Malnourished children hospitalized
Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang
As the East Nusa Tenggara provincial administration declared the malnutrition problem in the region to be an emergency on Tuesday, two malnourished children were still battling to survive in the hospital.
On Tuesday, the two children -- 10-month-old Serly Yohana Raha and 13-year-old Deby Henukh -- were receiving treatment at the WZ Johanis Hospital in Kupang. The two come from poor families with incomes of less than Rp 100,000 (US$11) a month.
According to Welly Raha, Serly's mother, her daughter rarely ate nutritious food. Every day, the baby consumed little else besides porridge, with none of the milk or nutrition supplements that a baby required.
Deby's story was similar. Every day, the junior high school student ate nothing more than rice or boiled corn.
Hendrik Henukh, Deby's father, said that the family rarely consumed fish or vegetables.
The hospital director, Hein Mooy, confirmed that the two children were suffering from malnutrition, as well as tuberculosis.
"The two of them have been receiving treatment for more than a week. Currently, the doctors are doing their best to ensure their recovery by providing them with nutritious food. If we turn out to have been too late, they might end up with advanced malnutrition," Hein said.
Spokesman for East Nusa Tenggara's governor, Umbu Saga Anakaka, announced that comprehensive measures, including free medical treatment for the poor, would be introduced to deal with the problem.
"Since cases of malnutrition have occurred in more than one regency, the government had decided to declare an emergency," Umbu said on Tuesday.
He said that so far 45 children in six regencies had tested positively for advanced malnutrition, locally known as busung lapar, while 33,910 were suffering from malnutrition and 8,218 others from poor nutrition.
These figures, he said, could increase following a food and water crisis in the province following a long drought.
He said some of the malnourished people were receiving treatment in hospitals while the rest of them, due to financial constraints, could not do much.
A team from the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Public Welfare is set to arrive soon in Kupang to conduct surveys in the affected regencies. The findings of the surveys would then be brought before a coordinating meeting to deal with the food crisis and malnutrition problem.
The cases of malnutrition in East Nusa Tenggara came to the fore after the neighboring province of West Nusa Tenggara declared a malnutrition emergency last week after eight children under the age of five died.
As of Saturday last week, 359 cases of malnourished children had been reported across West Nusa Tenggara, mostly in West and East Lombok regencies.