UNICEF noble performance

UNICEF noble performance

The Jakarta Post of June 15, 1995, on the front page, raised
the acute problem of the malnutrition of Indonesian children,
that was divulged by a recent Progress of Nations report issued
by UNICEF.

The lesson that we can learn from the report is the fact that
if the UN through its political bodies (the Security Council and
the General Assembly) is not always successful or outright fails
in its efforts to find solutions to the problems of world
politics, on the contrary the UN is continuously performing noble
deeds as far as the activities of its Specialized Agencies and
Special Bodies are concerned. This is something that is not
widely known among the public at large. The performance of UNICEF
is an outstanding case in point.

Turning to the above cited UNICEF report, it is noteworthy
that it brought up the still widespread prevalence of
malnutrition, with 40 percent of five-year olds being underweight
and 54 percent of under-five death cases being associated with
malnutrition.

Moreover, the complex nature of the problem appears to be
aggravated by a high maternal death rate caused by the poor
condition of women's nutrition and anemia, the use of traditional
midwives in villages and the deficiency of sanitation facilities
for households, in which access to clean water is still an acute
problem.

Another setback affecting children as pointed out by Roger
Shrimpton, UNICEF's representative for Indonesia, is that a
quarter to a half of Indonesia's children are living in areas
with a high risk of iodine deficiency, which causes mental
retardation. It was reported that UNICEF urged the government to
immediately implement its plans to add iodine to edible salt to
protect against iodine deficiency.

Since Indonesia is not a landlocked country but a giant
archipelago surrounded by the sea, it sounds rather strange for
its culinary to lack iodine. This shows that the rich utilization
of seaweed, as a foodstuff, like in Japan, is completely unknown
here.

Since speaking of the fate of malnourished children has
crucial relevance with the well-being of a large segment of the
Indonesian populace of the future, the warning of UNICEF's
representative, as reported by The Jakarta Post, at this juncture
is timely, when we, Indonesians, above all are in the high spirit
to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the nation's independence.

If the nationwide drive for implementing family planning is
commonly acclaimed as a successful achievement in the past
national development stages, it appears imperative for a similar
drive to be carried out to help overcome the problem of
malnutrition affecting the nation's children. Such a noble drive
should be stepped up nationwide, to which national philanthropic
societies or institutions, women's clubs and social organizations
can lend their wholehearted support, with a view to improving the
quality of life of the country's children. It must be earnestly
recognized that all children, whether of the rich or poor,
jointly are the nation's future.

Indeed, UNICEF's performance in its aid to developing
countries must be praised, in that the cornerstone of its
approach to development aid is said to consist of the conviction
that children are the means, and thus must be the beneficiaries
as well, of national development and that enlightened social
policies benefiting children are a prerequisite for sustained
economic and social progress. This noble aspect of altruism will
surely have an everlasting value.

To conclude, it must be born in mind that the crowning of
UNICEF's achievements found manifestation in the award of the
Noble Peace Prize conferred on it back in 1965.

SAM SUHAEDI

Jakarta