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East Nusa Tenggara is one of the poorest provinces in Indonesia. Malnutrition affects many people, especially women and young children. Children here are often too skinny and too short for their age. Worm infestation, anemia, coughing and diarrhea are common among babies and young children.

The long-term impact of malnutrition on human development can be devastating. When children are badly nourished during their first two years, it impacts their long-term health, educational achievement and productivity for the rest of their lives.

The country’s regional and national governments, assisted by development agencies, have dedicated a large amount of resources to overcoming the problem of malnutrition. While programs implemented by these agencies have helped, many of the poorest people still don’t get enough of the right food to eat.

Without any funding or assistance from outside agencies, a highly motivated midwife named Maria K’lau has established a community kitchen program, or pos gizi, for underweight, malnourished children in Uabau, Laenmanen, a small village in West Timor. Under her supervision, mothers and other caregivers of malnourished children bring whatever food they have available in their houses to the pos gizi. The food is cooked communally and distributed to the children, who eat under the supervision of the community volunteer health workers.

With the contributions of foodstuffs from different households, the children receive a more varied diet than if they ate at home. Also, if one household has an acute shortage on a particular day, the shortfall can be covered by another one with a surplus.

Usually the pos gizi program is conducted for 12 consecutive days each month and is limited to 12 children in each cycle. Children are encouraged to remain in the program until they “graduate,” or until their weight for their age rises into the acceptable range. The communal kitchen has been successful in this particular village, probably because of Maria’s exceptional dedication and enthusiasm. Around 80 percent of children who take part put on enough weight to graduate within two months.

However, it has not been easy to replicate the system on a wide scale. Out of 36 communal kitchens that have been established throughout the district of Belu in East Nusa Tenggara, only 14 are still operating. Agatha Ni’is, whose own child was malnourished, is a volunteer health care worker in the village. Celestra Koy, whose child also suffered from malnutrition, lives in an area where no community kitchen program operates.

Agatha Ni’is: A community volunteer health worker’s story

Everyone in the community kitchen program just brings whatever food they have in the house. We cook it together and share it among the children.

Before the kids eat, we get in a circle and sing a song about washing hands while each kid washes their hands with soap and then dries them off properly.

I bring a few eggs and vegetables. The mothers just bring whatever they grow in the garden. The only thing that we eat that we don’t grow ourselves is rice. The land around here is too dry to be good for rice, so most people grow corn. If nobody brings rice, we use corn instead.

It doesn’t matter if some families can’t contribute as much as others, so long as everyone tries to do their best. The women don’t look and judge other people’s contributions, but some people are embarrassed if they can’t bring anything at all. Usually, at the very least, they can bring a couple of sweet potatoes. But people are proud if they can bring something special: A few women pooled together once to contribute a chicken as a special treat. We divided it among 12 children, but they all got a taste. We don’t often eat meat. Eggs are the main source of protein. Today, each kid is getting one quarter of an egg.

Celestra Koy: The story of the mother of a malnourished child

My son’s name is Antonius. He’s three years old. He’s gone down to 6.7 kilos now. When he got out of the hospital for children with severe acute malnutrition, he was up to 9.7 kilos. He was there for about two weeks. Before he went in, he was coughing and had diarrhea. When he came out, his cheeks were fat and he could walk well. But he’s lost weight again and the diarrhea has returned.

I work in fields about an hour’s walk from here. My husband works in the fields, too. I get paid Rp 20,000 ($2.20) a day. I can’t take Antonius with me when I work. I leave him with his older sister to look after him. She’s eight years old and doesn’t go to school. We can’t afford to send her. The older sister makes sure the younger ones eat.

I cook rice or crushed corn and leave it on the table for the kids to eat. I buy a kilo of rice a day for me, my husband and the three children. The cheapest rice costs Rp 5,000 per kilogram. Corn is cheaper. We buy corn when we don’t have enough money for rice. Sometimes we have vegetables with the rice, but today it’s just plain rice with salt. Yesterday we just had plain rice, too. We don’t have enough land to keep a vegetable garden, but the neighbors let us grow some vegetables on the edge of their land.

When Antonius was just born, I breast-fed him. I took him to the fields with me then. I took his older sister along with me to look after him while I was working and took breaks to feed him. When he was four months old, I began to leave him at home. I breast-fed him in the morning and then left him a bottle of sweet tea. His sister made sure that he drank it. Then I breast-fed him again when I got home. Once or twice the community health center gave me some milk for the baby, but they say they don’t have funds for it now.

What would I like the government to do for us? I don’t know. We need rice and milk.

This story first appeared in Invisible People: Poverty and Empowerment in Indonesia, published by the PNPM Support Facility, a multi-donor partnership with the Government of Indonesia for reducing poverty through community action. The Health Agency of Belu District helped facilitate the interviews with the subjects.