North Jakarta slum welcomes antipoverty program

Text by Rita A. Widiadana and photos by Mulkan Salmona

JAKARTA (JP): Mak Muning, 57, warmly welcomed her guests in her newly "renovated" house in Kamal Muara fishing village in Penjaringan district, North Jakarta, one of the city's most poverty-stricken areas.

Painted white and blue, the 20-square-meter house looks quite bright compared to the other decaying huts along a crooked alleyway in the village, located some 10 kilometers from the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

Sitting on a bamboo-woven mat, Mak Muning told her visitors, Siti Oemijati Djajanegara and her colleagues from the Demographic Institute of the University of Indonesia, she was grateful to God that she is now able to live more comfortably in the humble house she shares with her husband, two children, two in-laws and a number of grandchildren. Her former dwelling could hardly be called a house, since it was a dilapidated woven bamboo structure with a thatched roof.

Recalling her bleak days, Mak Muning said that one rainy night she wanted to perform Shalat Isya (night prayer) but she had to cancel it because her house was inundated by a half-meter flood. "I have been used to hunger and agony since I was a child. But that night, I felt so sad. I couldn't even perform shalat, my foremost obligation as a Moslem, just because we didn't have a proper place to do so. I prayed in tears hoping for God's help," she reminisced.

Her prayer was answered. When she woke up the next morning, some members of the village's Karang Taruna, a government- sponsored youth organization which has branches in every village throughout the country, visited her and brought a big pack of instant noodles and other food. "I was also told that our house would be repaired. I couldn't do anything except cry. I was so touched," she recalled.

The Munings are one of the families, categorized as the poorest poor, who are included in an antipoverty program jointly implemented since l994, by the Jakarta government and the Demographic Institute in an attempt to help local residents, mostly fishermen, alleviate their poverty. Under the program, the Munings and some other families received funds to renovate their dilapidated houses.

Program coordinator Oemijati said that they try to carry out a specific program with a different approach. "Before we executed this program, we identified various problems faced by Kamal Muara residents," she explained. The program also involves residents, including Karang Taruna members and officials of the neighborhood office.

Her team also made a stratification of the poorest poor in the community to ensure that they receive first priority under the scheme.

"We provided assistance to the Munings after we got a lot of information from the people here that they are the poorest family in the neighborhood," she explained.

Poverty line

Like other fisherfolk, most residents of Kamal Muara live below the poverty line. The village has poor sanitation and other basic services. Garbage is dumped all over the village and sunlight rarely touches their homes.

Flooding is a constant threat for these people because their village faces the Java Sea. The fishermen live in hovels, mostly without a bathroom. Santi, a young village woman, said "It is very difficult to change the people's unhygienic habits. They let their children wash and defecate along the beach or in front of their dilapidated huts," she said.

Oemijati added that the second assistance for the villagers came in the form of public wells, a water installation with pipes constructed throughout the village in an attempt to provide residents with a clean water supply.

"Clean water is such a luxury here. We buy a gallon of water every day for drinking and cooking. We wash here in the public well, its water is salty and smelly," said Asikin, another resident.

Oemijati said the village needs a lot more wells and public toilets as well as other public facilities. "We need a lot more funds to build them," she explained.

Apart from these basic needs, the program also provides funds to help the poor children continue their education. "We do not give donations to their parents but give directly to the schools," she said.

Poverty has clearly affected the village's children. To give these children an adequate education is almost impossible, said Santi, who works as a volunteer. Many children gave up going to school due to a lack of funds. Only a few children will continue their education at secondary schools.

"The kids are actually diligent, but their parents are poor and they desperately need their children's help at work. They give no support for any school activity," explained Santi.

Oemijati said the program needs support from the community, from the government and other related agencies to make it work properly. "It is certain that we cannot expect these people to instantly understand the program. It will take quite a long time to prove whether the program benefits these people. Poverty problems cannot be solved overnight," she said.