1) Bags of Books on the Move in Papua
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - AGUS Mandowen spends his afternoons in the villages of Manokwari, West Papua, bringing along a large noken (Papuan traditional woven bag) filled with 20 to 30 books. He goes to several different villages, but always at the same time, after school hours.
If the area is close to where he lives, Agus would travel on foot. But to get to the more remote places, he would borrow a two-wheeler from a friend. "It can take two hours to get to Bakaro (village) from the city," he said.
The 24-year-old has volunteered for the Noken Pustaka Papua (Papuan Noken Library) since December 2015. The community gives children in Manokwari access to books by providing mobile libraries in villages surrounding the city.
At the time, Agus was working as a security guard at a school. The movement's founder, Misbah Surbakti, came to the school with books for the children. "I saw how excited they were because books are hard to get here. That motivated me," Agus said.
He immediately asked if he could volunteer for the movement. Agus, who is a weightlifting athlete, can only devote two days each week because he has to train the rest of the week. After graduating from high school, he decided to not continue studies and focus on his training.
In the early days of volunteering, Agus was not expecting the work to be difficult. First, he had to find out where the children would gather in each village, to let them know he had books for them. "But the first few times I came, they ran away. I don't know if they were afraid of me or of the books," he said, laughing.
But now the children, usually five to ten at a time, will approach him to read the books he is carrying. Apart from carrying a large noken, Agus also helps some of the children who still find it difficult to read. West Papua's literacy rate is still low, and a number of primary and middle school children are not yet fluent readers, he explained.
Agus hopes that with his help, Papuan children will develop a reading habit. "I want them to like books," he said. He believes that children can learn much from books. "We can't just learn in class. There's no limit to learning outside of school."
THE Noken Pustaka Papua was established in December 2015 by Misbah Surbakti, a middle school teacher at the SMP 19 (state middle school) in Manokwari. The North Sumatran native has taught in West Papua for 20 years. As a teacher, he saw that many middle school students still had poor reading competency. He thought the main cause was the lack of reading materials in the school.
But over the past few years, the number of students with below-average reading skills seemed to be growing. "Instead of blaming others, I decided to ask my colleagues to bring their own books to school," said Misbah.
He and his colleagues brought used books that belonged to their children and asked other parents to do the same. The books were kept at the school library. But Misbah noticed that not much was changing. Very few students made use of the library, nor borrowed books to bring home.
In early 2015, Misbah was sent to a middle school in the Banjarnegara Regency, Central Java, on a teaching assignment. He was amazed by the book collection and the library's atmosphere. "It was casual, colorful, there were places to sit and soft music was playing in the background," he said.
He discussed the situation at his school in Papua with a librarian in Banjarnegara and received several tips on how to improve the reading habit. When he returned to Manokwari, he asked his friend, Ali Sunarko, who was once a school librarian, to start a literacy movement in the regency, and not only at his school.
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2) Rash of Diarrhea Cases Hits Indonesia’s Papua Province
Victor Mambor Jayapura, Indonesia 2017-07-26
A woman carries her baby in Papua province, where dozens of people in several villages
have died from diarrhea and other illnesses during the past few months, March 20, 2017.
Victor Mambor/BenarNew
About 50 residents of several villages in Papua – mostly children younger than 5 – have died from diarrhea and other illnesses since April, church and other officials said, in a case reflecting a stark lack of health services in Indonesia’s easternmost province.
Maria Duwitau, a member of Papua’s parliament, cast blame on poor health services provided by the provincial government.
“If they already know that diarrhea comes every year, they should have prevention efforts, instead of blaming the community for not having hygienic habits,” she told BenarNews. “The health department should promote a hygienic and healthy way of life to the community.”
Diarrhea-related deaths occur every year in Papua, a deeply impoverished province, officials said. But the rash of cases reported in a handful of villages in Tigi, a district of Deiyai regency, and elsewhere in the province has been more frequent than usual, they said. It has been caused by people drinking from unclean water sources.
Apart from at least 50 deadly cases, hundreds of people in affected villages have been stricken with diarrhea over the past three months, officials said.
People can die of dehydration brought about by diarrhea, which drains the body of vital fluids and salts. It is a common killer of children age 5 and younger worldwide, contributing to the deaths of tens of thousands of boys and girls annually in Indonesia, according to UNICEF and NGOs working in public health.
