Empowering Women in Kalimantan to Prevent Stunting

Dear friend,

Currently, the prevalence of child stunting in Indonesia is at 24% at the national level, which means 1 out of 4 children is stunted. In 2021, during our fight against stunting, we realized that community participation was the key to ensuring the success of stunting prevention. While working with over 100 women volunteer health workers (kader) to support communities to prevent stunting, we aimed to empower a select group of them to become community leaders.

These women community leaders are equipped not only with knowledge about stunting prevention, but also with the soft skills to ensure they can effectively deliver the information to their respective community. As the community leaders reinforce their knowledge, they are also providing mentorship and knowledge training to other kader in their communities, who in turn, will spread the message on stunting prevention to hundreds of families in their communities.

The dedication and commitment of the community leaders toward their work in supporting their own communities have been nothing less than inspiring. As they became empowered with skills and knowledge, they also became more active and responsible members supporting their community. As they grow with each training they receive, combined with the experience they gain while supporting their communities, a new sense of confidence and self-worth emerges. Right now, there are 30 community leaders in our working area of West Java and Central Kalimantan.

We hope that with the support they get, they are able to spread the positive energy and have a lasting ripple effect on the community so that in time, more and more people join hands in preventing stunting.

In other news: YUM’s 2021 Annual Report has been published! Find out more about all our activities by going to YUM 2021 Annual Report

Links:

• Watch our community leaders in action in Kalimantan

Dear friend,

In 2021, we focused our attention to stunting prevention and better food security for families in need. The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in an increase in poverty rates in Indonesia, and with an already high percentage of stunted children (1 in 3 children), we committed to do something about it in our communities. A 2019 Study of Nutritional Status of Children by the Indonesian Health Ministry put Central Kalimantan in the 6th to last position with 32% of children being stunted.  Though West Java fares better, it was still at 26% of children being stunted.

After one year, aiming to support 400 pregnant mothers, we ultimately assisted more than 580 pregnant women in West Java and Central Kalimantan. We’re happy to report that thanks to the holistic approach that was carried out, out of the 339 babies born from the mothers in the program, only 7% of them were born stunted in West Java, and 12% in Central Kalimantan.

As part of our holistic approach, each month, nutritional packages were delivered to these mothers-to-be, in the hopes of providing them with the diverse key nutrients they need to deliver healthy babies. Many of the pregnant women were provided with iron supplement tablets (48% of pregnant women in Indonesia are anemic). Thanks to the hemoglobin level checks, we were able to identify the pregnant women who had iron deficiency and who were anemic.

These positive results have led us to commit ourselves to continue the program both in West Java and Central Kalimantan. In West Java, we have worked with 24 health centres out of 96 so we still have quite a long way ahead of us. And in Kalimantan, we’re prepared to continue our project in our neighbouring sub-district, Kasongan.

Our heartfelt gratitude for your support, and we do hope you’ll continue assisting us in ensuring the delivery of healthy babies in our communities!