Enhancing the role of community volunteers through breastfeeding companying, nutrition enrichment and sanitation improvement in stunting prevention and control program based on Local wisdoms

Project leader: Krisdiana Wijayanti

Level of education and university: Master, Australian Catholic University

Collaborating Organisations: -

Project Location: The project will be conducted in 5 villages of stunting locus in Blora which are Purworejo, Tempelan, Puledagel, Balongrejo, Mojowetan.

Activity Type: Community development activities

Sector: Communicable Disease Prevention, Health Management, Health Services, Maternal and Child Health, Public Health

Project Rationale:

Blora district has 34 villages with a 21.5% incidence of stunting. This percentage is slightly higher than for Central Java (20.9%). The national target for stunting is 14% by 2024, with efforts underway to meet that target.

The target for reducing the prevalence of stunting among children under five in Blora is focused on the 0-2 year age group. The activities include exclusive breastfeeding, breastmilk boosters for breastfeeding mothers, complementary feeding for children and proper sanitation in every family.

Based on the data from my previous project, 60% of breastfeeding mothers breastfed exclusively with the assistance of breastfeeding volunteers (18 out of 30 breastfeeding mothers). This is almost twice as high as the coverage of exclusive breastfeeding in Blora district (37%). It can be concluded that it is necessary to continue mentoring activities for breastfeeding mothers with breastfeeding volunteers. The existence of breastfeeding volunteers in each village will assist health workers in increasing the coverage of exclusive breastfeeding, that will contribute positively to preventing and reducing the incidence of stunting.

My previous project produced 30 trained volunteers from six villages. It has also produced a training module for breastfeeding mothers’ companions that can be used for further breastfeeding volunteer training.The training was conducted as an activity of the project "Developing Breastfeeding Volunteers to Increase the Coverage of Exclusive Breastfeeding in Anticipating Adverse Effects During COVID-19" funded by Australia Awards. It has been proven to increase knowledge (pre test: 66.33 post test: 80.50) and skills (pretest: 44.47 post test) 80.62) These knowledge and skills become the provision of breastfeeding volunteers in assisting breastfeeding mothers from the third trimester of pregnancy until their sixth month of breastfeeding.

The project results have been presented to relevant parties, namely the Health Department, BAPPEDA, community health services, branches of the Indonesian Midwife Association, village heads and village midwives. Most strongly agree that similar projects should be continued with some additional interventions that can support acceleration in reducing the rate of stunting. The number of breastfeeding volunteers has to be increased. Therefore it is also necessary to provide breastmilk boosters for breastfeeding mothers and food supplements for stunting babies aged 6-24 months. Sanitation, which is also a contributing factor to the incidence of stunting, needs to be managed so that every family has proper sanitation.

This project becomes more complete because the intervention is not only carried out for breastfeeding mothers, but also for stunted toddlers and families. Food ingredients which are local resources will be used as intervention materials in this project. Breastfeeding mothers will be accompanied by breastfeeding volunteers to gain proper breastfeeding knowledge and skills. This nursing mother was also given a breast milk booster supplement from local knowledge in Blora, namely papaya leaf cookies, which are rich in saponins and scientifically proven to increase breastmilk production. Stunting infants over 6 months of age will be given additional food made from a mixture of pumpkin and moringa leaves which are high in calories, protein and flavonoids which play a role in infant growth and development.

Project Beneficiaries:

This project will provide interventions in 5 stunting locus villages. 25 breastfeeding volunteers will be trained about the correct breastfeeding technique, then 50 breastfeeding mothers will be accompanied during the nursing period by these volunteers. Furthermore 25 community women (ibu dasa wisma) will attend training in making breastmilk boosters and supplementary feeding then deseminate the knowledge to related communities.  50 breastfeeding mothers will receive papaya leaf cookies as breastmilk boosters and 50 stunting babies aged 6-24 months will get pumpkin and moringa leavf food products. Finally, 25 family representatives (kepala keluarga) will attend training in healthy sanitation and disseminate the information to all related communities in the villages.

Priority Development Area:

Health Security

Link with Australian organisation:

Not available