JAKARTA – The dates of August 1st to August 7th, 2023, were commemorated as World Breastfeeding Week. To celebrate this occasion, Dompet Dhuafa, through its Free Healthcare Service (LKC), organized various activities, including educational outreach about Exclusive Breastfeeding and a demonstration of Complementary Feeding (MPASI) menus.
On Tuesday, August 8, 2022, the series of World Breastfeeding Week activities by LKC Dompet Dhuafa took place in the Healthy Area Program, RPTRA Nyiur Melambai, Pulau Kelapa, Kepulauan Seribu, in collaboration with stakeholder partners: Pulau Kelapa Village and the Kepulauan Seribu Utara Sub-District Health Center. The target audience for this event was 42 breastfeeding mothers and pregnant women.
This activity is part of Dompet Dhuafa’s attempt to continuously support exclusive breastfeeding for babies up to six months. Support from all parties is crucial to ensure that working mothers can still provide exclusive breastfeeding.
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The activity began with a pre-test, followed by educational sessions. The educational content provided revolved around the importance of Exclusive Breastfeeding, the benefits of breastfeeding, and the introduction of Complementary Feeding (MPASI). The education was delivered by Endah, S.Gz, who is a Nutrition Expert from the North Kepulauan Seribu Sub-District Health Center. Subsequently, the activity concluded with a post-test.
After all the educational material had been presented, a cooking demonstration for Complementary Feeding (MPASI) menus for toddlers aged over 6 months as well as pregnant and breastfeeding mothers was conducted. During this opportunity, the cooking demonstration was supported by Dompet Dhuafa’s Marketing Communication Division, which brought in an influencer, Chef Fatmah Bahalwan.
Chef Fatmah demonstrated two MPASI dishes; Vegetable Omelette as an example of a meal for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, and Chicken Tofu Pepes as an example of an MPASI dish. The cooking menus had already been standardized by Dompet Dhuafa’s LKC Team in the form of leaflets that were reproduced and distributed to the attending education participants.
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According to Eka Rowiyan, who is the Person In Charge (PIC) of the activities on Pulau Kelapa, Kepulauan Seribu, the series of World Breastfeeding Week activities also includes appreciation for breastfeeding mothers who have successfully provided exclusive breastfeeding to their children for six months.
The form of appreciation given is certificates or awards for mothers and babies who have successfully provided Exclusive Breastfeeding in the program area and have attended educational or routine activities organized by LKC Dompet Dhuafa Jakarta, such as prenatal classes, toddler mother classes, and other activities.
“This series of events is important to be implemented and deserves support from all elements of society. The socialization provided is easily understood by the community. The outreach given is closely related to the experiences of breastfeeding mothers, and the community is quite enthusiastic,” said Eka Rowiyan.
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In addition, shirts with the inscription “I am a Breastfed Child” were also given to 17 babies and toddlers who successfully completed Exclusive Breastfeeding with the target category of achieving six months of Exclusive Breastfeeding and currently being between 6 to 12 months old.
In line with this, Sahri, as the Head of Social Welfare (Kasi Kesra) in Pulau Kelapa Village, welcomed this activity as a form of support for breastfeeding mothers and expressed it in a speech during the World Breastfeeding Week event.
“This activity with Dompet Dhuafa is very good and very helpful in monitoring babies and pregnant women. With this agenda, hopefully, the community will become more aware and caring about the importance of breastfeeding, especially for mothers who are currently breastfeeding,” Sahri said.
One of the beneficiaries, Baniyah Astuti, expressed her gratitude for being able to participate in the World Breastfeeding Week activities and for gaining knowledge from them.
“Thank you very much for the appreciation in the form of certificates and the shirt for my child, Rania Putri. The event was also beneficial, and there were many souvenirs during the Q&A session in the education session. The food was delicious, and they even provided a place to eat. Thank you very much, Dompet Dhuafa,” she said with joy. (Dompet Dhuafa/Keke/Anndini)