Health

Banda Aceh, 14 December 2022 – Aceh has wrapped up two phases of a major polio immunization campaign aiming to reach 1,217,939 children under 13 years old by end December 2022. The immunization drive was launched after a polio outbreak was declared in Pidie District in the southwest of the province in early November. The first phase of the…

Indonesia has one of the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia. The impact of COVID-19 on the health of children, pregnant women and mothers is of serious concern, with decreases in a range of essential health services. Overall health and well-being of children will continue to be negatively impacted unless significant investments are…

Indonesia has successfully declared over half of its districts malaria-free. Yet, elimination challenges remain in its highly endemic and terrestrial eastern provinces of East Nusa Tenggara, Papua and West Papua that make up over 90 per cent of cases in the country. To accelerate elimination by 2030, UNICEF provides a wide range of support,…

As September approaches on the island of Madura, the leaves begin to fall, the grass dries up and the dust scatters in the wind. The arid soil and scant rainfall make the heat of the dry season feel even more oppressive.  Amid the unfriendly weather, Alfiatun, a middle-aged woman, shows up at a small mosque in Kalianget, Sumenep — one of four…, Aunties are the key , Since August, Alfiatun has been setting aside 20 to 30 minutes towards the end of her weekly sermon to provide information on immunization. UNICEF and the district government reached out to her for support before the launch of BIAN – a nationwide immunization catch up campaign to address the major backslide in immunization after COVID-19.   As a…, GRIDU: Breaking the iceberg , Alfiatun is not operating alone – there are nearly five thousand aunties like her in Sumenep who are advocating for child vaccination during BIAN as part of the GRIDU (Integrated Immunization Massive Action) initiative.  "GRIDU was taken from our local language which means noisy and boisterous, reflecting our massive and integrated action,"…, How You Can Help, Thanks to the generous support in Indonesia and the cooperation of the public and local officials, UNICEF is able to ensure that routine immunization continues. As many as 67 million children in the world have not received a single routine vaccine during the pandemic. Therefore, UNICEF continues to move to assure that children are protected from…

JAKARTA, 5 October 2022 – At the close of Indonesia’s nationwide catch-up immunization campaign last week, UNICEF and WHO are calling for continued urgency to address the country’s backslide in childhood vaccinations. The nationwide catch-up immunization campaign (known locally as BIAN) aimed to vaccinate some 36.5 million children through one…

As one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, Indonesia needs to race against time during emergency responses. The challenges of having a large population that spreads across the archipelago’s difficult terrains and lacking sufficient real-time information often poses problems in delivering help to those most in need in times of crises. To…

Palembang, 12 September 2022 - Pneumonia is an infectious disease which is the main cause of death in children in the world. This disease can be treated if diagnosed as early as possible and can be prevented by immunization. This is evident in countries where Pneumococcal conjugate or PCV immunization is part of the routine immunization programme…

From electricity cuts to a scarcity of doctors, the hurdles facing Midwife Desak to deliver care for her patients in West Lombok since the 1990s have been beyond her ability to fix. At times, the consequences have been drastic.  “I still vividly remember the bed she occupied,” Desak recalled, pointing to a maternal ward at her workplace of Patut…

Millions of Indonesians pin their hopes of recovery from illness on puskesmas, a primary health facility that offers services that are both accessible and affordable.  Among them is mother of four Muhartini, who is not covered by any health insurance. When her one-month-old son Rafan had trouble sleeping in March, she immediately sought help from…, How You Can Help, Thanks to donations from generous people in Indonesia, UNICEF is able to work closely with health workers and authorities such as Midwife Yulia who are responsible for ensuring the knowledge of health workers is continuously trained and updated to ensure fast and appropriate care for vulnerable young infants and toddlers in local health facilities…

Many girls who have started their period are involved in child marriage, an act that violates the fundamental rights of children. According to the 2018 National Social and Economic Survey (SUSENAS), there are 1,2 million child marriage cases in Indonesia, where one of nine Indonesian women ages 20-24 years old are married before they turn 18., 1. Access to Information on Reproductive and Menstrual Health, UNICEF data reveal that one of four children in Indonesia never receives any information on menstruation prior to menarche. Moreover, based on the 2017 Basic Health Research Survey (SDKI), one of five girls are not aware that menstruation means that they are now physically able to carry a pregnancy., 2. Menstrual myths, There are many myths surrounding menstruation. For one, consuming beef and fish during period is believed to cause bad smell. Girls and women are also prohibited from washing their hair or cutting their nails. However, there is nothing wrong with personal hygiene practices, such as hair washing during menstruation. In fact, it keeps you fresh and…, 3. Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management, There are two types of menstrual pads in the market: disposable and reusable. Regardless, the pad must be regularly replaced, at least every four hours and even if your flow is very light. It is common for girls to wait until their pads are heavily stained, which may take up to or over 6 hours. However, this may cause reproductive tract infection…, 4. Access to water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities, A UNICEF Indonesia poll shows that 1 of 5 girls in Indonesia have difficulty in accessing or buying pads, and 1 of 10 feel embarrassed and that they have no privacy when attempting to access menstrual hygiene products. This also happens in the school environment which is experienced by most young girls in Indonesia. This is the importance of…, 5. Access to knowledge: Oky, the menstrual tracker app, It is important for girls to understand their menstrual cycle so that they can anticipate and be ready when the next cycle comes. To help them track menstrual cycle, UNICEF has developed Oky, a mobile app for both Android and iOS devices, designed for adolescents. To learn more, click Oky App info . To download, click Oky App download .

Every day, young people in Indonesia are exposed to tobacco in their homes, schools and communities. Being surrounded by tobacco advertising and widely scattered cigarette butts is just one part of the problem. Through their own habits, young people’s lives are also going up in smoke. About one in ten of the country’s 10–18-year-olds are current…, How You Can Help, Thanks to stakeholder support and collaboration with communities, UNICEF is supporting Indonesian youth to voice their aspirations and advocate for smoke-free areas and tobacco control for a healthier future. However, much more remains to be done to make their aspirations a reality. For that we need your support. If you want to help promote more…

As a journalist and mother of four, Delima Napitupulu always hoped that she could use her platform to help promote the rights of children. But after a decade of working in newsrooms in her home province of Lampung, she still felt that she could do more, especially for children’s health. “I thought that informing (readers) about upcoming…, Two days of training for years of hope, In response to these issues, UNICEF collaborated with AJI to hold a two-day training for journalists on Supporting Children's Health Rights through Immunization. The training, held in Jakarta in May 2022, is part of a series of workshops aimed at strengthening journalists' understanding of children’s rights and encouraging advocacy through the…, Tackling preventable child deaths, While child health and survival have improved substantially in Indonesia over the past two decades, significant obstacles remain. According to UNICEF data , there were over 110,000 deaths of children under the age of five in Indonesia in 2020. Proper reporting by the media can play a key role to provide parents with the information they need to…