Bali offers scholarships for nursing, midwifery

Wasti Atmodjo, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar 

The Bali provincial administration has allocated Rp 4 billion (US$363,000) for 80 senior high school or vocational school graduates willing to pursue an education in nursing or midwifery. 

Ketut Kariyasa, head of the Provincial Legislative Council's (DPRD) Commission IV overseeing education and welfare, said the program was designed to prevent a possible shortage of able nurses and midwives in some of Bali's underdeveloped areas such as Karangasem and Buleleng regencies. 

According to Kariyasa, there has been a decline in the number of able nurses and midwives willing to work in underdeveloped areas, with most preferring to work in developed regions such as Denpasar municipality or Badung regency. 

"The data we've received show a worrying lack of proper nurses and midwives," Kariyasa said at the DPRD building Wednesday. 

"So you can say that this program is a type of long-term investment, considering the numerous positive outcomes we could achieve in the future." 

He said each student would receive a total of Rp 50 million to cover all their expenses. 

"We've settled on this amount after consulting with the deans of medical schools and nursing schools in Bali," Kariyasa said. 

"You can say that it is more than enough for tuition fees, accommodation and pocket money. 

"Since we've come up with a target of 80 students, we've allocated Rp 4 billion. Once students are awarded a scholarship, the money will be sent directly to their schools." 

He said the 80 successful recipients of the scholarships would be sent to an accredited nursing or midwifery college and receive a qualification similar to an associate degree program. 

Graduates from senior high school or with a comparable educational background who hail from underdeveloped areas or from poor families and are willing to work in underdeveloped areas would be given preference for the scholarships. 

Applicants must receive a recommendation letter or an approval letter from the local village chief, along with a letter stating their poverty status. 

Applicants must also be willing to sign an agreement stating their commitment to work in underdeveloped areas after they graduate. 

The scholarship program for nurses and midwives is included in the 2009 provincial budget. 

Kariyasa said Bali had allocated a further Rp 98 billion for the state-implemented School Operational Assistance program, with billions more to trickle in as subsidy money for schools and scholarship money for students at all education levels. 

He said the provincial administration had prepared Rp 1.6 billion to provide for some 800 eligible undergraduate students in state and private universities, who would each be given Rp 3 million in scholarship money. 

If the provincial administration delivers on its promise, the region's total spending on education will be Rp 518 billion, or about 20 percent of the island's regional budget allocation.

Japanese-built school opens for kids with disabilities

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang 

The sounds of laughter and cheerful chatter filled the air at the new school building for children with disabilities in Tangerang on Tuesday. 

The students, most of whom are from low-income families, knew something different was going on because the campus of SLB Yanaiz had been decked out for the building's inauguration ceremony.

 

 

SIMPLE GESTURE: Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Kojiro Shiojiri shakes hands with a student of SLB Yanaiz, a school for disabled children and adults in Tangerang, as school founder Izak Timisela (center) looks on. The school’s new building was inaugurated Tuesday. (JP/Multa Fidrus) 

Japanese Ambassador Kojiro Shiojiri presided over the ceremony at the campus on Jl. H. Ridwan, Bojong Poncol kampung in Pinang district, Tangerang municipality. 

Tangerang officials also attended the event. 

According to Shiojiri, the Japanese government had financed the construction project of the school under the Grassroots Program. The financial assistance amounted to US$85,994, he said. 

"We want children with disabilities to be able to study at this school," he said. 

Twenty-year-old Khalid, a fourth grader in a class for people with autism, said the new school building was closer to his home. 

"I love the new classroom," Khalid said, who is suffering from hydrochepalus and needs regular medicine to control its symptoms. 

The school's 123 students pay school fees of between Rp 5,000 (40 US cents) and Rp 10,000 each month. 

"The most important thing is that I pay (school fees), no matter how much it is. The money is for the teachers' salaries," Khalid said. 

SLB Yanaiz is managed by Erihatu Samasuru Lesuri Tapirone, a humanitarian foundation established by Izak Timisela in 2000. 

"We started the school in a small rented house and now we have a three-story building with 12 classrooms, a health clinic, a kitchen, a teacher's office and a meeting hall, thanks to the Japanese government," he said. 

Unfortunately, the classrooms have yet to receive new furniture so the students and teachers still use old desks and chairs. Some of the desktops even have holes in them.

