Kartika raises funds for Unicef

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.