UNICEF Indonesia launches Tinju Tinja Campaign to knock out open defecation

Melanie Subono and Aidan Cronin launches the Tinju Tinja campaign in Jakarta during World Toilet Day (19/11/2014)

JAKARTA 24 November 2014 – UNICEF Indonesia, and local rock star and humanitarian activist Melanie Subono are taking the fight against open defecation to the boxing ring through a multi-media campaign called Tinju Tinja (“Punch the Poo”), launched on World Toilet Day.

Largely conducted on social media, this campaign aims to inform and raise awareness about the health implications of such practice, as well as creating a sense of urgency to end open defecation in Indonesia in a new, innovative way. 

During the launch UNICEF revealed that, based on the Joint Monitoring Program report (2014), published by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), 55 million people in Indonesia practice open defecation, making it the second highest number in the world after India.

Indonesia and UNCRC: 25 years of progress and challenges.

A note from an activist-researcher.

Irwanto, Ph.D.

Professor, Faculty of Psychology - Atma Jaya Catholic University

Co-director, Center on Child Protection - Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, University of Indonesia

Indonesia has made significant progress to implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in the past two decades but serious challenges remain. To understand what has been achieved and the remaining and emerging challenges, let us walk through the CRC’s history in Indonesia.

The UNCRC was ratified by the Republic of Indonesia on 5 September 1990. The ratification, however, was performed in an ad hoc and pragmatic manner to avoid difficult political hurdles in the House of Parliament Although unusual, the decision to ratify the Convention by a Presidential Decree (number 36, 1990) was accepted by the United Nations (UN)

Moreover, the ratification was performed under the condition that the CRC and its principles were consistent with the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia from 1945 which meant ratification with a number of reservations. These reservations were subsequently withdrawn in 2005.

“The bed net saves my life”

By Ermi Ndoen - Health (Malaria/EPID) Officer

 Sumba Island, Indonesia, October 2014 - Martinus Lende Walu (48) counts himself lucky. Once he could have died from malaria, like two of his neighbours, but he survived. Since then he decided to not take a chance and to stay safe with the help of an insecticide-treated bed net (ITN).

His village Langgar Kampong is one of the many remarkable “stone-age” villages on Sumba Island, in Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province. It is home to some 200 people who live in 13 big traditional houses that surround megalithic tombs, each tomb belonging to a group of families. 

Travellers are drawn to Sumba Island for the houses, the megalithic tombs, the hand-woven ikat fabric, the pasola or traditional spears and horse competitions, as well as its scenic sandy beach.  But all these are overshadowed by the island’s high malaria incidence.