Laurens Kadepa, another local parliamentarian, said four public health centers have been established across the western part of the district – where some of the deadly cases of diarrhea have occurred lately – but none are staffed with doctors. This, in turn, has discouraged residents of local villages from seeking medical services at those sites, he said.
“Since two years ago, there has been an attitude of public apathy toward the importance of health services,” Laurens told BenarNews.
Visits by doctors, church officials
Cultural practices have also been a factor, officials pointed out. Instead of proceeding to health centers, villagers often stay at home, praying for recovery while using traditional herbs, which, they believe, have healing powers.
According to the chief of the provincial health office, Aloysius Giyai, a medical team of doctors and nurses visited five villages in Deiyai – Ayatei, Digikotu, Piyakedimi, Yinudoba and Epanai – where the rash of diarrheal cases was reported.
“The team formed by the Papua Province’s Health Development Acceleration Unit, has been there since a few days ago to handle the case,” Aloysius told BenarNews last week.
Church officials visited several villages in Tigi district, after receiving reports from local officials that 30 infants had died in the area over the past three months, said Santon Tekege, a representative of the Catholic Church who is based here.
“After we checked the area, there were 50 deaths, including adults,” Santon told BenarNews.
The victims, who died within four days after the onset of symptoms, had experienced high fever, diarrhea, sore mouth and red eyes, he said, quoting data gathered by church representatives.
“According to medical officers, local residents showed symptoms of having acute respiratory infections, measles, diarrhea and dysentery,” Santon added.
Since June, dozens of residents have been admitted to hospitals and clinics in Merauke, another regency in Papua, after complaining of diarrhea, officials said. About 200 children younger than 5 and several adults were believed to be afflicted, they said.
“The teams from Puskesmas [community health clinics] have served some of the villages we could reach, while areas in difficult locations have not been reached yet,” said Adolf Bolang, chief of Merauke’s Health Service. He said 461 people have so far complained of diarrhea in three villages. Four toddlers died after suffering from dehydration, he told BenarNews.
Drinking dirty water and the non-existence of toilets could have precipitated the cases, he said.
In previous diarrhea reports in Papuan villages, Indonesian health officials identified consumption of dirty water as the cause. They said villagers traditionally used natural water ponds as their sources of drinking water, but these had been contaminated by human and animal feces.
Lagging behind
Aloysius Giyai, Papua’s health chief, acknowledged services in Deiyai had often performed poorly on the province’s annual health assessment.
Papua’s overall health status is the lowest in Indonesia, officials said.
Papua, which is bordered by the nation of Papua New Guinea to the east, and by West Papua province to the west, is one of the Indonesia’s poorest regions and was absorbed by the country in 1963.
The sparsely populated Papua and West Papua have 5.9 million residents, a majority of whom are Christians. The mineral-rich region – home to the world’s largest copper and gold mines – is also where a low-level armed separatist movement has simmered for decades.
Papua’s adult literacy rate is the lowest among all of Indonesia’s provinces, standing at 74 percent, according to the website GlobalSecurity.org.
“The region also has a disproportionately high number of HIV/AIDS cases compared with the rest of Indonesia and high rates of infant and maternal mortality,” the website reported.
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3) Freeport yet to extend operating permit: Ministry
Jakarta | Thu, July 27, 2017 | 12:53 pm
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has said that gold and copper mining operator PT Freeport Indonesia had yet to obtain an extension to their operating permit.
Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry secretary general Teguh Pamudji said on Wednesday that the extension of Freeport's operating permit, which would expire in 2021, was still being negotiated by government officials and company representatives.
"The validity and legal basis of (Freeport's) mining operation after 2021 will be the IUPK, which [Freeport] has not agreed to until now," Teguh said in Jakarta as quoted by tribunnews.com on Thursday.
Read also: Freeport to issue new shares to meet divestment requirement
The IUPK, or the special mining permit, is set to replace the contract of work (CoW) scheme signed in 1991 by PT Freeport, a subsidiary of the American mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Inc.
The extension would be granted if Freeport agreed to convert its contract from a CoW into the IUPK, said Teguh, adding that the company could apply to extend its operating permit until 2041, or by two decades.
"Under Government Regulation No. 1/2017, IUPK holders are eligible for a permit extension of 2 x 10 years,” he said.
Freeport Indonesia's corporate communications vice president Riza Pratama said an extension through 2041 would bee needed for the company to meet the requirements of the government regulation.
An IUPK requires the permit holder to construct a smelter, as well as to divest 51 percent of its shares to Indonesian entities. (bbn)
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