Developer keeps classrooms locked over debt

Theresia Sufa,  The Jakarta Post, Bogor 

For the past year Nurlia and her classmates have had to sit on the floor of their school corridor, bending down for almost the whole school day from 7:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. 

"It hurts my back and stomach because I often get cold," said the third grader at state elementary school SDN Cilubang 06 in Dramaga, Bogor. 

LEAN ON: Third grade teacher Ujang Suyana teaches his class in the corridor of state elementary school SDN Cilubang 06 on Wednesday. Developers have locked the school’s newly built classrooms because the school cannot afford to pay for them. (JP/Theresia Sufa)

"When I get home my mother always bathes me in cajuput oil to relieve me from the pain." 

Third, fourth and fifth graders at the school have to study outdoors because the new buildings, which are supposed to be their classrooms, have been locked by the developer. 

"We don't have the money to pay for the classrooms," school teacher Madrohi told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. 

He said the school was in debt from the construction of the new classrooms. 

The project started in May 2007 and was funded by the West Java administration. The Rp 120 million (US$10,909) fund was disbursed in August last year and was received by headmaster Fatimah in cash. 

The handover of the money was witnessed by the school committee and an official from Dramaga district administration, Rosadi. The teachers, according to Madrohi, were not informed about the fund. 

The construction had been going for six months when the workers stopped. 

"The school committee reported that the developer didn't receive all the money intended for the construction," Madrohi said. 

Rosadi found another developer to complete the project in September. The developer, however, is withholding the new classrooms until the school pays Rp 73 million for the work. 

"The developer threatened to dismantle the classrooms," Madrohi said. 

"We reported the case to the education agency and during the meeting with the school headmaster, Rosadi said he had stolen the fund. He was given window time to pay up what he had taken, but he hasn't shown up at the office. 

"Headmaster Fatimah retired three months ago, so it's us, the teachers and the 121 students, who have to bear the consequences," Madrohi said. 

In addition to lacking three functional classrooms, the school doesn't have a lavatory, he said.

Hazardous industrial waste lacks monitoring

Triwik Kurniasari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta    

Environmental impact assessments (Amdal) are still not being enforced, with rivers becoming increasingly polluted while many industries do not properly treat their waste, environmentalists said Wednesday. 

Industrial firms believe Amdal is only an administrative formality, said Hasbi Azis from the Indonesian Forum for the Environment's (Walhi) Jakarta chapter. 

"It (Amdal) has not been applied properly. Only 10 percent of 200 industrial companies in Jakarta have waste treatment facilities," Hasbi said during a dialogue at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) office on Jl. Thamrin, Central Jakarta. 

"Besides that, there are 54 factories expelling hazardous waste with no Amdal. The factories dump their waste into the city's rivers. And this doesn't count the waste dumped by hospitals in the city," he said. 

According to the Walhi research division, 90 percent of hospitals in Jakarta dispose of their waste at public dumps, he said. 

"This kind of waste should be separated from other waste because it is very dangerous. The administration should provide a special dump and treatment facility for hospital waste so it doesn't harm people," he said. 

Hasbi also criticized the Jakarta Environmental Management Board (BPLHD) and the State Ministry for the Environment for not taking strict action against industrial firms disobeying the environment law. 

"BPLHD has the authority to take stern measures against alleged polluters who do not build waste treatment facilities." 

Hermien Roosita from the State Ministry for the Environment said there had been many Amdal violations, but it was not easy to take the cases to court. 

"It is the police who investigate and take the cases to the attorney's offices. If they stop the investigation, there is nothing we can do nothing about it," Hermien said. 

She said the ministry was also drafting a revision of the 2007 law on environmental management to improve law enforcement. 

"In the draft, both industrial firms and officers face sanctions if they disobeyed the law on Amdal. 

"Industrialists risk a six-month jail sentence and Rp 1 billion (US$94,000) fine, while the officers face a minimum two-year jail sentence and a Rp 100 million fine," Hermien said. 

"We hope the revised law will effectively solve disputes over environmental pollution between industrial firms, the administration and residents." 

Walhi faces obstacles every time it tries to resolve environmental disputes at court, Hasbi said. 

"We receive more than 100 environmental complaints every year, but we fail to win the cases. We have difficulty obtaining evidence," he said. 

"Once we were in court and the prosecutor nullified our evidence, including photographs and video recordings, by saying it was not enough to prove the allegation," he said, adding that there was a lack of environmental understanding among law enforcers. 

