Narrative Script

Background Information
West Kalimantan, one of the five Indonesian provinces in Kalimantan, holds a population
of about 4,396,000 (2010 census) and includes ethnic groups such as the Dayak, Malay, Chinese,
Javanese, Bugis, and Madurese. Because of this, West Kalimantan holds a unique people with
even more unique lifestyles. It is these lifestyles that interest us, specifically the regions poverty
and health. These are the two main topics that we enquired into during this IDU. We investigated
more upon West Kalimantans poverty and health in mainly three places: Pontianak,
Singkawang, and Monterado.
Pontianak, West Kalimantans capital, is a large multicultural trading port city and
occupies an area of 107.82 km in the delta of the Kapuas River. The 2010 census enumerated
Pontianak's population at 554,764 consisting mostly of Chinese. Pontianak was founded on 23
October 1771 by Syarif Abdurrahman Alkadrie to be the central government of the Pontianak
Sultanate. From there, it has evolved into the beautiful Pontianak seen today.
Singkawang is a city located 145 km north of Pontianak, surrounded by the Pasi, Poteng,
and Sakok mountains. According to the 2014 Census, the population of Singkawang is 192,844,
most of which are of Chinese descents. Singkawang has a diverse history, as it was once a city of
temples where the Chinese worshipped at, a Roman Catholic main station, and a permanent
residence of Roman Catholic clergy.
Monterado is a sub-district in the area of Bengkawang, close to the city of Singkawang. It
was founded in 1775, long before Indonesias independence. It was founded by the Chinese for
the gold mines there. It uniquely was its own republic once, and even though it was rich in gold
mines, it is still a regular village even until now.
Knowing these facts, we can delve deeper into the state of poverty and health in these
areas.

State of Poverty and Health in West Kalimantan

Poverty and health go hand-in-hand as we talk about them. Poverty results in poor health,
and by knowing this, we can make an estimate of the peoples deprivation through seeing their

nutrition. Here are the results from our health survey that we took at SMP Immanuel (Pontianak)
and SMPN 1 Monterado (Monterado):
Table 1

Comparison between Schools

Schools

Total Average of
Calories

Total Average of
Fats

Total Average of
Proteins

SMP Immanuel

937.438 calories

56.254g

42.785g

SMPN 1 Monterado

920.635 calories

10.106g

43.142g

Table 1 shows that SMP Immanuel and SMPN 1 Monterado have relatively the same amount of
calories+proteins intake but have a diverse fat intake. The difference of calories is about 17
calories, the difference of fats is about 46g, and the difference of proteins is about 1g.
Table 2

Comparison to Recommended Amounts

Variables

Total Average of
Calories

Total Average of
Fats

Total Average of
Proteins

SMP Immanuel

937.438 calories

56.254g

42.785g

SMPN 1 Monterado

920.635 calories

10.106g

43.142g

SMP
Immanuel+SMPN 1
Monterado

929.036 calories

33.180g

42.964g

Recommended
Amounts

1,800-2,400 calories

50g-70g

46g-52g

Table 2 shows that the people taking the survey mostly do not reach the required amounts of
calories, fats, and proteins. The amount of calorie intake drastically differs between the schools
amount and the recommended amount (the recommended amount is almost twice as much as the
schools intake amount). Also, although SMP Immanuel has reached the fat requirement intake of

at least 50g, SMPN 1 Monterado is drastically 40g short of the recommended amount. They are
also a bit short of 4g-6g of protein of the recommended amount.

Government Activities Used to Help Reduce Poverty and Increase Public

Health
There are multiple programs created by the government to cope with poverty in
Indonesia. These programs are mostly implemented in villages around West Kalimantan, such as
the Monterado area, where we visited. The programs utilised there are:
-

Health Programs
- JAMKESMAS or Jaminan Kesehatan Masyarakat: Ensures that
poor citizens would receive free health care from Puskesmas, and selected
hospitals. Citizens would need to apply for JAMKESMAS, and they would be
evaluated by officials.
- JAMKESDA or Jaminan Kesehatan Daerah: Citizens would pay
either 25.500, 42.500, or 55.500 to the government. Using the money stored, the
government would be able to help out the paying citizens cope with medical fees.
- These programs has made a change in Monterado. With these
programs in place, the local Puskesmas received more patients, since these

programs help the citizens cope with medical needs.

