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.