Second Assignment

Tribal children suffer from hunger, illness

Four children of the Orang Rimba have received medical treatment in Batanghari regency Jambi that are in need of food, water and medicine. Cipak (1) and Merute (12) from a tribal group led by Mangku Terap, who live in Bukit Dua Belas National Park (TNBD), have been admitted to a pediatric ward's isolation room in the state-owned hospital in Muarabulian city since Saturday and the other children, Besikap, 4, and Sebilau, 3, have been treated as outpatient. Before being admitted to the hospital the children had been suffering from high fever for seven days. Furthermore, there are seven more children that lived in the forest had also been suffering from the same decease. Beby Andihara, the doctor, said that those diseases were caused by malnutrition and bad sanitation. He added if the patients did not improve in the next few days, they would be referred to hospital in Jambi city and they would be exempted from medical expenses, as the Batanghari regency would cover it. The Warsi Indonesian Conservation Community (KKI Warsi) unit coordinator Kristiawan said that eleven Orang Rimba had died over the past two months. He hoped that the government would proactively provide health, food aid and medical treatments to the ill children. The Jambi provincial Social Manpower and Transmigration Agency’s Suku anak Dalam had started investigating the deaths of the Orang Rimba caused by starvation. KKI Warsi reported that the tribe had been malnourished since they could not hunt for prey because the forest was damaged while their tradition did not allowed them to eat meat except what they hunted themselves. KKI Warsi recorded that around 3850 Orang Rimba traveled long distances for food and clean water without being able to feed themselves properly. They hoped that the government would pay attention to them and called for a stop to forest destruction.