*** Indonesia public health








Indonesian Public Health

Indonesian public health
Figure 1.--Infant mortality was a huge problem in developing countries. United Nations agencies have helped to reduce the infant mortality rate in the newly independent countries. An approach pursued by UNICEF was to promote birth attendants with basic health training. The UNICF caption of this 1965 photograph read, "Wajan Redet, the birth attendant of the Balinese village of Seatsa, relaxes by reading a story to his grandchildren from Bali script on narrow bamboo strips. Balinese reciord traditinl stories on bamboo because it does not deteriorate in heat and humidity. In ten years more than 2,000 centers have been added opened by Indonesioa's Department of Maternal and Child Welfare, a large number of which have been equipped by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Training programs have included 2,000 traditional village birth attendants -dukuna - who are taught simple fcts about hygiene and modern birth procedures. Almost unique in the wold, Balinese 'midwives' are mostly men. One is shown here on the on the island of Bali. The World Health Organization (WHO) sends personnel to counsel them: UNICEF provides training equipment, including the familiar midwife kits." Photographer Jack Ling.

We are not sure yet just where to archive public health information. It has ramifications in several major areas, including economics, history (colonialism), science, and education among others. Until modern times there were no such thing as public health although some ancient civilizations did have running water. Public health systems began in Europe as science developed there and began to learn about disease and health. We know very little about public health in the Dutch East Indies. The sciebntific progress that lead to health advances were a European development. The Indonesians yhemdelves had no modrn technological capacity. The Dutch emerged as the principal colonial power, vying primarily with the Portuguese (17th century). As far aw we know, the Dutch made no sbnstantial effort in the area of public health except prsumably in the areas where the Dutch themsleves lived, albeit we have vurtually no information. They much have opened hospitals in the cities, but we have no information on just what access Indonesians had to the Dutch hospitals. The first major steps the Dutch colonial government took in the area of public health occurred as part of the new Ethical Policy which was designed to promote the welfare of the Indonesian people in health, education, and other areas (1901). We have little infirmation on wht steps were taken in public health, but the program was not well funded. And with the Great Depression, the program was essentially ended (1930s). Major efforts were not made until after World War II and the Indeopendence War (1940s). The new United Nations sponsored a range of programs to help the newly independent countries build public health systems. Building a public education system helped lay the foundation for a public health system. And the develooment of the oil industry provided the funds to finance it.







CIH





Navigate the Children in History Websites:
[About Us]
[Introduction] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Climatology] [Clothing] [Disease and Health] [Economics] [Freedom] [Geography] [History] [Human Nature] [Ideology] [Law]
[Nationalism] [Presidents] [Religion] [Royalty] [Science] [Social Class]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Children in History Home]



Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing national pages:
[Return to the Main Indonesian page]
[Return to the Main Oceania economy page]
[Return to the Main countries page]
[Australia] [Belgium] [China] [England] [France] [Germany] [Ireland] [Italy] [Japan] [Korea]
[Malaysia] [Mexico] [The Netherlands] [Portugal] [Scotland] [Spain] [United States]




Created: 6:58 PM 11/5/2018
Last updated: 6:58 PM 11/5/2018