NGO bird catches worms in city kids
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
It has taken over 17 years to get worms out of the city's long list of health problems, seeing a decrease in parasitical infections among children living in slums to 8 percent this year.
Non-governmental organization Kusuma Buana Foundation, which is concerned with public health, revealed on Tuesday that they had been working since 1987 to eradicate intestinal parasite infections, mostly roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides), whipworm (Trichuris trichuira), and hookworm, among elementary school students.
Focusing on schoolchildren of slums across the city, which are frequently flooded or where sanitation is poor, the organization found that 13.8 percent of the children had parasitical infections in 2002.
"Thousands of students from around 1,500 elementary schools out of 2,500 schools in Jakarta are vulnerable to getting infected by parasites," the organization executive Adi Sasongko said.
He was speaking in a one-day seminar titled: School-based Parasite Control Program to Improve the Health of the Elementary Schoolchildren in Indonesia from 2002 to 2005.
Children are most vulnerable to parasitical infections that can adversely affect their health through a reduction of nutrients, which can lead to malnutrition and decrease the child's quality of life and ability to learn.
Kusuma Buana, which has succeeded in reaching 721 elementary schools in Jakarta from 1987 to 2005 with its parasite awareness campaigns and health promotions for students, parents, and teachers, provides laboratory checkups and medication for students twice a year at each school.
Once a specific school has succeeded in managing parasitical infections satisfactorily, the focus of the foundation's activities is shifted to improving the children's nutrition.
To support the program, the Jakarta administration has subsidized the cost of the laboratory tests and medicine at Rp 15,000 per month for each student.
Supported by the city administration, Kusuma Buana also asked parents to participate in the program by contributing Rp 1,000 each year for each of their school-age children.
Ida Ayu Puspasari, an assistant resident representative for collaboration, community empowerment and the environment, of the Indonesian office of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), said that her organization had allocated Rp 1.4 billion for the three-year project.
"We have seen that Kusuma Buana has established good and well- managed cooperation and affiliations with several NGOs and private companies, like Ajinomoto, in Japan. The foundation also has systematically transferred its knowledge to other local NGOs," she said.
"Our support for the program will be over by the end of this month. For the evaluation of the progress of the program, we will continue monitoring the results of the prevention program among the students," Ida added.(001)