Posyandu running out of infant food supplements
Posyandu running out of infant food supplements
JAKARTA (JP): Volunteers at several state-sponsored Posyandu,
the integrated health service posts for infants and pregnant
women, here strongly urged the government on Friday to soon
allocate money for their activities due to the serious shortage
of baby food at the centers.
The staff of the posts in Johar Baru in Central Jakarta and
Utan Kayu Selatan in East Jakarta told Minister of Health Farid
Anfasa Moeloek that the Rp 22,500 monthly state fund earmarked to
provide free food supplement for babies of poor families in the
area would be only enough to feed two infants at the most given
the high prices nowadays.
"Our quota is Rp 750 for each baby per day. But today eggs are
already Rp 750 each. Then who'll pay for the stove gas, Bapak
Menteri?" Mrs. Suranto, a helper at Johar Baru, complained to
Moeloek, who was making impromptu visits to the posts.
The female workers told the minister that the shortage of
money had forced them to drastically cut down the number of
patients, from infants to under-five-year-olds, for the free food
supplement services.
According to Mrs. Suranto, out of an average of seven infants
brought by their parents to the post for the free meal service,
six of them were turned away, she said.
The volunteers therefore asked the minister to disburse the
government aid package which has been earmarked for Posyandu
activities as soon as possible in order to allow them to purchase
adequate stocks of baby and infant rations.
Endang Purwaningsih Syamsul Bachri, another volunteer at a
nearby Posyandu in the same subdistrict, told the minister that
her post could provide free nutrition to two infants thanks to a
fund donated by a private firm.
At the Posyandu in Utan Kayu Selatan, the minister was also
told the same thing.
"Can someone imagine how can any baby or infant survives on a
Rp 750 budget a day?" asked a local helper.
Volunteer Endang said that there were at least 17 severely
malnourished babies of poor families in her subdistrict that
badly need adequate food supplements.
"Help us, sir. The babies need the food," she told the
minister and his entourage.
In response, Moeloek told the ladies not to worry. He pledged
that the Posyandu aid fund, which had gone through some
"bureaucratic problems", would be disbursed within a week.
According to Moeloek's staffer, Dini Latief of the ministry's
nutrition directorate, the aid allocated for all such posts in
the capital for the three-month period beginning January totaled
Rp 3.1 billion.
"Each post in the capital should receive roughly Rp 1 million
next week," Dini said.
Dini mentioned that the aid money to be earmarked for the
corresponding period to all Posyandu nationwide would reach Rp
261 billion.
"Each of the 240,000 posts would receive roughly about Rp 1
million," she said. (ylt)