Cheerful Smile of Memey, Child with Microcephaly After Getting an Adaptive Wheel Chair from MoSA

JAKARTA (March 2, 2023) – The Ministry of Social Affairs received a report of a public complaint regarding Memey, a 9-year-old girl suffering from microcephaly, on Thursday (21/2). The public complaints were then responded to and followed up by the Ministry of Social Affairs through "Handayani" Center in Jakarta.

The Head of the Administrative Subdivision, Meerada Saryati, said that an immediate search must be carried out on the family so that they can comprehensively find out the child's condition. “Assessments carried out on children and families have to pay attention to the interests of the child and what their needs are. Make sure whether the child has received medical treatment or therapy or not. How is his family's condition? How to meet their daily needs, "said Meerada.

"Handayani" Center officers immediately searched for information regarding Memey's whereabouts and went to his residence to conduct an assessment. Officers met with Memey's mother, Ardita, who then explained her son's condition. Memey was born prematurely when she was 6 months old, weighing 1.3 kg or only the size of a bottle. Memey was in the incubator for a long time because of her very weak condition. After returning from the hospital, he did not show any significant changes in body weight. Meanwhile, Memey also experienced stiffness all over her body so that she could not move freely like other children on her age. Besides that, Memey's body repeatedly moved without her noticing it.

When he was three years old, Memey's mother took him to the hospital, and he was diagnosed with microcephaly. Microcephaly is a condition in which a person has a smaller brain size than normal. This condition inhibits brain growth and ultimately affects the performance of other bodies. Memey has a small head size followed by the size of the feet, hands, and other body parts which are also small. At the age of nine, he weighs only 8 kg with a height of 135 cm. Every day, Memey only sleeps on shabby mattresses and pillows because she can't move around without the help of others.

Ardita also admitted that she only took Memey to the hospital when she was 3 years old because she found it quite difficult to take Memey to the hospital alone, while her husband was working and her first child was a junior high school student. She realized that this shouldn't be a reason not to take Memey to the hospital, but her condition, which also suffers from diabetes with hypertension, and economic conditions also affected her. She had to rent a car or an online taxi to take Memey to the hospital because Memey’s condition was impossible to go by public transportation.