Empowering Women in Kalimantan to Prevent Stunting

Dear friends,

In this update, we want to share another story of one of our volunteer health workers (kader), who has been tirelessly supporting her community for the past 7 years. She shares her experience participating in the stunting prevention program run by Yayasan Usaha Mulia (YUM):

"The first time I heard about YUM was at a village meeting with other kader. After learning about what YUM does—its programs, vision, and mission—I was instantly drawn to it. The focus on helping the community and the training sessions to build knowledge and skills really spoke to me as a kader, since my role is all about supporting others through social activities.

The skills training was super helpful. It gave us tools for better communication, which made me feel more confident when working with the community. I also found the sessions on stunting prevention incredibly valuable. Unlike other programs where only a few representatives attend and the knowledge doesn’t get shared widely, YUM makes sure we pass on what we’ve learned—whether it’s to pregnant women or at the Community Health Center (Posyandu). This way, the information actually reaches the people who need it most.

Being part of this program brought me so much happiness—not just from learning new things, but also from being able to share that knowledge and make a real impact in the community. One of the highlights for me was connecting with other Posyandu kader. This doesn’t happen often—maybe once a year—so it was great to meet others who share the same passion for helping. Seeing how eager the mothers were to participate was also really inspiring. Many of them came to health check-ups regularly and even took the initiative to remind midwives about measuring their mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) or did it themselves when needed!

Of course, there were a few challenges along the way, but they never felt too heavy because we could always talk them through and get advice from YUM. For example, one mother who had just given birth couldn’t make it to the Posyandu because of family issues. So, as kader, we visited her at home. We showed her how to measure her baby’s body length and taught her and her family how to measure the mid-upper arm circumference on their own.

I really hope this program continues, because the knowledge it brings to the community is so valuable. The extra nutritional support for pregnant women has also been such a huge help, especially for moms who are struggling financially in my area. I also hope we can keep having regular meetings with YUM—they’re always so motivating and helpful."

Thanks to your support, we've been able to scale up our stunting prevention program to our neighbours in Kasongan, Central Kalimantan and it has been much appreciated. We sincerely hope you continue to support our project. As we near the end of the year, we wish you happy holidays and a very happy new year!

Warmly,

Vanessa