"The handling and prevention of stunting are carried out through the assistance of families at risk of stunting by the Family Assistance Teams in Central Kalimantan," said Nuryakin, the province's Regional Secretary, on Friday.
The Family Assistance Teams are responsible for educating the targeted families, including those with pregnant women, postpartum mothers, under-two children, and under-five children.
Nuryakin, who concurrently serves as head of the Stunting Reduction Acceleration Team (TPPS) of Central Kalimantan, expressed optimism that by assisting those families, no new cases of stunting would arise that could push an increase in stunting prevalence in the province.
He stated that based on the 2022 Indonesian Nutritional Status Survey (SSGI), the province's stunting prevalence declined by 0.5 percentage points, from 27.4 percent in 2021 to 26.9 percent in 2022.
"Stunting handling is a joint effort and cannot be done by only one institution or agency. Hence, we continue to synergize and collaborate in the efforts to reduce stunting prevalence in Central Kalimantan," he remarked.
He further noted that apart from assisting at-risk families, the other efforts made by the government are counseling and health screening.
The provincial government has combined the three programs to optimize stunting prevention from before marriage to the children's development period.
He noted that prevention before marriage is conducted by filling out the Ready for Marriage Ready for Pregnancy Electronic Application (Elsimil) launched by the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN).
Inputting health screening results of prospective brides and grooms into the Elsimil application is aimed at ensuring they are in an ideal condition for marriage and having children.
To this end, the regional secretary has urged all relevant parties to actively participate and make the assistance, counseling, and health screening programs a success.
In addition, joint participation and synergy in supporting stunting reduction acceleration can be conducted through the Foster Fathers for Stunted Children (BAAS) and the Healthy Kitchen to Tackle Stunting (Dashat) programs.
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Translator: Muhammad Arif, Raka Adji
Editor: Anton Santoso
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