Move the children to healthier places now: National rights body
Move the children to healthier places now: National rights body
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Banda Aceh
With children being the most vulnerable among the tsunami
survivors, the National Commission for Child Protection has
demanded the government immediately relocate the children to
places where better nutrition, sanitation and protection are
available.
"This is an emergency, a very urgent issue that must be
addressed quickly. These children are living in a very
nonconducive situation that can adversely affect their
psychological development," commission chairman Seto Mulyadi said
on Friday.
He explained that the children, estimated to account for
around 30 percent of the some 600,000 refugees, were living in
makeshift camps where dead bodies were a common sight and
surrounding areas were filthy.
"Sanitation facilities are also unpleasant, clean water is
still difficult to get. These children must be put in a place
where they can go back to their world ... a fun world of play.
It is not a problem even if the new place is a bit far from
their current place. Reunification with families and going back
to their old place can follow after the situation becomes more
conducive," Seto added.
He also said that the surviving children lacked good nutrition
as they have been consuming food that did not have sufficient
nutrients, which are essential for children's growth.
The need for the immediate relocation of children, Seto added,
was also urgent considering that aftershocks were still occurring
and there was frequent gunfire between the military and the Free
Aceh Movement rebels around the refugee camps.
Other issues that need to be resolved are emergency education
and dissemination of information about their missing relatives.
"These children need a specific type of education that
incorporates the affective side rather than the cognitive. Not
too much homework or examinations, but rather teaching through
images and analogies," he suggested.
In terms of the possibility of child trafficking, Seto
observed that the chances were quite wide open as control and
monitoring at existing refugee camps were lax.
"The protection of children is relatively weak there. The
situation gets worse as data collection of refugees, including
children, remains unclear. In this kind of situation, children
can be so frustrated that they are easily influenced when someone
promises a better place to live," he said.
He said that to help prevent child trafficking, the government
must impose a strict ruling that no Acehnese children can travel
outside the province for the time being.
Separately, commenting on the Washington Post's report on
WorldHelp's plan to place 300 Acehnese children in Christian
homes, head of the disaster coordination team Alwi Shihab
underlined that the handling of children who lost their parents
and families had been entrusted to four ministries.
"It's not true ... it's a provoking report. I suspect it is
aimed at disrupting the harmony of Muslim and Christians. It's
not that easy to take the children out of Aceh. The government
has imposed a restriction on that," said Alwi, who is also the
coordinating minister for people's welfare.
Earlier, Alwi said he had received a commitment from the
United Arab Emirates through the Red Crescent to finance all
orphanages in Aceh to care for all children left orphans by the
tsunami.
Meanwhile, Din Syamsuddin of the Muhammadiyah organization
said the government had the responsibility to protect Acehnese
orphans, who are chiefly Muslim, from being taken away by
Christian groups.