Assistance to alter the lifestyle of people in Asmat, toward cleaner and healthier living is needed through long-term assistance.
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Kompas/P Raditya Mahendra Yasa
People wait in line for healthcare services at Puskesmas Ayam, Akat district, Asmat regency, Papua, Friday (26/1). Health service and education remain the biggest problems in the province.
AGATS, KOMPAS – Assistance to alter the lifestyle of people in Asmat, Papua toward cleaner and healthier living is needed through long-term assistance. Health and education workers will be needed to provide this assistance.
Lack of realization about the importance of clean and healthy living is one of the factors of health problems, such as the spread of infectious disease in Asmat. A resident of Suru-Suru dictrict, Asmat, Yohana Berpit, 40, said her children had not been taught to wash their hands before they ate. “After playing in the mud, they would eat straight away,” she said.
Alfons, another Asmat local, said the people needed assistance from health workers when they returned to their respective villages. The assistance should be more intensive, particularly when it comes to treatment, so that those that are unwell can be quickly aided. Therefore, more intensive visits by health workers are important.
Saskar, another resident, also hopes there is assistance for the people of the district. If they are not assisted, it is feared that when the locals are ill, it will be hard for them to get treatment and health problems will spread again.
Asmat deputy regent Thomas Eppe Sanfanpo said the majority of the people of Asmat are still in a period of transition from a culture of food-gathering to a culture of agriculture. Their land is limited and most of it is swamps that are affected by seawater tide. To meet their daily food needs, the people are extremely reliant on nature. “Maybe 90 percent of the people are still live in the food-gathering culture. It requires one or two generations to switch to agriculture,” he said.
Papua Health Agency head Aloysius Giyai said improving the nutrition of the people is an effort that requires synergy from various different sectors, not only the health sector. This has not been optimal as yet. An initiative that can be done, for example, is setting up agriculture and food-security plans, synergized with the fulfillment of nutrition.
Pastor Hendrikus Hada Pr from the Agats Bishopric, Asmat regency, Friday (26/1), said that changing the behavior of a people does not happen overnight. A change in behavior must be taught and be made into a habit. This process needs human resources who will continue to provide assistance to the people in the villages. This is something that has not been done. The assistance should not only be in the field of health but also in other fields such as education and agriculture.
Being prepared
In Medan, North Sumatera, Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Puan Maharani said that the government is currently preparing medical workers and educators to be temporarily placed in the rural areas of Asmat. It is hoped that their presence will be able to help overcome the health problem and education crisis in Asmat.
According to Puan, the health problem and education crisis in Asmat has been caused by, among other things, the lack of competent human resources that are willing to be placed there. The government has been offering incentives so that competent individuals would be willing to be placed there. However, many have refused because of geographical challenges, the difficult access and the lack of public facilities.
“The problem in the rural areas of Papua has been it’s the difficult access to the region. We have to go on a plane, travel on land and along the river to reach the rural areas of Papua. However, this cannot be an excuse to not carry out (efforts of) anticipation,” he said.
To overcome the problem of a lack of human resources in Papua, Puan said, the government is preparing personnel who will provide health and education assistance to be placed in the region on a short-term basis.
When their contract has run out, they will be replaced periodically by new personnel. “These assistant personnel will be under contract for a certain period of time, it can be a month or a year. We will special incentive for those that are willing to be placed in the rural areas of Papua,” he said.
