Saudi Aramco and Yayasan Kusuma Buana (YKB), with the support of the local government of Cilacap District, organized a health carnival for residents today as part of the “Aramco Healthy Kids, Healthy Nation” programme in Cilacap to improve the health and quality of life of students, who are the future generation of Indonesia.
Officiated by Mr. Tatto Suwanto, Regent of Cilacap and Mr. Nader Al-Arfaj, Managing Director of Aramco Asia Singapore, the “Semarak Aramco Healthy Kids Healthy Nation” educational carnival saw more than 2000 Cilacap residents including elementary school students, teachers and local government officials performing mass gymnastics in the city square of Cilacap District.
“Students spend a lot of time in schools and having a clean and hygienic environment is important to their well-being. However, besides improving the schools’ facilities, students, teachers and parents must also adopt a healthy lifestyle and good hygiene habits. This is why we are very appreciative of Aramco and Yayasan Kusuma Buana for implementing this meaningful programme and we hope that this programme will inspire other communities in Cilacap to live a healthy lifestyle and build a strong and healthy generation,” said Mr. Tatto Suwanto, Regent of Cilacap.
“As a leading producer of energy and chemicals, Saudi Aramco strongly believes that the real value of energy lies in its potential to serve the needs of the community. This is why we are very pleased to partner Yayasan Kusuma Buana in supporting the Cilacap government’s drive to reduce environment-related disease and raise awareness in water hygiene, sanitation and nutrition and waste management,” said Mr. Nader Al-Arfaj, Managing Director, Aramco Asia Singapore.
“We hope that though this health education programme in schools, students will cultivate life-long good hygiene habits and pass the knowledge to the next generation so that the people of Cilacap can enjoy good health and quality of life,” he added.
Launched in 2018, the ‘Aramco Healthy Kids Healthy Nation’ programme took a 360-approach approach in improving the students’ health and quality of life. Improvements to the facilities of 20 Cilacap public schools, madrasah (Islamic schools) and pondok pesantren (Islamic boarding schools), such as toilet, water tap and school canteen, are carried out. Health education on sanitation, nutrition and good hygiene with activities and competitions are conducted for students, teachers and parents. In addition, hydrophonic garden is piloted in schools as part of the nutrition education to encourage canteen operators to provide nutritious meals and students to eat more vegetables. As part of this initiative, TB and typhus screening are offered to the canteen operators.
“We are confident that the ‘Aramco Healthy Kids Healthy Nation’ programme will significantly contribute to the government’s efforts in improving Indonesia’s Human Development Index value. By improving the health of elementary students aged from 6-11 years old, the program strives to enable Indonesia to reap the opportunity of the demographic dividend in the period of 2020 – 2030,” said Mr. Joedo Prihartono, Chairman of Yayasan Kusuma Buana.
Since its implementation, the programme has received positive responses from local government, schools and communities. To date, Aramco’s grant has provided for:
- installation of hand- washing facilities for 20 schools and pesantrens;
- improvement of sanitation facilities at 10 schools and pesantrens;
- canteen renovation for 7 schools and pesantrens;
- launch of hydrophonic vegetable garden at 13 schools;
- health screening for 7 canteen personnel; and
- health education conducted with interactive media such posters, banners and flyers that are attended by 2972 students, 170 teachers, 2613 parents, and four competitions to promote good sanitation and healthy lifestyle at 20 schools.
The “Semarak Aramco Healthy Kids, Healthy Nation” carnival brings together the community members in Cilacap to celebrate the completion of the programme. Besides the mass exercise, other activities include Cilacap traditional dance, parody theatre by students, speech recitation by the winner of speech competition and award presentation to the winners of healthy school competition and drawing competition.