Shelter takes in victims of abuse from far and wide

Shelter takes in victims of abuse from far and wide

Rizky KD Ntoma, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

"Eti" was confused and scared: Four months pregnant after being
raped by her employer in Malaysia, the migrant worker returned to
her homeland and an uncertain future.

Riddled with shame, she knew she could not return to her
family. But she was fortunate that a journalist writing about her
story directed her to the office of the Kalyana Mitra foundation
in Mampang, South Jakarta.

The foundation referred her to the Bhakti Kasih Social
Institution, a shelter for abused women, and she delivered her
baby at Budi Asih Hospital in Central Jakarta.

Eti plans to work overseas again but cannot bear to leave her
child, now two months old.

"My baby gets sick when I'm ready to leave him. He gets a
fever and his heart beats so fast. It makes me sad," the 26-year-
old said.

"I'll probably leave him after he is old enough and ask my
family members to take care of him."

Eti and her son live in the institution located on Jl. Dakota
in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, with women who have faced sexual
abuse or domestic violence.

"Ita" was taken to the institution after being beaten up and
abandoned by her husband when she was seven months pregnant.

"My neighbors took me to the Budi Asih Hospital. A nurse at
the hospital recommended that I stay there," Ita, 24, said,
tears falling down her cheeks.

She said her parents refused to help her -- a common problem
in domestic violence cases where families often side with the man
as having the "right" to use physical force on his wife. She is
confused about her future, but at least there is a roof over her
head.

Eti and Ita are among 22 women at the shelter, five of whom
have had their babies and two are pregnant.

One of the shelter's staff, P. Hutabarat,said that the
institution began seven months ago following the issuance of
Gubernatorial Decree no. 153/2002 last November.

"This place used to be a nursing home. When the decree was
issued, it was changed into a social institution to take care of
victims of violence, sexual harassment and rape," he said.

"The victims may stay here as long as they want."

Women may come to the institution, or call to be picked up.

The shelter, the first of its kind run by the city
administration, receives Rp 213 million (US$24,625) per year from
the Jakarta administration to finance its activities.

"The money is used to provide food for the babies as well as
the women, so they don't have to worry," Hutabarat said.

Although their basic needs are taken care of, the women need
counseling to deal with their traumatic experiences. For many
battered women, such as Ita, that means overcoming their feelings
of guilt about their plight, including that they somehow brought
the abuse upon themselves.

"For the moment, we only have our own staff and religious
teachers to give counseling to the victims. We have asked the
City Social Welfare Agency to provide psychologists for us,"
Hutabarat said.

Vocational training, such as knitting and cooking skills, are
also planned to allow the women to go into the workforce.

"We hope we'll be able to have the teachers next year."

It will be an uphill struggle for the shelter in dealing with
the problem of domestic abuse and rape, in which entrenched
societal attitudes that put the blame on the victim complicate
matters.

This is not to mention the problems of migrant workers like
Eti.

Thousands of Indonesian women are currently working in
neighboring countries, such as Singapore and Malaysia, as well as
in the Middle East.

Many of the workers, most of whom are from low educational
backgrounds, reportedly experience violence and sexual harassment
in their workplaces, and the Indonesian embassies were unable to
help them. Latest data in 2001 showed more than 2.2 million cases
of abuse of migrant workers.

Many of them have no place to turn upon their return to their
homeland.

Besides the city-run shelter, several non-governmental
organizations, such as Kalyana Mitra and the Legal Aid Institute
of the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice (LBH APIK),
have outreach programs for abused women and shelters.

They may be only addressing a small part of the problem, but
it's a start.

The shelter can be contacted at tel. 21-421-6348.