For close to a year now, with the help of many donors including the Priscilla Hall Memorial Foundation, YUM has been supporting and training 125 volunteer health workers (or better known as “kader” in Bahasa Indonesia) from 24 Integrated Health Posts (or “Posyandu”) in 8 villages in the sub-district of Cianjur (West Java).

Training is conducted on a monthly basis since April 2021, covering various topics from breastfeeding, anemia, nutrition to learning how to take the anthropometric measurements of pregnant women and babies to record their health and development. For example, during the session on breastfeeding, the kader received information about not only its benefits, but also how to store the mother’s milk properly as well as various food that supports the breastfeeding mother. 

The kader are in general very enthusiastic to learn and then to pass on the information to their neighbors which is an essential part of public awareness surrounding stunting. Let’s hear what Ibu Nining has to say about her experience with enrolling in YUM’s training program: 

I have been a kader for almost 10 years. I want to be part of improving my community’s health, especially for mothers and children. Since I only completed secondary school, I do not have enough knowledge about public health that I can share. That’s why I find the training from YUM very beneficial. From all of the training I received, I found the topic of parenting to be the most difficult. I never knew that there are several different ways to raise a child according to his or her personality . 

Ibu Nining, 50 years old, YUM Cipanas kader. 

Due to  her experience, Ibu Nining will be part of the next phase of YUM’s work around stunting in the community, which will be to train these kader to become community leaders and they, in turn, will be the ones to train the new kaders joining this program!