KUMBANG X KENYANG 2.0 – Pre Project Training: Skills Lab

KUMBANG X KENYANG: Growth, Development, and Nutritional Balance of Dear Children is a collaborative activity between the Student Engagement Grant, The University of Melbourne, Capella Foundation, and the Center for Indonesian Medical Students’ Activities, Gadjah Mada University (CIMSA-UGM) which aims to improve public awareness, both health cadres and parents, on issues of growth and development, through a screening program that will be implemented at the community level (posyandu). Kumbang Kenyang is a social project that focused on the growth and development of children, especially among children under 5 years of age. The growth and development of children can be provided through nutrition. Nutrition can provide children with a direct impact on children’s health, growth, development, and mindset. 

In the last period, disruption of growth and development has received more attention in Indonesia in order to increase human resource capacity in the future. However, along with the increasing attention to stunting prevention programs as a growth disorder, developmental problems are unfortunately still often neglected by both parents and health cadres in the community. This can result in delays in the detection of children who have a tendency to experience developmental disorders and delays in providing the intervention and stimulation needed by these children. This can be caused by the parameters of developmental aspects that are less real than those of growth, although in practice several instruments have been provided to measure aspects of child development. 

This training aims to train volunteers to be able to monitor children’s growth and development. Monitoring children’s growth and development can be done by plotting and interpreting growth charts. Through this activity, we hope that volunteers will be able to directly retrieve data independently on interventions that will be implemented afterward. When the intervention is carried out, children who are found to be at risk for developing and developmental disorders will then be matched with volunteers from medical students to assist parents in providing accurate information for their child’s management.

Due to the prolonged pandemic situation, this training is held online through synchronous sessions via Zoom with dr. Fitria Mahrunnisa, M.Sc., Sp.A and dr. Joko Kurniawan, M.Sc., Sp.A as trainers and volunteers. The session started with material on monitoring children’s growth and development with a brief explanation from the doctor followed by answering several cases related to the material so that information can be implemented afterward.