Depok, August 1st, 2023. At the beginning of 2023, President Joko Widodo is targeting a decline in the stunting rate from 21.6% in 2022 to 14% in 2024. This was conveyed during the National Work Meeting (Rakernas) for the Family Development Program, Population, and Family Planning (Banggakencana) and Accelerating the Reduction of Stunting in 2023. In achieving this target, cooperation from all parties is needed, both from the government, the private sector, academia, and the community. Therefore, the community service team (pengmas) of the Faculty of Pharmacy (FF) Universitas Indonesia (UI) provided education about stunting and Body Mass Index (BMI) scales for the Bedouins, Kanekes Village, Lebak Regency, Banten. Given the large number of patients of stunting in this region, it is crucial to work together in improving health services to address this condition in a sustainable manner.
The Head of the FF UI Community Service Team, Prof. Dr. apt. Anton Bahtiar, M.Biomed., said that several obstacles faced by health workers in this area included the limited number of health workers, the difficulty for health workers to take the time to attend training, and creating information media that is easily understood by the majority Bedouin community who do not have the ability to read and write. For this reason, the FF UI community service team made educational posters dominated by icons and images to make it easier for health workers to deliver educational content to the Bedouin community.
The activity, which was carried out on Sunday (23/7), was a collaboration between the FF UI community service team and the Spirit of Building Ukhuwah Islamiyah Foundation (YASMUI), Indonesia Volunteer Community (SRI), and Banten Regional Management of the Indonesian Pharmacist Association (PD IAI) . “Our team is very grateful to YASMUI, Indonesia Volunteer Community, and PD IAI Banten who have helped with community service activities in Bedouin. We also express our gratitude for the product support in the form of vitamins from PT Novell Indonesia and creams to deal with soreness from PT Taisho Pharmaceutical Indonesia which were distributed to the Bedouin community,” said Prof. Anton.
Chairman of YASMUI and SRI Arif Kirdiyat said that the Bedouin area is divided into 9 Healthy Bedouin Work Areas and each area is supervised by one midwife. One Bedouin area consists of 30 to 40 family cards, while the number of health workers there is not proportional to the number of people. “In the Nangerang Village Health Post (Poskesdes), for example, only one lives at the Poskesdes and serves 24 hours if there are Bedouins who need help. With limited human resources and also time, it is difficult for the health workers who are responsible in the Bedouins to provide media information related to stunting that is interesting and easily understood by the Bedouin community,” said Arif.
In addition, with limited personnel, the examination and screening of stunting patients in Bedouin is taking longer due to the large area and measuring tools. In the Bedouin community, the provision of information must be carried out door-to-door and health care is done in the form of homecare. To overcome these limitations, in addition to educational posters, the FF UI community service team also provided BMI scales to make it easier and speed up the work of health workers there.
“By providing educational media in the form of posters, we hope health workers can more easily socialize educational materials related to stunting to the public. Providing BMI scales can also make it easier for health workers to screen stunting patients quickly and accurately,” said Prof. Anton.
