JP/5/POOR

JP/5/POOR

Death awaits poor refugees in Ambon

M. Azis Tunny
The Jakarta Post/Ambon

It has been almost a week since two-year-old Salfiah Lussy died
at a shelter for displaced people in Ambon because her parents
could not afford to take her to the hospital.

The little girl is thought to have died from pleurisy and
complications from malaria. Salfiah's mother, Santi Lussy, 22,
earlier took her daughter to Al-Fatah Hospital in Ambon, where
she was hospitalized for more than a week.

But the cost of the hospital stay -- up to Rp 300,000 (US$33),
excluding medicine -- forced Santi and her husband, Dahlan Lussy,
25, to take their daughter home.

"We had to take her home because the hospital was too
expensive. We could not afford to keep her in the hospital,"
Santi told The Jakarta Post at the shelter in Waihaong Park in
Ambon on Friday.

Santi said her daughter may have contracted pleurisy from
sleeping on the bare floor.

When sectarian violence broke out in Ambon on April 25, 2004,
she and her family took refuge at the Al-Fatah Mosque. Salfiah,
then one, slept on a mat on the floor with no blanket to protect
her from the cool night air.

When she became ill, Salfiah was taken to the Waihaong
community health center, about 100 meters from the shelter, where
she was examined by a physician who did not provide her with any
medicine. Instead, Santi was told to buy the prescribed medicine
and vitamins at a pharmacy. The physician only said Salfiah was
malnourished.

"He told me to buy vitamins and medicine at a cost of Rp
17,500 at the pharmacy because they were not available at the
health center," said Santi.

After a year of living in the mosque, Santi and her family
moved to Waihaong Park, which covers an area of about 900 square
meters. The building in which they live is occupied by 42
families, or 180 people.

The entire park is inhabited by 575 families. Santi's family
occupies a small room made of plywood, which contains only a
mattress and a mat. The couple lives there with their oldest
child, Julkifli, 3.

There are no cabinets for their clothing or any other piece of
furniture. They keep their clothes in an old cardboard box. Two
pieces of Koranic calligraphy and a clothesline are hung by nails
on one of the walls.

Santi is extremely thin and looks much older than her 22
years, the result of the difficulty of her life.

Her husband is unemployed so the family has to rely on Santi's
mother, Ona, 43, a widow who is also taking shelter in the park,
for food.

The last year has been an uncertain time for the family. There
is no more food aid and they are still waiting for promised
building materials from the government so they can rebuild their
house.

The overcrowded shelter has left people susceptible to
disease. The rooms at the shelter are no bigger than three square
meters but each room still houses two families in stuffy, damp
and humid conditions.

Due to the lack of space, people do their cooking inside their
rooms, which fill up with the cooking smoke.

Poor ventilation and waste disposal, as well as a clogged
drainage system, have added to the unhealthy living conditions,
helping in the spread of diseases like malaria, diarrhea, skin
ailments, respiratory infections, coughing and influenza.

The people at the shelter depend on community health centers
for medical treatment because they cannot afford to go to
privately run hospitals.

However, the community health center nearest the shelter is
only open for three hours, from 9 a.m. to noon.

"If someone is sick, we do not go to the hospital because we
cannot afford it. We prefer to go to the health center, that is
if it is still open," said Sia Arsyad, 42.

If someone requires hospitalization, they can go to the
private Al-Fatah or Al-Muqadam hospitals, or to the military
hospital, if they have some money. But for those who cannot
afford to pay, they can only pray.

Residents at Waihaong are afraid to go to the government-run
Dr. Haulussy General Hospital because it is located in Kudamati,
a predominantly Christian area.

The coordinator of the Women's and Children Empowerment
Association, Baihajar Tualeka, said his group had repeatedly
urged the provincial administration to relocate the refugees
to better-equipped shelters.

"If they continue to live in these refugee camps, the
situation will only get worse because of the poor social,
environmental and health conditions there. This problem is not
only being seen at Waihaong, but in nearly every other refugee
camps," Baihajar said.

He said the displaced persons in the camps also needed free
medical care.