YKB's office in Jakarta

The MCH clinics and laboratory run by Yayasan Kusuma Buana (YKB), an Indonesian NGO established in 1980, target middle-lower income families in densely populated urban poor areas in Jakarta City. The areas suffer from poor sanitation and environmental conditions.

A survey conducted by YKB in 1986 found that the prevalence rate of soil-transmitted helminth infection in one primary school was around 80 %. In 1987, YKB started a school-based, soil-transmitted helminth control program with health education on a fee-charging basis, based on successful models implemented in Japan, Korea and China.

From 1987 to 1991, YKB received technical assistance for laboratory examinations and management from the Japan Association of Parasite Control and financial assistance from JOICFP.

Winning the community's trust, YKB has now expanded to cover 772 primary schools, or 22% of the total in Jakarta in collaboration with the Jakarta City Administration. By any organization's standards, this is a big achievement, and soil-transmitted helminth infection rates decreased to as low as 8.0% in 2004.

Soil-transmitted helminth control central laboratory

While rural poor are often, and deservedly, the target of development programs, with the rapid urbanization that is occurring in many parts of the world, poor urban dwellers come to lack health services. It is estimated that migration is increasing Jakarta's population from 200 - 250 thousand a year.

Although YKB charges for its services, it is still chosen by underprivileged people as services are friendly and of high quality, and the price charged by YKB for a parasitic examination has not changed since 1987, remaining at 1,000 Rp (US$0.1). Recognizing YKB's significant contributions and future potential as a partner for effective school health and maternal & child health program development among the urban poor, Jakarta City Office provided US$ 25,000 to assist YKB's activities from 2005.

Not only does YKB now have the managerial and financial capacity to sustain services and not be a burden on the government or donors, but also it provides cover that the government is unable to do due to financial and personnel constraints. Furthermore, YKB is actively training other NGOs to follow its footsteps.

In addition to soil-transmitted helminth control laboratories, the clinics contain maternal and child health facilities, and YKB is now looking to expand more school and occupational health services, including anemia checks, pap smears, and blood and urine analysis.

Family Health Clinic in Jakarta

Corporate customers

Delivering health care to the private sector is an important part of YKB's activities. It provides health checks to private organizations, including large factories and major international companies. Businesses are willing to pay for this as healthy workers translate into increased productivity.

The spirit of the late Kunii

It was through collaboration with JOICFP that YKB was first able to implement its soil-transmitted helminth control activities. JOICFP can show YKB as an example of a financially self-reliant urban-type NGO, and on which can be replicated in other areas.

The aim of JOICFP's founder, the late Chojiro Kunii, was to assist people meet their own health care needs in cooperation with academia, administrative bodies and the private sector. YKB is carrying out this mission, reinvesting its returns in providing more and better services.