Kartika raises funds for Unicef

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The youngest daughter of former president Sukarno, Kartika Soekarnoputri, visited a posyandu (health clinic) on Wednesday to raise funds for UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund).

Kartika, who was accompanied by well-known Dutch model Annette Lauer, was observing the activities at the clinic, located in a slum area of Pancoran Barat in South Jakarta.

Local mothers brought babies in for a health checkup and to monitor their development.

"The U.S. media have been very critical of Indonesia, that's why it is not easy to raise funds there. Luckily, some of my friends support me," said Kartika, referring to Annette, whose grandmother is Indonesian.

Kartika, the only daughter of Soekarno and his Japanese wife Ratna Sari Dewi, currently lives in New York. She owns the Kartika Soekarno Foundation for Indonesian Children.

Both Kartika and Annette made the three-day visit to the country as members of the U.S. National Committee for UNICEF, which was formed to raise funds for UNICEF. Most of the committee's members are celebrities and public figures.

"I've been to a posyandu before in Subang, West Java, but I've only just found out now how children live in such a poor environment as here. I love the concept of posyandu because it is a community-based program," said Kartika, adding that they would present a report to the U.S. National Committee for UNICEF in September.

Nona Poeroe Utomo of the Indonesia UNICEF said they had visited the posyandu because the number of clinics was in decline since the 1997 economic crisis.

"Therefore, Indonesia UNICEF plans to revitalize the clinics," she said.

In the 1980s, there were 250,000 health clinics across the country, but now, that number has decreased by 20 percent.

Kartika and her entourage will also visit Magelang in Central Java and Yogyakarta to observe a school-based management project and another project for street children.