Bringing Up Babies

The health of mother and child—an important agenda of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals—remains a serious problem in parts of Indonesia. East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province is one area with the biggest difficulty: its human development index is one of the lowest in Indonesia. And no wonder, it has the highest rate of malnutrition among infants under 5 in the country. The numbers of required midwives are far from adequate. In remote areas, only midwives can do the job of ensuring good health to mother and child. Yet, the people of NTT found ways to overcome obstacles, from working together on manning village nutrition posts to providing midwives with motorcycles to ensure rapid mobility. But for how long can such efforts be sustained? Tempo English reports from NTT.