace yesterday.

The grassroots family welfare movement operates across the country down to village levels. PKK won international recognition in 1995 when UNESCO awarded it the Noma Prize for its leading role in the national campaign against illiteracy and malnutrition.

PKK is traditionally chaired by the wife of the minister of home affairs because the ministry has direct access to villages.

The President also told wives to help their husbands in living in the crisis by trying to obtain additional income for the family.

"With their skills, mothers can reduce their husband's burdens in earning money by developing cottage industries," the President said.

Stephen J. Woodhouse, the Unicef chief representative for Indonesia, said earlier this month the economic crisis would likely result in a major setback for the country's development resources.

Unicef data reveals that about eight million children under five in the country are seriously malnourished. About 14 percent of the country's births are underweight and about 45 percent of one-year-old children are malnourished.

Approximately 140,000 children die from malnutrition per year, or 2,500 every week, in Indonesia.

Kontan weekly tabloid last week reported that the Gross National Product (GNP) was currently less than US$350, compared to about $1,000 before the economic crisis hit the country last July.

"We believe that in the future, PKK would give an even greater contribution," the President said. (prb)