Community Involvement Key for Stunting Prevention, Says Minister
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6 March 2023 07:29 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy highlighted the importance of community involvement as the main key in stunting prevention and stunting prevalence reduction efforts.
"Community involvement becomes the main key in preventing stunting," he said on Sunday.
Effendy noted that the practices of mutual cooperation and the use of local wisdom in the community can support the achievement of the government's target to reduce the country's stunting prevalence to 14 percent by 2024.
He also lauded several regional governments that have implemented mutual cooperation and local wisdom in stunting reduction programs in their respective regions.
He mentioned Bireuen District in Aceh, which has reduced the region's stunting prevalence from 32.88 percent in 2020 to 23.4 percent in 2022.
"We give a high appreciation to the Government of Bireuen District and its community leaders for their stunting reduction efforts. This can be a model (for other regions)," he said.
Acting District Head of Bireuen Aulia Sofyan stated that based on data from the Basic Health Research (Riskesdas), the district was set as a locus of stunting in 2020. With various interventions, the district government has succeeded in reducing the stunting prevalence.
Head of Bireuen District Health Office Irwan A Ganni added that his side had involved the community in stunting handling efforts.
"For example, if there is a family that has a pregnant wife, village residents will give cakes to the pregnant woman from the first to seventh month (of pregnancy), especially for those whose economic condition is not good," he explained.
The health office has also set up the Gampong Nutrition House which serves as a place for village officials and residents to gather to coordinate stunting handling efforts, starting from the provision of nutritious foods to education on health.
"The other interventions that have been made are providing iron supplements to adolescent girls and routinely carrying out hemoglobin tests on pregnant women," he added.
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