Photo: Participants and speakers of the coaching webinar for public health cadres on Thursday (7/4).
JAKARTA, APRIL 14, 2022 – In recent years, the government has paid special attention in the fight against stunting or growth failure in toddlers due to long-term chronic malnutrition.
According to data from the 2021’s Survey of Indonesian Toddler Nutrition Status (SSGBI), the prevalence of stunting is currently still at 24.4% or 5.33 million toddlers. While in Jakarta, stunting cases are still in the range of 16.8%. So it is not surprising that President Joko Widodo through his administration paid special attention by intensifying programs to combat stunting.
However, we cannot rely only on one party to alleviate stunting. It takes efforts from many sides to succeed.
Seeing this, Korindo Group through Korindo Foundation joined in the effort to fight stunting by providing education through a webinar titled, “Coaching for Public Health Cadres” on Thursday (7/4) attended by the PKK and Dasawisma community organizations throughout Pancoran Subdistrict. Acting as speaker was the Head of Pancoran Health Center, Dr. Sri Lenita MARS.
In her speech, Dr. Sri explained that children who experience stunting in addition to failing to grow (short body), generally have lower intelligence than normal children. Moreover, children who experience stunting tend to suffer from non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.
Therefore, it is important for parents to carry out early detection of stunting in children by paying attention to their growth. According to Dr. Sri, routine weight and height measurements need to be done, because if left unchecked, children who do not gain weight will experience an impact on their height.
Parents are also obliged to pay attention to the phase of the first 1000 days of the child’s life, that is, the phase of life that begins from the formation of the fetus at the time of pregnancy until the child is 2 years old. In this golden period, there is an extremely rapid brain growth, so it needs adequate nutrition and stimulation to prevent nutritional problems and growth disorders.
“We must continue to give encouragement and support to parents in providing exclusive breastfeeding and complementary breastfeeding (MPASI) to prevent stunting,” Dr. Sri said.
Dr. Sri explained there are at least 3 causes of children stunting. First, limited food accessibility, wrong parenting style, and lastly, inadequate hygiene and sanitation of drinking water and health services.
A number of measures taken by the Pancoran District Health Center to monitor the growth of children is by conducting online self-monitoring through the program called Sepatu Kaca (Selalu Pantau Tumbuh Kembang Anak Ceria/Always Monitor Growth Development of Cheerful Children), Sepatu Kaca on the spot—as an alternative from the integrated health post’s new habit adjustment—, e-FAST or electronic screening of child malnutrition risk, also the integrated health post’s new adjustment itself.
The Head of Pancoran Subdistrict, Drs. Moh. Rizki Adhari Jusal, welcomed the activity. “I appreciate this activity as a form of collaboration from stakeholders in Pancoran Subdistrict, including Korindo Foundation, that always pays attention in order to improve public health, especially in regard to stunting problem in Pancoran Subdistrict.” (pr)
