The Time Bomb in the Sago Barn...
The money expected by Elias was the direct cash aid related to the Covid-19 pandemic worth Rp 1.2 million.
Residents of the villages of As and Atat, Pulau Tiga District, Asmat, Papua, let their neighbors go who wanted to chop sago in the customary forest, Thursday (14/10/2021).
The body of Yohakim Bes was limp. The belly of the three-year-old was distended and his ribs protruded from under the skin. He was groaning in pain while defecating on the side of a plank pathway in Er village, Asmat regency, Papua province.
We met Yohakim in Er village, Sawaerma district, Asmat, in early October 2021. Yohakim was being carried by his father, Elias Besap, 25. Suddenly Yohakim cried as he felt the urge for a bowel movement.
Elias then held Yohakim’s body to help him defecate in a muddy bog along the side of the village pathway. The Er village track, like most village roads in Asmat, takes the form of wooden planks constructed on muddy marshland.
Thereafter, Elias took Yohakim back home. Their stilted house, approximately 2 meters high, is beginning to lean to one side. Its walls and roof are built from dried sago palm leaves.
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In the 12 sq. m house there is a stove. There are no room partitions, let alone doors.
Its floor planks have gaps as a result of decomposition and their random arrangement. The children of Elias have several times slid into the holes when scrambling to seize biscuits or instant noodle seasonings.
When we met with Elias, Yohakim continually cried. After a while, Yohakim asked his father to be let go. Yohakim’s little feet stepped very slowly, he wobbled at times. “To be frank, when he is sick he doesn’t want to eat, refusing the sago offered. He likes rice and noodles. Yet he only wants them in porridge form,” said Elias.
Later he revealed one of the reasons why Yohakim was sobbing. We noticed a red fleshy lump protruding from Yohakim’s anus.
Residents of the villages of As and Atat, Pulau Tiga District, Asmat, Papua, take turns shearing sago in their customary forest, Thursday (14/10/2021).
After finding out the cause, we tried to persuade Elias to take Yohakim to a community health center. We even offered to accompany them aboard a speedboat, but Elias declined this on several grounds. “I’m waiting for my rights [to government aid] first,” he said.
Awaiting aid
The money expected by Elias was the direct cash aid related to the Covid-19 pandemic worth Rp 1.2 million. Most of the money was used to repay debts while the remainder was spent on coffee, sugar, rice and instant noodles to meet his family’s basic needs. Elias was indebted for the purchase of the necessities.
Elias has no job and only occasionally scrapes sago. As his family has become dependent on rice and instant food, Elias more often relies on aid. “When [instant] noodles are available, the children scramble for them,” said Elias.
Besides Yohakim, Elias has seven other children. One of them has died. Two others live with his older brother, Rofus Demetok, 37.
In Er village, like in the other Asmat villages, the sight of children eating instant noodles directly from the pack is a common one. They also drink water directly from rivers, where people also wash clothes and defecate.
We left Er village because we had to proceed to other locations in Asmat. After a week, we departed for Agats, the center of Asmat regency.
It turned out that Yohakim was to be treated in the Regional General Hospital (RSUD) in Agats after being referred to it by the Sawaerma community health center four days earlier.
Arriving in Agats, called the “City of a Thousand Planks”, we again met with Elias. He was carrying Yohakim, who was drooping weakly. It turned out that Yohakim was to be treated in the Regional General Hospital (RSUD) in Agats after being referred to it by the Sawaerma community health center four days earlier.
As a result of his examination, Yohakim was diagnosed with a rectal prolapse, tuberculosis and malnutrition as well as symptoms of anemia. His doctor and nurse were amazed to see that emaciated Yohakim was still capable of walking and talking in spite of his abnormal blood pressure. For at least three days, Yohakim received intensive care. “The doctor has given him milk,” said Elias briefly.
Abraham Jip, a resident of Atat Village, Pulau Tiga District, Asmat, Papua, gives roasted sago, the product of roasting in the forest, to his guests, Thursday (14/10/2021). Coconut meat is a friend to eat the grilled sago..
In RSUD Agats, Yohakim was treated in a ward he shared with a number of child patients, one of whom also suffered from poor nutrition and anemia.
Recurrent cases
Poor nutrition in Asmat is a frequent occurrence, especially among children. In early 2018, malnutrition cases in Asmat were described as a health disaster. There were 71 child deaths from malnutrition. A total of 627 cases of malnutrition and undernourishment were recorded during the period September 2017-January 2018 (Kompas, 29 January 2018).
Despite the substantial aid provided for Asmat at the time along with several programs, the main cause of the problem has not yet been addressed. Consequently, malnutrition cases in Asmat continue to recur.
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Based on data from the Asmat Health Office, 15 children died in a poor nutritional state in the period of January-August 2021, up from seven children in 2020. All the patients died due to comorbidities.
RSUD Agats director Yenny Yokung Yong said many factors caused the malnutrition affecting the patients admitted to the hospital. One of them is the lack of basic knowledge about healthy living and children’s nutritional intake. “There was the case of a child that refused plain milk for nutritional improvement, even getting irritable. The mother gave coffee instead to comfort the child,” said Yenny.
Such a living pattern later induces various illnesses other than malnutrition. In 2021 RSUD Agats listed many patients suffering from extreme diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria.
Parental awareness about getting their undernourished children examined is also still low. According to Yenny, no parents come to the Agats hospital with complaints about their children’s poor nutrition. Cases of malnutrition are only discovered when patients come with other complaints.
This area accounts for around 20 percent of the total sago zone in Papua province.
Ironically, this malnutrition prevails in a region known as the sago barn. There is the potential for 1.4 million hectares of sago cultivation in Asmat, equivalent to almost twice the size of the island of Bali. This area accounts for around 20 percent of the total sago zone in Papua province.
With reference to the data from the Asmat Food Crop and Agriculture Office, of the potential 1.4 million ha of sago in Asmat, only 4,255.5 ha of the sago land is managed by local people and only 2,122.5 ha is harvested with a total output of 10,612 tons in 2020.
“We acquaint them with vegetables and fruits. The church also provides a lot of seedlings,” said head of the Asmat Food Crop and Agriculture Office, Muhammad Iqbal.
Papua Expedition section #4 Residents of Atat Village, Pulau Tiga District, Asmat, Papua, are roasting the sago they get from shaving in the forest, Thursday (14/10/2021).
Since the malnutrition misfortune of early 2018, various efforts have been made by the regional administration, diocese and other institutions in Asmat, covering examinations, the provision of extra food like milk and eggs, and the introduction of crop planting methods to residents.
The traditional community’s consumption pattern, which depends on rice and instant food from outside Asmat, as well as the poor awareness of healthy living, means malnutrition is a continual threat, like a time bomb. This is an irony, in a village of sago collectors living close to a sago barn.
(This article was translated by Aris Prawira).
