Minister visits, offers help to malnourished children

Minister visits, offers help to malnourished children

Luh Putu Trisna Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara

Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari visited disadvantaged
people in Mataram on Saturday to see for herself the extent of
malnutrition among children.

Bringing with her one ton of food supplements for children aged
below five and promising Rp 150 billion (US$15.9 million) to
battle malnutrition across the country, the minister said the
local government shared the blame for the situation.

"Central government funds allocated for the provincial
government should have been used to improve nutrition for
children under five. I appeal to the local government not to
spend too much on equipment but to pay more attention to people's
health and education," Siti said.

The government declared on Wednesday the incidence of
malnutrition extraordinary after eight children below the age of
five died. As of Saturday, the local health agency reported 359
malnourished children across West Nusa Tenggara, mostly in West
and East Lombok regencies.

The children are being treated at local hospitals.

At Mataram Hospital, Siti visited Muhamad Azmi, 13 months,
from Lingsar village, Nurul Janah, 10 months, from Karang Pule
village and Ridhorin Kaka, 11 months, who were also being treated
for tuberculosis as a result of malnutrition.

Upon hearing the story of Slamet, a four-year-old resident of
Karang Pule whose advanced malnutrition has led to partial
blindness, the minister asked Mataram Mayor M. Rifai to take care
of the boy.

Slamet is an orphan who lives with his grandfather, who works
for a farmer and lives in a modest house with a stable.

Siti expressed surprise that malnourished children were found
in West Nusa Tenggara, one of the country's rice belts.

However, the province's success in supplying rice for many
parts of the country is not in tandem with its people's welfare
as around one-quarter of its four million population are
classified as poor.

Head of the provincial health agency Baiq Magdalena said data
revealed that only half of 500,000 children below five were
regularly taken by their parents to community health centers for
medical checks and food supplements.

"Up to 50 percent of children who skip regular free health
checks are prone to malnutrition," Magdalena said.

Upon hearing Magdalena's explanation, Siti asked all family
welfare workers to visit poor families and encourage them to take
their children to health centers.

There are seven state hospitals, 129 community health centers,
443 village health centers and 448 village polyclinics across the
province.

Malnutrition affects 8 percent of the country's children every
year, with causes ranging from crop failure to poor knowledge
about nutrition.