Docs help compile data on malnourished orang asli children

GOMBAK: A team of doctors that has tended to orang asli in remote areas is coming up with preliminary data on malnourished children to help in their rehabilitation, says Dr Lee Boon Chye.

The Deputy Health Minister said these children often stopped school due to various reasons and subsequently, the authorities found it hard to trace them for their nutritional needs.

“The ministry has nutrition programmes at schools that cover needy orang asli children.

“Their nourishment becomes an issue when they drop out of school.

“It is important to prevent this from further happening to the orang asli children,” he said after flagging off teams of medical practitioners and volunteers for medical outreach camps for the orang asli in the remote areas of Pahang, Kelantan, Perak and Selangor at the Gombak Orang Asli Hospital here yesterday.

Dubbed DRsforALL by the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners’ Associations Malaysia, the teams will provide medical and healthcare services to the community, including training orang asli volunteers in basic medical and emergency knowledge.

Dr Lee said the issue was brought to the ministry’s attention by several doctors from Ipoh who had provided medical services to orang asli in different remote areas.

“We know that so far, a number of the children dropped out of school mostly due to inaccessibility, remoteness and other reasons.

“We want to overcome that and that’s why we are collecting the information now,” he said, adding this effort would require cooperation from other parties such as the Education Ministry and the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa).

The effort is part of the Health Ministry’s ongoing food aid programme for the Rehabilitation of Child Malnutrition Programme (PPKZM) launched in 1989 to ensure children aged between six months and five years are not malnourished.

“We certainly need more outreach with the orang asli community. At the end of the day, it’s not just about providing nutrition but also looking at providing continuous education to the children and support to other aspects of their lives,” he said.