Indigenous tribes; especially nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes living in the interior of a region, have been adopted as beneficiaries by many foundations, nonprofits and international committees, throughout the decades. From the YMCAs to the UN, the intent of providing them education and cultural funding helps these tribes to eventually thrive on their own. Programs like these were focusing on helping the tribes, especially for the semi-nomadic to reconfigure the sustainability of their health consistently while living within their vulnerable environment is rare, therefore necessary.
According to Candid.org, in the United States from 2002 to 2016 over 15 years, U.S. foundations had given an average of 0.4 per cent from total funding to Native American communities and causes. On average, 20 percent of large U.S. funders award grants explicitly designated to benefit Native American communities and causes with more than a quarter of grant dollars channelled towards culture and arts at 28 per cent, followed by education at 24 per cent and more specifically health at 17 per cent.
Back in Malaysia, the philanthropic trend of indigenous funding and support has been slowly growing. Although the Malaysian Government has been providing the Programme for the Rehabilitation of Malnourished Children (PPKZM) or Program Pemulihan Kanak-kanak Kekurangan Zat Makanan with its Community Feeding Program since 2013, it has only been providing supplementary food and food baskets to the tribes.
In context, however, the Program Pemulihan Kanak-Kanak Kekurangan Zat Makanan (PPKZM) was launched in 1989 as an effort by the government to improve the level of food consumption of children aged 6 months to 6 years from poor families, this category would include families from the indigenous tribes of the Malaysian Peninsula. With the establishment of the Community Feeding Program in 2013 in select Peninsula states, it was officially acknowledged and funded for under Program Transformasi Kerajaan (GTP 2.0) National Key Result Area – Low Income Household (NKRA-LIH) Orang Asli with an allocation of RM255.9 million and included the Ready To Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) activities and food basket supplements. From this program, a total of 213, 558 children from the ages of 6months to 6 years old that were from hardcore poor has benefited from the Government’s food basket projects under the PPKZM Community Feeding Program, with the percentage of 8.5% from 1994 to 53.7% in 2015 children reported recovering successfully from the program.
However, a correspondence article on BMC Public Health made clear on studies reporting that childhood undernutrition among the indigenous in the Peninsular Malaysia Orang Asli is relatively high at 43-86% resulting in stunting being more prevalent than underweight among the children, while overweight and obese problems at approximately 10–50% of adults in sub-tribes. Quoting the article written by Geok Lin Khor and Zalilah Mohd Shariff, ~Anaemia indicative of iron deficiency and helminthic infestation is also an age-old nutritional problem affecting the Orang Asli. In general, short maternal stature, low birth weight, prematurity, low dietary diversity, parasitic infections, inadequate sanitation and hygiene are among the major prenatal and postnatal determinants of undernutrition among the Orang Asli children.”
Adding to that, under Section 14 and Section 15 of the Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954 or Act 134, Individuals, groups or non-governmental organisations (NGOs) must get a permit from the Department of Orang Asli Development (JAKOA) before organising any community service programme or sending aid to Orang Asli settlements. This puts organisations on a deadlock or a bottleneck as they rush to provide for the Orang Asli communities, most especially during this pandemic.
Therefore, the measured impact on the improvement of childhood nutritional health and sustainable growth depends on the Department of Orang Asli Development (JAKOA) and the Programme for the Rehabilitation of Malnourished Children (PPKZM) as much as it depends on the nonprofit foundations eager to provide for each tribe’s family socioeconomics and sustainable health, where they were also duly refereed to the government agencies and organisations that were collaborating with the program for these tribes to receive health education and community tools when it comes to areas outside the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health.
One good example to reverse and take action this unsustainable condition among the semi-nomadic Orang Asli is where young mothers of an indigenous Temuan tribal village in Labu, Negeri Sembilan has in collaboration with a nonprofit, begun a Community Nutrition Program, specifically focused on their children and toddlers meant to improve their eating habits and in the long-term, their overall health. This is part of a long-term program by the nonprofit YMCA KL for their beneficiary communities under their R.O.A.R (Reach Out and Restore) Program. This is part of a ten-year program by the nonprofit YMCA KL which is in its second year with the villagers that has slowly improved and managed the village’s English speaking program and Global Citizenship program. The Reliv Kalogris Foundation was established in 1995 in the USA, in honour of the late Dr Theodore "Ted" Kalogris who founded the nutritional formula Reliv Classic, the nonprofit company's original product. The YMCA KL’s collaboration with the organisation began in 2020 with research on the community for six months before proceeding with consent by the community elder Mdm Lela.
Currently, in its third year of collaboration with the village leaders of Kampung Tekir, which began with the village’s English Speaking Program; the Community Nutrition Program has been led by the village head, Lela since early 2020. Although currently paused by the recent pandemic, the program and villagers have been in constant communication online and consistently monitored, by the Reliv Kalogris Foundation that has provided the nutrition program through YMCA KL.
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