The survey conducted recently by the Coalition for Healthy Indonesia (KuIS) found that there was a significant increase on the awareness and changing behavior occurring among mothers at Petamburan area regarding hygienic issues. This is evident of the successful results of the Washing Hands With Soap Campaign conducted by KuIS and the coalition for Healthy Jakarta (KuJS), supported by Shell Companies in Indonesia. Prior to this campaign, only 65 percent of the respondents at Petamburan area washed their hands with soap before they eat. This percentage rose drastically to 96 percent in June 2006. Washing hands with soap is one activity considered as an ordinary task to most people. However, many people do not know that washing hands with soap is beneficial and people who neglected it finally realize to do it at a critical time. The result of a study by Curtis V from Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2003, proved that washing hands with soap could decrease diarrhea cases, which is one of the main cause of deaths among children below five years of age in many countries. Young children are more vulnerable to be infected by diarrhea, due to their low body immunity compared to adults. Data from Indonesian Ministry of Health shows that there are 5,051 diarrhea cases in 2005 in 12 provinces. The number increased drastically compared to the previous year, which were 1,436 people. In early 2006, there were 2,159 people registered in Jakarta hospitals suffering from diarrhea. Tom Malik, Executive Director for Coalition for Healthy Indonesia (KuIS) said, ”Based on the data from the Ministry of Health and facing reality that there are still many other diarrhea cases that have not been reported, we consider diarrhea as a priority health issue in the local and national level because it has a huge impact to the community.” Tom Malik added that diarrhea is often handled through curative approach rather than a preventive one while the fact remains that preventive methods is cheaper, more efficient and more effective. ”Starting from the understanding that washing hands with soap is an easy habit and it is very effective to lower diarrhea incidents, we realize that a collaborative action is needed to create this healthy habit as the first step to improve the health of the individuals and families,” said Tom. Therefore, KuIS together with KuJS ran a ”Washing Hands With Soap Campaign” at Petamburan area, Central Jakarta. Central Jakarta has a high mortality rate of children below five, which are 30 per 1000 babies (2003). Bob Moran, Country Chairman and President Director of Shell Companies in Indonesia said, ”We support this program because it is in line with Shell’s social responsibility objectives, which is to give benefits to the community where we operate. We hope that the Washing Hands With Soap program could change people’s habit to become healthier, lower the rate of diarrhea and ultimately reduce the number of deaths among babies and young children in the community.” The collective support from many parties and community involvement are one of the important factors in conducting a program. The Washing Hands With Soap Festival, to be held on Saturday (June 24), is a celebration for the completion of the program that has been running for the last five months. Irawati, spokesperson from KuJS said, ”We hope that this festival will be an opportunity to encourage more parties to join in this program, and therefore the Washing Hands With Soap Campaign could be expanded to become a national program.”
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