Lack of midwives and high mortality rate; education facilities very inadequate according to Governor

Wake up !!!

Indonesian citizen in Papua should work hand in hand to develop education facilities.

Indonesian citizen in Jakarta and other advance cities should pay more attention to help us…are we your brother or not !!!

Please read this ! Very Important News from Tapol

Kompas, 21 November 2008

The mortality rate of mothers and babies is very high in the provinces of Papua and West Papua because of a serious shortage of midwives, according to the director of the Mothers’ Health Department of the Indonesian Department of Health, Bagus Sukasuara.

According to the Bureau of Statistics, in 2006 the death rate of mothers who had given birth to live babies was 396 of 100,000, while 52 babies had died. The reason is the lack of midwives and other trained personnel. In order to provide an adequate service in the various villages, there is a need for 300 up to 1,500 people. And moreover, he said, in Papua, these people need to wear good shoes and have strong legs.

He said that he had made provision for a budget for 200 midwives for the area but no midwives wanted to go there because conditions there are very different from other parts of Indonesia.’The number of midwives has been declining from year to year, because they have to move to other places with their husbands most of whom are working for the police or the army. Without the provision of midwives who originate from the area, things will continue to be very difficult. Something needs to be done to deal with this problem,’ he

Another health worker said that one major factor was the low level of access by key professionals. ‘In Indonesia, the mortality rate for mothers and babies is below 75%, which means that many mothers give birth with the help of traditional practitioners. Although these practitioners are very experienced, they are not trained to handle situations where complications may occur. Professionals can be of assistance to the women’s husbands and other members of the family in planning for the moment of birth and dealing with complications to ensure that both mother and child come through safely.

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The availability of primary and secondary school education is very fragile indeed in Papua because of the absence of teachers in the kampungs, according to Governor Barnabas Suebu. ‘Teachers are all concentrated in the towns and cities. Whereas in a town, there may be twenty teachers working in each school, the number goes down to one per school in the kampungs. This is why education is so poor.

He said that it was not an easy thing to ensure an even spread of educational workers throughout Papua, even though everyone says they want to see the availability of good quality, cheap educational facilities. Many district chiefs are very enthusiastic about opening universities but they pay little attention to primary and secondary education, he said.