Poverty Programs
- RASKIN or Beras untuk Rumah Tangga Miskin: A government
program which provides poor families with rice monthly. It is used in Monterado.
- PNPM or Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat: A
program which helps citizens with their business. This programs help poor
business owners to expand their business. There are two types of this program, the
PNPM Lingkungan Mandiri Perdesaan and PNPM Mandiri Infrastruktur
Perdesaan. The PNPM program is now replaced with PNPM GSC. GSC stands
for Generasi Sehat Cerdas. It is used in Monterado.
- BOS or Program Bantuan Operasional Sekolah: The BOS program
helps with poor students in school. This program alleviates the burden that poor
families might suffer when sending their children to school. This program can
help by providing necessary materials that the student needs for school. The
government gives money to the school for them to be able to buy the students

such materials, and for them to be able to replace broken materials in school. The
money given is based on the number of students in the school. This program is
utilised in the SMPN 1 Monterado.
- BSM or Program Bantuan Siswa Miskin: This program gives
money to poor students to help them pay for school. Each grade student may
apply, and they will be evaluated. It is used in SMP 1 Monterado, and in SMP
Immanuel in limited quantities.
- BSP or Program Bea Siswa Prestasi: A program created by the
government for students with good achievements in school by helping them with
college. This program is used in SMP Monterado.

Analysis
Seen from the data we collected from SMP Immanuel and SMPN 1 Monterado, we can
conclude that the state of health is below average. The amount of intake of calories, fats, and
proteins are drastically lower than the recommended amounts. Their intake of calories is
especially low, as the recommended amounts are almost double their intake presently. The intake
of fats from SPMN 1 Monterado are 5 times less than the recommended amount, but SMP
Immanuels fat intake manages to reach the minimum of the recommended amounts. The intake
of proteins are around 4g short of the recommended amounts. This all proves that the health state
in these schools are quite poor.
There are several reasons to this that leads to our knowing of the state of poverty. First,
the people taking the survey may not care about their health, which might be why they have such
poor state of health. This can be true with SMP Immanuel, as they are situated in Pontianak, a
moderately rich city; the people taking the survey are not very poor, and so they believe they can
eat whatever they want. However, for SMPN 1 Monterado the conditions are different, as the
students there are not moderately rich. We know this from the other questionnaires we asked the
locals, where we found out that the town is quite rural and less fortunate than Pontianak, as they
have no consistent electricity, no access to clean water, and have different government programs
to support their living like RASKIN. This leads to the suggestion that their state of poverty is
quite bad that they are struggling to have enough food to eat, which might be the reason why
their state of health is so low.

With this in mind, we can then identify that the state of poverty in Monterado is quite
poor, as they have a poor state of health, inconsistent electricity, no access to clean water, and
have various government programs to aid their living. However, we discovered something
shocking when the locals explained that most of the government programs that were meant to
support were not active. From our interviews, we found out that only the government program of
RASKIN was active and that it was only partially active. The other programs of JAMKESMAS,
JAMKESDA, and PNPM were not active in Monterado, the locals said. Therefore, the ignoring
of central government policy affects the nutritional health of those in poverty; with several of the
government programs inactive, the people living in poverty could live to their full advantage.
Because the RASKIN program, which was made to supply rice to the locals, was not active most
of the time, the people had to live without a supplement of rice, which causes the lack in
nutritional health. A lack in nutritional health may cause several consequences such as tendency
to be more sick, a less vivacious system, a poor developing body (especially for young people),
and a less capable immune system. These consequences might pose a problem to the puskesmas,
or local health center, and if the government programs are not active at the puskesmas, the people
might get even more sick. This ignoring of central government policy might set off a chain
reaction that might evolve into a national threat in the future, as more people might be in further
poverty and in poorer health conditions.

Response as a Christian Believer

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger
now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. -Luke 6:20-21
Even though poverty might not be such an optimistic thing to think about, God states in Luke
6:20-21 that poor people inherit something that rich people cannot. A poor person is special in
Gods eyes, as seen in the verses; God cares for both the poor and the rich. He understands that
the life of the poor person is rough, and He comforts them with these verses. Just as God cares
about a poor person, so should we Christian believers care for them as well.

References
West Kalimantan. Wonderful Indonesia. Ministry of Tourism, Republic of Indonesia, n.d.
Web. 24 Mar. 2016. <http://www.indonesia.travel/destinations/destination/38/kalimantanbarat>.
Pontianak. Wonderful Indonesia. Ministry of Tourism, Republic of Indonesia, n.d. Web. 24
Mar. 2016. <http://www.indonesia.travel/sites/site/583/pontianak>.
Singkawang, City of a Thousand Chinese Temples. Wonderful Indonesia. Ministry of
Tourism, Republic of Indonesia, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.
<http://www.indonesia.travel/sites/site/586/singkawang>.
Manterado. Kidnesia. Kompas Gramedia, 13 Jun. 2015. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.
<http://www.kidnesia.com/Kidnesia2014/Indonesiaku/Jalan-Jalan/Manterado>.