Poor find fault with community health center

Poor find fault with community health center

JAKARTA (JP): Mothers of poor families across the capital are
urgently calling on the authority to improve the service at
community health and nutrition centers (Posyandu).

Interviewed separately on Thursday and Friday, the housewives
said the service and number of health and nutrition centers in
the capital and its surrounding areas had declined while the
number of underweight children in Jakarta had soared.

The high cost of food and other staples as a result of the
economic crisis has made the women unable to fulfill their
children's basic needs, such as daily meals and regular
medication.

Due to government subsidies and donations from international
bodies, all medicines and services at the centers are cheaper
than those at regular hospitals or clinics.

Neneng, a mother of four children, lives in Kota Bambu, West
Jakarta. She said she could no longer provide skimmed milk for
her two toddlers since the local health and nutrition center,
which previously distributed free skimmed milk to children from
poor families, closed its doors three months ago.

"I have changed the skimmed milk for sweet tea," she said.

Her two-year-old girl, Maya, weighs only nine kilograms and
cannot walk steadily.

"My husband earns only Rp 75,000 a week. That's not enough to
buy good food," she said.

Enay, mother of baby boy Dimas Alif, lives in a slum in
Menteng, Central Jakarta. She said a trip with her son to her
local health and nutrition center cost her Rp 500, while the same
service at a local hospital would be six times higher.

She was very disappointed after learning that her neighborhood
center had stopped operations some months ago.

"I only once brought my son to the center, that was one-and-a-
half years ago," said the house helper, who earns a monthly wage
of Rp 140,000.

"Now I have to spend extra money."

The current economic hardships has led poor Jakartans and
their children to rely upon the centers for their health needs.

Reports say that the number of the community centers
nationwide are declining.

Quoting Stephen J. Woodhouse, the United Nations Children's
Fund representative for Indonesia and Malaysia, Media Indonesia
reported that the number of the health centers across the country
had dropped by 60 percent from 240,000.

Head of the nutrition section at the city health agency Siti
Djulaeha Yahya said the number of centers in Jakarta last year
totaled 3,673.

She explained that health and community centers were
established in the late 1970s, with the basic aim of bringing
health care close to people.

The center provides food for children, low-cost basic health
care and family planning services, usually once a month.

Center executives work on a voluntary basis with guidance from
officials from the community health care clinics.

A basic center follows what is referred to as the five table
system. Table one is to register the child; table two is to have
it weighed and measured; table three is used to record the
results and current immunization status; table four is to give
information on how to improve the child's health; and table five
is where the child is provided with any necessary treatments.

"I have yet received complete reports but it is correct that
the number of centers has been declining. I think it's mainly due
to the fact that the center workers, who are mostly housewives,
have now had to become breadwinners for their families since
their husbands have been fired," she said.

The agency's 1999 data also show that the number of
malnourished children in Jakarta totals 4,360. (ind)