Who we are - Foundation for Mother and Child Health - Indonesia ...-balita sehat ceria

Who we are - Foundation for Mother and Child Health - Indonesia ...

Posted: 23 Jun 2012 10:55 PM PDT

Who we are

The Foundation for Mother and Child Health (FMCH), known locally as Yayasan Balita Sehat, began as a support group for english speaking mothers and has grown into an organisation that provides support and educational programmes for impoverished Indonesian mothers and their children. Our goal is to eliminate malnutrition and the causes of poverty in the communities we serve. In 2001 we opened a mother-and-child centre in South Jakarta and became a registered charity under Indonesian law.

Activities for Indonesian mothers and children

The Foundation for Mother and Child Health/Yayasan Balita Sehat, provides meals, medical care and lessons for both Indonesian mothers and their children. Mothers have access to health education and small skills training programmes and children have the opportunity to benefit from a preschool education and primary school scholarships. Many of the children suffer from undernutrition and all of them come from impoverished backgrounds.

Our staff includes two doctors, five preschool teachers, a programme manager, a medical and educational scholarship coordinator, a handicraft teacher, two sewing teachers, three health educators and a cook. In addition to these paid locally-engaged staff, the centre relies on 8 local volunteer community workers and international volunteers from the UK, New Zealand, Australia and the US. These volunteers help in various roles: nutrition, primary school teaching and nursing/midwifery.

FMCH runs early learning centress (ELCs) in South Jakarta. These centres enable children from poor families to attend preschool. One ELC focuses specifically on providing preschool education for impoverished children living on garbage dumps. In the near future we hope to open another preschool for children from similar backgrounds.

Alongside these early learning centres, FMCH has set up a very successful scholarship system that allows sponsors to fund children through primary school.

Amongst its other activities, the Foundation conducts a series of health education programmes for both mothers and community health workers living and working in urban slum areas in South Jakarta. Classes are given by the Foundation’s team of health educators and community health workers and address topics such as health, hygiene and nutrition.

Programmes conducted at FMCH have grown tremendously and with help from all our important sponsors we hope to see further growth in the future.

The Family Guide to Jakarta

The New Mother Support Group was originally set up to enable expatriate english speaking mothers receive advice from volunteer nurses and midwives on topics such as breastfeeding, weaning and sleep problems. Over time, a committee of expatriate and Indonesian mothers from the Mother & Baby Support Group have worked together to produce a handbook for new parents of all nationalities living in Jakarta: ‘The Family Guide to Jakarta’. Profits from the sale of the book go towards supporting programmes run by the Foundation for underprivileged Indonesian mothers and their children.

Current officers at the Foundation/ Yayasan Balita Sehat

Officers at the Foundation are made up of local salaried staff, unpaid volunteers and a few local consultants.