An astonishing photo essay by Marc Koska
I had the opportunity to visit a school during break time in Indonesia this year
This man sold toys to the Kids during breaks. Mainly cheap plastic toys and this was his full time job.
Alongside the plastic tractors etc., were normal disposable syringes.
These syringes were one of his most popular lines and he sold a few each day and about 300 a month.
I watched the Kids fill each syringe with water.....
They get a handful of them ready in one go.......
And on the count of "three" - open fire at each other. Also I saw the kids 'drinking' from the syringes by squirting them into their mouth.
This game is very popular and is played in practically all of the 200,000 schools there.
But after they finished and went back to class I noticed one of the plungers had a red stain..
Suspicious, I asked the toy seller where he got his supplies and he said the wholesaler! "Which one, a medical wholesaler," I asked. "No the Toy wholesaler," he replied, and took us there.
When we arrived the first thing I saw were syringes, laid out to dry in the heat. I feared the worst and on closer inspection saw these were used syringes, being washed for reuse as toys.
Kids were helping their mother by moving them around so they could dry faster.
In these syringes, you can see traces of dirty liquid left in them, which could be a mixture from what was in them after medical use and the washing liquid used to 'clean' them.
In the pile were syringes of the normal type and also new generation auto-disable (AD) syringes. These AD syringes can only be used once for giving one injection. I asked the owner, who turned out to be the person who 'washed' the syringes what she did with the AD syringes, and she replied, "Oh those are useless and no good for toys, as they break! I cannot sell those!"
In the pile were syringes of the normal type and also new generation auto-disable (AD) syringes. These AD syringes can only be used once for giving one injection. I asked the owner, who turned out to be the person who 'washed' the syringes what she did with the AD syringes, and she replied, "Oh those are useless and no good for toys, as they break! I cannot sell those!"
The standard but used syringes are displayed in the wholesalers alongside toys.
This is the Lady selling me packs of these syringes at a price of approx. ¢1 each. In the playground they are sold to the Kids for ¢5 each.
After explaining the problems associated with her handling medical waste, and demonstrating the purpose of an AD syringe, she vowed to cease trading in Syringes completely.
If you find this disturbing, please click on the following link to join our petition - Click here