"The government should hold routine training on the environment for officers at district attorney's offices and the attorney general's office."

Influenza scientists, WHO face off in virus row

The Jakarta Post 

Robin McDowell,The Associated Press,Jakarta     

It's a David and Goliath battle that could affect the world's ability to monitor diseases and develop lifesaving vaccines. The key issue: Should Indonesia and other developing nations have a say over crucial genetic data about their own deadly viruses? 

An international network of top influenza scientists says yes, arguing that is the best way to speed development and research, but they are running into resistance from within the World Health Organization, which opposes letting countries keep intellectual property rights to virus samples they provide for research. 

The intensifying standoff was triggered in part by revelations that the WHO, for years looked upon as the protector of the poor, had been keeping coveted information about bird flu and other viruses in a private database in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and making it available to just 15 laboratories. 

Some foreign governments called for a boycott of the global body's 55-year-old virus-sharing system, which had obliged them to freely hand over samples and data. 

The problem with that system, they say, is that developing countries give up intellectual property rights to their virus samples when they provide them to the WHO. The virus samples are then used by private pharmaceutical companies to make vaccines that are awarded patents - and sold at a profit at prices many poor nations can't afford. 

Acknowledging a need for change, the WHO agreed to work with developing nations to make sure they had better access to lifesaving medicine, an intensely bureaucratic process that is about to enter its second year with no clear end in site. 

In the meantime, leading influenza scientists and health experts came up with their own solution to alleviate the basic concerns of transparency for developing nations, one that appears to be making some at the WHO nervous. 

The scientists' nonprofit organization, which goes by the name of GISAID, launched a publicly accessible online database that - for the first time ever - offers basic intellectual property rights to those who submit genetic information. 

That has encouraged many countries including Indonesia, China, Russia and others to again start sharing information about their viruses, turning GISAID into the world's largest and most comprehensive influenza database in just four months. 

"I'm in favor of what works. If nothing is working, we have to come up with something new," said Bruce Lehman, who served as Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks under U.S. President Bill Clinton. 

"And if you have a mechanism that is going to encourage the dissemination of scientific data, of research, well, then that is going to be positive in terms of coming up with new treatments for disease." 

However, the WHO appears to be going to extreme lengths to stand in GISAID's way, including withholding funding that has been pledged for the database. 

The World Health Organization, meanwhile, is seeking US$10 million for its own database and virus tracking system, even though its own scientists are already using GISAID's free-of-charge site almost exclusively, including for last month's virus strain selection for the annual flu shot, said Masato Tashiro, director of WHO's collaborating center at Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases. 

Because many scientists played a key role in helping design the system to meet their needs, they are befuddled at the WHO Secretariat's refusal to embrace them. 

David Heymann, the global body's top flu official, said the reason was simple. 

For the first time in decades, developing countries are looking at the global body with mistrust, and officials cannot afford to be partial to any group, he said, adding this was a direct order from WHO Director-General Margaret Chan. 

Heymann supports keeping viruses in the public domain - something that effectively strips countries of ownership rights - and, until recently, other top officials in Geneva maintained it was important some genetic data remained behind closed doors. 

In the most recent dispute over GISAID's free database, the WHO has refused to hand over US$450,000 provided by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control for the database's development well over a year ago. 

That is a lot of money for the feisty group of influenza scientists, given that their director, Peter Bogner, a former television broadcaster who rallied to their cause two years ago, has largely financed the initiative on his own. 

"We are working with WHO to get these funds mobilized for their intended purposes," said Bill Hall, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, also frustrated after receiving conflicting reasons for the delay. 

The WHO's Heymann said CDC money had been earmarked for a specific project - a database - but not a particular organization. 

"We have to go through a competitive bidding process," he told AP - a process in which GISAID would be ineligible to compete because it is a nonprofit organization. 

Developing nations, which have a key stake in the project, meanwhile alleged that a WHO-commissioned report comparing five databanks, from GenBank to Los Alamos, carried out by the global body's four collaborating centers was deliberately kept secret. 

Scientists ranked GISAID superior on almost all levels, from the amount and type of information included to functionality, but several member states said, when requesting an update, they were told no assessment had been carried out. 

Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said Friday if the goal was to force members states to use an expensive and substandard database and tracking system created by WHO, it wouldn't work. 

"It would certainly add the lingering mistrust many feel toward WHO," she said.