COVID-19 Support for 4000 Poor Indonesian Families

Dear friends,

Some of you might have heard the news that last November, an earthquake hit our working area of Cipanas, West Java. Many people suffered huge losses and many have lost their homes. Hundreds of families are still living in tents as they await for their homes to be rebuilt. Living conditions for these families are still far from favorable—barely enough clean water, and being so close to the ground poses great risk of bacterial infection.

This is where the work that our women community leaders do for the community is nothing less than inspirational as it has become even more challenging due to these unfavorable living conditions that pregnant women and families with small children live in.

Recently, we met with Ibu D (not her real name) who has been a community leader for 9 months now. Here’s what Ibu D has to say about her experience:

“I was quite shocked and grateful at the same time when I was appointed to become one of the community leaders. Since I started, I have participated in all the training that Yayasan Usaha Mulia (YUM) provided: knowledge about stunting prevention, public speaking and leadership skills. I personally feel I have grown as a person, especially through public speaking—I have become more confident when speaking to a larger audience. The response I get from the people I meet is naturally good, and they understand the message clearly.

This has become an important provision for me in my life, especially since my work as a community leader requires me to meet a lot of people and deliver information around stunting prevention, such as how to live a healthy lifestyle. This is more important than ever, as many pregnant women and families with small children are still living in tents, and they need to know how to live healthily even in these conditions.

My hope is that the program for community leaders and other volunteer health workers will continue because there are so many who are still untrained, and I hope that they too can increase their knowledge like me.

What keeps me going is my fellow community leaders. Seeing their commitment and the work that they do is my inspiration to keep going and supporting the community in preventing stunting.“

Thank you for your continued generous support so that we can ensure more women are trained in stunting prevention!

注:如果可以的话,我们会很感激如果哟u could set up a monthly donation through GlobalGiving as this provides us with a sustainable source of funds. New monthly donations (up to $200 per unique donor) will have their first donation matched at 100% after four (4) total payments.

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 toYUM 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 tosupport 400 pregnant mothers, we ultimately assisted more than 580 pregnant women inWest 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!

Dear friends,

It has been more than two years now that we have focused on Covid-19 related issues in our communities, thanks to your support. What started as a program to alleviate the struggles faced by many disadvantaged families, through food packages and health kits, became a more health-related activity through stunting prevention and food security.

The Indonesian Statistics Agency announced in 2021 that the pandemic has set back the government’s efforts to reduce poverty in Indonesia. With this economic setback also comes many consequences, notably in the fight to prevent further stunting in children. Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country. It is also home to over 8 million stunted children.

发育不良:百胜采取了全面的方法ention since we started this program in September 2020. Working with 40 Integrated Health Service Posts in Cipanas, West Java and Bukit Batu, Central Kalimantan, we have been able to monitor and support 574 pregnant mothers to ensure they experience a smooth pregnancy and deliver a healthy baby. This program also focused on empowering a total of 165 volunteer health workers with knowledge on stunting, pre and postnatal care as well as child development. Our post-training tests have shown that their knowledge on nutrition for pregnant women, breastfeeding and anthropometry increased by 79% after the training.

Thanks to you and many donors around the world, the pregnant mothers in our program have delivered healthy babies, and we have dramatically reduced the number of stunted children. An upcoming assessment is on its way with more details, so please stay tuned for more information.

We would also like to take this opportunity to let you know that next month, from April 4-8, GlobalGiving will be matching all your donations up to $50 at 50% for the #LittleByLittle campaign. We hope you’ll join us during this campaign - or better yetbecome a fundraiser like our friend Lily!If you’re interested in fundraising for this project, please don’t hesitate to let us know so we can support you with information and photos.

Dear friends,

Thank you for your continuous support to those affected by the pandemic in our communities. COVID cases have thankfully reduced in number and we hope this will mean that breadwinners can slowly start earning an income again. However, the elderly remain fragile and vulnerable during the pandemic. We continue to monitor and support those living in Cipanas, West Java, who live in very poor conditions, some of whom are very weak and cannot work, others depend on the charity of others and some still have to work even though they are way past retirement age and end up earning very little.

Take for example one of our beneficiaries who is 70 years old and lives alone in the village of Ciwalen. She needs support on a daily basis from her neighbors because she has no income. All of her 3 children are married but live in another city. None of them have stable jobs and when they are out of work, they go back and stay with her to save rent money.

A many number of elderly also have the added responsibility of caring for their grandchildren while their own children work in another city. One example is an elderly who still has to take care of her four grandchildren. Her own children only occasionally send her money. In order to keep food on the table, this elderly works as a traditional masseuse in her village though her income remains very low.

With your help, we support these elderly by ensuring they have sufficient food to eat, so over these past few months, basic food packages consisting of rice, protein and vegetables were distributed to an average of 50 elderly in the area. We also helped them to receive their vaccination against Covid. YUM worked with the Community Health Center and a medical team administered the vaccines, taking place in our community centre.

如果你想帮助老人在我们的社区,#GivingTuesday is coming up soon. November 30th will be a global day of giving and a great way to start getting into the ‘giving back holiday’ spirit! If you’d like to participate and join millions of global givers, you may donate at the link at the bottom of this email.

Thank you again for your amazing contribution!