Cikarang, W Java (ANTARA News) - Due to her parents` poverty, seven-year-old Puji Astuti has been malnourished since eight months ago.

The daughter of Suryadi, 26, and Liah, 26, residents of Jati Mulya village, Tambun Selatan sub-district, Bekasi district, West Java, only had a body weight of 10 kilograms.

Suryadi said he was deeply concerned about his daughter`s malnourished condition.

"Now, she cannot even digest food normally," he told ANTARA who visited him at his house on Saturday.

Puji Astuti looked weak and had difficulty moving her body while lying on her bed.

He said her physical growth was abnormal and her mother needed a few hours to feed her with simple porridge and powdered milk every day since her early age.

"Her mother has started giving her rice with simple side dishes since a few months ago," he said.

Due to her family`s economic condition, Puji was not brought to a clinic or hospital. Instead, she just underwent non-medical treatment once every three months.

"We cannot afford to have her terated in a hospital." Suryadi said.

Meanwhile, Liah said many of her neighbors were helping her family by donating some money to pay her daughter`s non-medical treatment bills.

To support themelves and their daughter, Liah and her husband work as a vegetable vendors. If they got many buyers, they could earn Rp50,000 - Rp100,000 a day, Liah said.

Head of Jati Mulya village, H.Ropi, said he had provided the Suryadi family with a poverty letter and promised to pay Puji Astuti`s medical treatment at Bekasi Public Hospital.

Puji Astuti is just one of millions of malnourished children in Indonesia.

According to World Vision Indonesia, a non-governmental organization which plays an
active role in fighting malnutrition, more than five million Indonesian children are malnourished.

It said the malnutrition was an "iceberg phenomenon" in which the number of minor, moderate, and serious malnourished children is often far higher than those seen on television.(*)

Editor: Jafar M Sidik
COPYRIGHT © 2012

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