10 September 2024
Syafrijal S.Kom
Pakpak Bharat - Lecturers from Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) conducted community service on Tuesday (13/8) at SMP Negeri 1 Salak Jalan Lae Ordi No. 39, Salak District, Pakpak Bharat Regency.
The Community Service Team was chaired by Prof. Dr. Ir. Evawany Yunita Aritonang with members Prof. drg. Sondang Pintauli Panggabean, Prof. Drs. Mauly Purba, M.A, PhD, and attended by two students from the Faculty of Public Health, USU.
The activity was also attended by the Secretary of the Papak Bharat Education Office Juanda Bancin, S, the Principal of SMPN 2 Salak Tumpak Banurea, S.Th along with teachers and students of the school.
Prof. Evawany Yunita Aritonang explained that stunting is a condition of stunted physical growth and development of children caused by chronic malnutrition in the long term, especially during the first 1,000 days of life (counting from pregnancy until the child is 2 years old).
Based on data from the Ministry of Health, he said, the stunting rate in Indonesia in 2023 was recorded at 21.5%.
"Stunting is caused by various interrelated factors, including malnutrition, infection and disease, economic factors, high prices of animal protein and poor parenting patterns, especially in the behavior and practice of feeding children, lack of knowledge of mothers, and others," he said, Thursday (22/8).
This community service activity, he said, aims to educate young women at SMP Negeri 1 Salak about the problems of stunting and anemia, their causes, impacts and prevention.
In addition, the activity also focuses on checking body weight (BB), height (TB) and hemoglobin levels (Hb) which play an active role in monitoring stunting incidents. The risk of stunting can be identified by measuring height based on age TB/U.
Therefore, this community service activity, he said, began with providing education to young women, followed by measuring body weight (BB), height (TB), and hemoglobin levels (Hb).
In this case, the school can convey to the parents of young women who play an active role in monitoring the food consumed by young women to pay more attention to the consumption of nutrition, carbohydrates, and other vitamins.
Parents must be able to monitor the balance in the consumption of nutrition consumed by young women to prevent malnutrition.
Especially according to him, the consumption of iron is very susceptible to anemia. Young women who experience anemia from an early age will become prospective brides who give birth to babies who experience stunting.
So parents are required to pay close attention to the consumption intake of young women. With this, young women who experience anemia can be overcome and there will be no births of babies who experience stunting.
"Stunting does not come suddenly but comes from previous habits," said Prof. Evawany Yunita.
With this, he said, it can be seen that anemia is closely related to stunting, because if young women who will become prospective brides experience anemia, they are at risk of giving birth to babies who experience stunting.
At the end of the community service activity, the community service team provided a weight measuring device (BB), 2 height measuring devices (TB) to the school, and distributed PMT in the form of UHT milk, Glazin Butter Coconut biscuits and boxed rice to students and teachers of SMP Negeri 1 Salak.
This activity is expected to increase knowledge for young women and teachers and regarding the importance of preventing stunting while ensuring that children grow up healthy, smart and strong.
In addition, the involvement of teachers is also expected to convey the objectives of this community service, so that it can encourage parents to be more aware of the nutrition consumed by young women.
Tumpak Banurea expressed his gratitude and appreciation to the community service team and is ready to support the implementation of community service activities on the next occasion.
Source: https://analisadaily.com/berita/baca/2024/08/22/1054946/tim-pengabdi-kesehatan-lppm-usu-edukasi-dan-pendampingan-ibu-hamil-di-desa-salak-pakpak-bharat/
