Heaptalk, Jakarta — East Kutai Government held a stunting prevention campaign with the theme Prevent Stunting from Upstream to Downstream, at State Senior High School 1 Sangkulirang (11/14). Vice Regent Kasmidi who attended the activity appreciated the Department of Population Control and Family Planning (DPPKB) for the stunting prevention program that will be carried out throughout East Kutai.
The Department will travel to all districts, specifically schools, to campaign for stunting prevention. “Why is the campaign being carried out in schools and organized by the DPPKB? As stated by the Head of the East Kutai Family Welfare Empowerment (PKK), stunting prevention is not solely the task of government, but also all existing elements,” said Kasmidi, who is also the Head of the Stunting Prevention Team in East Kutai.
The stunting prevention campaign is targeting high schools to educate teenage students. Kasmidi voiced, “With the increasing age of the students who will later become mothers and the target is women who will give birth to a healthy generation, we always tell them, both to pregnant women and students, to help reduce the stunting rate.”
The stunting rate in East Kutai in 2021 is quite high, namely, 27.5% based on the results of the Indonesian Nutritional Status Survey (SSGI). The stunting rate in East Kalimantan is lower at 22.8% while the national stunting rate is 24.4%. Kasmidi expected that the Integrated Health Post (Posyandu) will actively weigh babies and toddlers. In addition, he also invited students who have younger siblings to remind their parents to always visit Posyandu to weigh babies and toddlers.
“Always weigh babies and toddlers to Posyandu to result in the large representation of the number of babies and toddlers being weighed. Thus, the divisor and comparison figures are also large, resulting in a smaller stunting rate. I expect stunting in our area is not that high. The number will not be dominant,” said Kasmidi.
Sangkulirang District Secretary Cipto Guntoro said that the program to accelerate stunting prevention had been held several times through campaign activities with a target of 15% by 2024 nationally. “The Sangkulirang stunting prevention team has carried out several activities, one of which is the quick action to overcome stunting (AGAS). Besides, the team also held a nutrition action in collaboration with the Health Department through the Sangkulirang Health Center,” said Cipto.
Cipto hoped that stunting prevention can be carried out massively as the handling of covid-19. Thus, all the community levels, particularly teenagers, both in the family, school, and peer environment, can provide information about the risk of stunting.
“We have assisted in the preparation of the regional medium-term development plan (RPJMD) and the regional development work plan (RKPD) for 2023. One of the points listed in the 2023 Village Fund is the fund for stunting at the village level,” explained Cipto.
The stunting prevention campaign was also attended by representatives of the Population Control and Family Planning Department Mustika, Sangkulirang District Secretary Cipto Guntoro, driving team leader of East Kutai Family Welfare Empowerment (PKK) Siti Robiah accompanied by the driving team leader of Sangkulirang PKK, a joint Regional Leadership Coordination Forum (Forkopimda), as well as the teachers and student of State High School 1 Sangkulirang.
