PKK mobilizes forces for anti-polio drive

PKK mobilizes forces for anti-polio drive

By Yoko N. Sari

DILI, East Timor (JP): Bring your children to the nearest
immunization center between Sept. 13 and 19. Cancel all other
activities if you have to.

This has been the message hammered by women activists in the
rural areas, including in this province, to mothers with toddlers
under five-years of age.

The drum is beating louder as the government is about to
launch a massive -- and expensive -- campaign to eradicate polio
from the face of Indonesia, hopefully once and for all.

And the Pembinaan Kesejahteraan Keluarga (PKK) or the Family
Welfare Guidance, a grassroots women organization with strong
government support, has gone all out to help publicize the
campaign ahead of its launching.

PKK has mobilized its more than 256,000 "cadres" nationwide to
join in this endeavor, not only in disseminating information, but
also to administer the vaccine on the day.

The cadres' main task is to encourage mothers to bring in
their children to the immunization centers now being set up in
all villages. According to the government, there are 21,825,826
under-five children, out of Indonesia's 195 million population,
who need to be vaccinated.

Mrs. Yogie S. Memet, the wife of Minister of Home Affairs and
a senior member of the PKK executive board, has been on a safari
tour for the last two months to meet with members and explain the
task expected of the cadres.

Recently, she visited Dili to meet with local PKK cadres.

"It is important that you provide the correct number of babies
in your respective areas, because it is this aspect which will
make the program succeed," Mrs. Yogie said.

She said all members should also be trained to administer the
vaccine because PKK has been given the responsibility of running
the immunization centers. "You have three tasks in the center, to
record the children, give the vaccine and to organize the flow of
mother and children in and out the center."

"I'm going to tell the mothers to postpone any activity on
that day until after their children are vaccinated," replied a
PKK cadre when Mrs. Yogie asked the crowd about a particular
situation they might face during their campaign.

Not a single under-five year old should be missed to ensure
that polio is truly uprooted from Indonesia. Although the
incidence of polio has declined drastically in Indonesia, the
presence of a single polio patient means that the virus is still
around and could affect other children in the future.

Success in East Timor is particularly crucial for it is in
this Indonesia's youngest province that the most cases of polio
is found. Of the 23 polio cases reported in Indonesia in 1993, 10
were found in this province, according to official figures. In
1988, there were 773 polio cases reported in all of Indonesia.

In October, these children will have to go back to the
immunization centers for their second and final shot.

The government could not find a better partner than the PKK in
launching this noble and ambitious campaign.

The organization, which had its origins as a grassroots
movement in Central Java in 1967 to help promote the welfare of
families in the region.

Because of its success, the government has taken up the
concept and turned it into a nationwide organization. Its
activities now range from helping promote people's nutrition to
campaigning the government's family planning program.

A UN official who accompanied Mrs. Yogie on this trip also
commended at the inclusion of PKK in the anti-polio campaign.

"The women have access to other women and it is a fact that
women are best when it comes to collect information. On the other
hand, it is easier to collect information through PKK because the
cadres have family record books," said Pirkko L. Heinonen,
project officer from UNICEF's representative office in Jakarta.

PKK's has established more than 256,600 cadres, and each one
of them is responsible in overseeing 10 families. Under this
system, therefore, more than 13 million people are actually
covered by the movement.

It is also receiving a strong patronage from the government
through the wives of the government officials, from the top to
the village chief levels. For example, the wife of the village or
subdistrict chief heads the local PKK group, then the wife of
regency chiefs heads the group at her level, and similarly, the
wife of a governor looks after the PKK interest at the provincial
level.

This particular structure makes it easier to mobilize women in
rural areas to participate in any government program, including
the upcoming mass immunization program.

How many children under-five years old are there in any one
village, who are they and where do they live? All these data are
available at the local PKK office.

The group has established what it calls the dasa wisma record.

Dasa wisma is the smallest unit in PKK, and as its name
suggests, each one consists of 20 family units. Each one keeps
records on the families of its members, such as personal
identification, their activity, details of the women's pregnancy
and of children under five.