The movement to drink white water at school is a healthy lifestyle that should be appreciated

Illustration of the movement of drinking water. (doc. AIA)

JAKARTA - There are many ways to improve the quality of education, but building a healthy life culture from an early age is no less important.

One real example comes from SDN Cipedak 01 South Jakarta which managed to make the habit of drinking water as part of the daily routine of all students.

The initiative received appreciation through the AIA Healthiest Schools 2026 event organized by PT AIA FINANCIAL (AIA). SDN Cipedak 01 was crowned the first winner in the Elementary School category thanks to the GEMARIPAH SEGAR (Movement to Drink Fresh Water Aaah Segar) project, a program that has managed to cultivate a culture of healthy hydration in the school environment while showing a positive impact on student health in just one week.

Thanks to this achievement, SDN Cipedak 01 will represent Indonesia at the AIA Healthiest Schools Regional Competition 2026 which will take place in Bangkok in July. This school will compete with the best schools from various countries in the Asia Pacific region where AIA operates.

The GEMARIPAH SEGAR program was born from a simple observation made by the school. Although almost all students have brought drinking bottles from home, the habit of consuming enough water has not yet been formed. This condition has an impact on the decline in learning concentration because some students are easily sleepy, tired quickly, and lose focus while attending classes.

Departing from this condition, the school then designed a program that is easy to implement without requiring additional costs. The culture of drinking water is built through a schedule of drinking together three times a day.

This habit is strengthened by hydration monitoring cards, the presence of a Little Hydration Ambassador in every class, to various educational activities such as the Hydration Challenge and poster competition involving all school residents.

This simple approach was able to provide significant results. Within seven days, the number of students who met the daily water consumption needs jumped from only 12 percent to 98 percent.

Meanwhile, the risk of dehydration that was previously experienced by about 60 percent of students was successfully suppressed to zero percent. These results show that habit-forming can consistently create behavioral changes while supporting children's learning readiness at school.

"The success of SDN Cipedak 01 in this event shows that educational innovation does not always require a complex approach. Programs such as GEMARIPAH SEGAR prove that simple changes can create a real impact on the health and well-being of students. AIA hopes that this initiative can inspire more schools in Indonesia to present relevant and sustainable solutions," said Head of Corporate Communication AIA, Lia Merdekawaty in a statement to VOI, Friday, June 26.

Meanwhile, the representative of the teachers of SDN Cipedak 1, Lusika Nur Megawati, said, "Through GEMARIPAH SEGAR, SDN Cipedak 01 wants to show that big changes can start from simple steps taken together. The award from AIA Healthiest Schools is motivation for us to continue to present innovations that provide real benefits for students".

The success of SDN Cipedak 01 also reflects the increasing awareness of schools in Indonesia in building a healthy life culture.

In the implementation of AIA Healthiest Schools 2026, Indonesia became the country with the highest participation rate with 2,896 applicants and produced 359 healthy school projects.

The high enthusiasm shows that schools not only play a role as a place to learn, but also become a space to form healthy living habits from an early age.