Dewi’s Story: Inside A Papuan Brothel

By Nick Baker, Communication and Knowledge Management Officer

Dewi lives and works in a Timika brothel. ©UNICEF Indonesia/2015/Nick Baker

Timika is a small, dirty city in the frontier province of Papua. It sits in the shadow of the world’s largest gold mine, Freeport. But the vast riches that lie a matter of miles away have little impact on the lives of most people here.

The region struggles with high levels of poverty. Many families rely entirely on fishing or other agrarian sources of income. Jobs are often scarce and opportunities few. For some young girls, there is only one way to make a viable living.

“I’ve been working in a brothel for about three months,” Dewi says*. The teenager now lives in one of the dingier brothels just outside Timika. It caters for working class men from surrounding villages. Clients are “truckers, miners and military men.”

Discovering Papua: a field diary

Rafael Klavert - Digital Communication Officer

Last month, I was assigned to a small group that would travel to Papua and West Papua in order to write stories about the impact of UNICEF's programs there.

"Finally!", I thought to myself.

I have always been strangely fascinated by Papua. Located in Indonesia's easternmost region, it's a land of largely unspoiled natural beauty, inhabited by several indigenous tribes who still choose to live the "old" ways.

But it also comes with its own share of problems. Papuans live in one of the hardest-to-reach areas in the world, so it's of little surprise that their health and educations standards are often much worse compared to other provinces.

What better place is there to observe UNICEF's work and impacts in Indonesia?

Skills for life: teaching young people in Papua about HIV

Yumelina with volunteer educator Nira in the Baliem valley
© UNICEF Indonesia/2014/Andy Brown

Yumelina Tabuni is a confident and outgoing 13-year-old girl. She lives with her family in a small village in the Baliem valley, a remote mountainous area of Papua. Every week she attends a life skills session, where young people learn how to protect themselves from HIV and AIDS.

“I didn’t understand what HIV was and why people died from it. I wanted to learn more,” Yumelina says. “Now I know how HIV is transmitted – through sex, needles and blood transfusion – and also how it is not transmitted. We’ve been taught about condoms and how to protect ourselves from HIV. I’m happy that I have this knowledge.”

Markus and his honai – The rough road to secondary education in Papua province

By Michael Klaus, UNICEF Indonesia

Markus left his village at the age of 14
to enroll in secondary school.
© UNICEF Indonesia/2013/Klaus

Megapura in Papua Province, Indonesia, July 2013 – It has been four years that Markus last saw his parents, and it will at least be another one until he may be able to go back home again to his village Kalbok - a 10-day walk away in the highlands of Papua province. The 18 year old is in 12th grade and he knows he would not be in school today had he stayed home. 

Markus has grown a lot during these four years, and he now is the leader of his honai in Megapura, a big traditional hut that serves as a boarding home for 50 adolescents and young adults. They all visit either a secondary school or a professional training institution in nearby Wamena, in the heart of Papua province in Indonesia’s Far East.

“The Highland districts in Papua have the worst child indicators of the whole country,” explains Margaret Sheehan, Chief of the UNICEF Field Office that covers both Papua and West Papua. More than 120 out of every 1,000 children die in their first five years of life, more than three times the national average. Only a third of the population has access to safe water and less than one in four can use a latrine.