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It was midmorning when we arrived at the Bantar Gebang dump in Bekasi to accompany Wulan Putri-Roos, who was making her weekly rounds. In January 2010, Wulan set up Nasi Bergizi, an organization that provides kids who live in Bantar Gebang with a meal in a box on a weekly basis, as well as monthly health checkups.

In the particular area of Bantar Gebang that Wulan supervises every Thursday, there are about 40 families who make a living out of scavenging. They also live on top of garbage.

“When you are born in Indonesia and see poverty, it doesn’t move you anymore because it’s so common,” Wulan said. “You accept it as part of reality. After years of living abroad, I realized that it’s not normal.”

Bantar Gebang is Indonesia’s largest dump. An estimated 6,500 metric tons of garbage is deposited at the sprawling 125-hectare landfill daily. Established in 1989, the area has been a wasteland for more than 20 years. The families who live there build their makeshift shacks and eat, sleep and live atop slippery, muddy ground strewn with old cloth, plastic bags and bottles. Flies also collect where humans gather, making the ground look more like a hovering carpet of black dots.

When we got to Bantar Gebang, Atimah, Wulan’s field coordinator, was waiting for us. Atimah helps Wulan gather the locals together for registration purposes, as well as to distribute food to the children. She also mans the local warung .

From nearby Bekasi, Atimah has lived in Bantar Gebang for six years. “The children here don’t eat like the kids in Jakarta,” she said. “They eat dry food, with rarely anything with vegetables or fruits. Money is so hard to come by.”

Saroh, 31, has been living on top of the trash heap for a decade. During our visit, she brought along her friend Heriah, who recently moved to Bantar Gebang so that her children could receive the food packages.

Both women have toddlers at home. Their daily meal consists of tempeh, tahu (tofu) and rice. “Rice is expensive. Basic essentials in general are expensive. We can spend up to Rp 50,000 [$5] a week,” Saroh said.

To get her charity going, Wulan enlisted the help of family and friends. One of her friends, Atiet Retno, is also the owner of a catering company that now provides the box meals for Nasi Bergizi.

Under Nasi Bergizi, a mere Rp 25,000 is enough to feed one child each week. The boxed meals, which usually contain rice, meat, chicken, eggs, vegetables, fruit and pudding, are substantial in size.

“Because we don’t know the nutritional value of their daily meals, which could be just instant noodles, the impact of [our boxed meals] won’t be too big,” Atiet said. “But they can enjoy a good, balanced meal and we are showing them how to eat better.”

Dr. Chandra Svaras, founder of Yayasan Hijau Putih (Green and White Foundation), a medical nonprofit that helps out impoverished communities, said: “Those who lack proper nutrition will eventually lose their appetite, so eating well once in a while helps them preserve it.”

Chandra and his team of medical doctors are responsible for conducting monthly medical checkups at Bantar Gebang, where he found many children in need of basic medical attention. “The children suffer from malnutrition and nutrition and vitamin deficiencies,” he said.

Skin diseases and colds are common. In addition to vitamins, powder to soothe itching skin and cough medicine are in high demand among Bantar Gebang residents.

There are currently 120 children registered with Nasi Bergizi, with more parents signing up their children each week. The children range from newborns to those who are primary school age.

“Some children only have one name and the parents often forget their children’s age,” Wulan said. “Most don’t have a KTP [national identity card] and forget their children’s data. These are people who live outside of the system.”

Wulan recounted the story of a grandmother who came to register her grandson last month. The baby’s mother had died and at 1 month old, the child weighed only three kilograms.

“[The baby] was crying because he was so hungry. The grandmother could only feed him powdered milk thrice a day because they have no money,” Wulan said.

Heriah, who has a 5-year-old, said she wished that families were provided with raw food, like bags of rice and flour, instead of the boxed meals “so not only our children eat, but we can too.”

But Wulan reasoned that the quality of nutrition for the children would not improve if families were provided with the raw ingredients to cook. “You need at least Rp 100,000 to get fresh food in terms of good nutritional value,” she said.

“It is a valid argument that an entire family can eat if they are provided with raw materials, but I have to pick my battles. My main priority is the children, to give them a better future.”



For more information, or to make a donation to Nasi Bergizi, log on to www.facebook.com/berinasibergizi.
Dear readers, this is the last Hidden Voices column. Thank you for your support for the causes that have been featured here. This is not goodbye, however, as we will continue to write about important causes and issues.



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