Improving Family Health, BKKBN Promotes 'Germa', Including Toilet Hygiene

A latrine in the middle of a river in Jakarta. (Between)

JAKARTA - The 77th Anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia is the right momentum for the community to improve family health. This was conveyed by the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) related to the theme of this year's 77th RI Anniversary: 'Recover Faster, Rise Stronger'.

Head of BKKBN Hasto Wardoyo said the quality of family health is very important in order to create a superior and quality golden generation.

"This is very important, children and grandchildren must become a quality generation. To support this, it is necessary to have clean and healthy lifestyle and fulfill balanced nutrition, including animal protein, and to maintain a clean environment in accordance with the seven pillars of the 'Healthy Living Community Movement or Germas'. " he said, Friday, August 19.

Hasto explained that Germas includes seven pillars, namely physical activity, eating fruit and vegetables, not smoking, not consuming alcoholic beverages, conducting regular health checks, maintaining environmental cleanliness, and using latrines.

"In Presidential Decree 72 of 2021 concerning Acceleration of Stunting Reduction, BKKBN was given the mandate to coordinate the acceleration of stunting reduction or stunting problems in 2024, with a target of decreasing to 14 percent. For this reason, BKKBN continues to socialize various strategic efforts, one of which is through Germas," he said. Between.

Hasto said, by implementing a number of pillars in Germas, such as eating fruit and vegetables, not smoking, conducting regular health checks, maintaining environmental cleanliness and using latrines, it can support efforts to reduce stunting.

"For example, the pillars in Germas regarding the importance of eating fruits and vegetables, then added with other nutrients such as animal protein and so on are efforts to fulfill nutrition so that children do not experience stunting," he said.

Likewise with the pillar regarding regular health checks, he said, it is very important for the bride and groom to ensure that the mother-to-be is not anemic, because it increases the risk of giving birth to a stunting baby.

Furthermore, he said, the pillars in Germas regarding efforts to keep the environment clean and the use of latrines strongly support efforts to improve the quality of families.

"Children's health condition is very important to ensure their growth and development. Children who grow up in an environment with poor sanitation are more at risk of disease and health problems that can hinder their growth," he said.