Family is the primary facilitator for national development.
The forces of globalization have put families to face chal-lenges much more severe than ever before. And these challenges will only become more powerfui and destabilizing in the future. The tides of globalization bring with them new and attractive val-ues that will be pushed indiscriminately by media into everyone's living room, rich as well as poor. Only a small segment of the population will have the education, preparation, and position to be able to take advantage of this wave of change and prosper as never before.
But for less fortunate poor, a huge segment of the popula-tion in developing countries, the wave of globalization threatens to bring a further erosion of their health and general welfare, and a further marginalization from the 'dreams' brought by media into their homes. For many, especially the poor, globalization will bring suffering, not the promised prosperity.
Due to this, we sorely need integrated development geared to strengthen and re-vitalize the role and function of the family as the smallest unit in society. The family is the pri-mary refugee and sustainerof values, security, welfare, and health for members of the society. The family is the primary unit for promoting people-centered development with a human face and a human focus. With support from the environment and from the socially concerned business community, the family can play its true role as the primary actor in national development.
| Wlth support from the environment and from the socialy concerned business community, the family can play its true rola.
In the past, efforts to build the family as the base unit for development utilized the Tri Bina' or Triple Guidance approach: Develop People, Develop the Environment, and Develop Business. As the government moved into its reform period in the late 1990's, this approach was criticized as being top down, and was changed to the 'Three Empowerments' approach consisting of Empower People, Empowerthe Environment, and Empower Business skills.
These empowerment programs put people at the center of development and placed a major focus upon the empowerment of the family. Since the orientation has shifted to empowerment, since the year 2000 the United Nations has also moved from emphasizing the Human Development lndex (HDI) to promoting the Millenium Development Goals (MDG's). In 2005 the MDG's have been refreshed and a new international commitment has been strengthen to support the achievement of its goals by 2015.
In Indonesia the new commitment to people's empowerment and the achievement of the MDG's has been followed-up by the government. All players within the development process have clear responsibilities and duties to achieve these goals. All of us, and especially the government at all levels, must mobilize all pos-sible resources to bring about successful achievement of the MDG's goals and hence to support the empowerment of the people so that people can work hard for the achievement of guality wel-fare within a democratic and self-reliant framework.
The History of Integrated Post
It has been long understood that the family is the key to the development of the nation. According to the Constitutional Article No. 10 of 1992 the Family has eight core functions in promoting the welfare of its members.
Nonetheless, since many Indonesia families sufferfrom poor social, economic, and educational status, many do not know or master their functional roles and responsibilities or are unable to fulfill their responsibilities. Despite these limitations, most fami-lies desire to fulfill their responsibilities as best they can, usually by joining into small groups within their communities to promote mutual welfare. Often these groups form as families face prob-lems that they cannot solve on their own.
Famllies joined together in support groups that later came to be called "Family Planning Acceptor Groups'.
In the past, one of the problems faced by families was whether or not to accept the new culture of family planning as it was introduced and spread in Indonesia. In orderto better under-stand this change, and to overcome their problems in tackling reproductive issues, families joined together in support groups that later came to be called "Family Planning Acceptor Groups'.
These groups would gather and choose their own leader, usually someone senior within the group and respected within the community at large. These groups would discuss what they had garnered from various fieldworkers and from doctors or nurses
that they had contacted. These groups subsequently became the promoters to other families within the village to help them di-gest and internalize the new information on family planning that was arriving in the community.
The gathering of Family Planning families into Acceptor Groups grew quickly and the role and function of the Acceptor Group expanded to include topics outside of family planning to include broader health issues. After time, these groups widened further to tackle such issues as economic development, small business, and entrepreneurship.
In more recent times, Acceptor Groups have provided mem-bers with opportunities to undertake economic activities on an inter-family or group basis, with the Acceptor Groups growing to become Economic Groups and Family Welfare Groups.
Acceptor Groups, has gone through a number of develop-mental stages and names. In 1983 the first chairman of the Na-tional Family Planning Board (BKKBN), Dr. Soewardjono Surjaningrat turned over his duties to Dr. Haryono Suyono since he had to leave his position to become the Minister of Health. Since the first head of the National Family Planning Board had been involved with the development of Acceptor Group program, he was eager to utilize the approach for general health care through the creation of a 'Community Health Posts'. However, the new head of BKKBN proposed that instead of creating a new network, that the role of the Family Planning Post be enlarged to encom-pass broader community health issues.
Since both Dr. Soewardjono and Dr. Haryono have been involved intheestablishmentofthe Family PlanningAcceptorPost, they quickly came to an agreement to expand the function of the Family Planning Posts whose coverage was nationwide. This agreement was contained within a Joint Decree between BKKBN and the Ministry of Health issued on the 29th of June 1983. This Decree became the foundation for the establishment of Integrated Community Health Posts or Posyandu throughout Indonesia.
As the programs have developed over time, the Integrated Community Health Post prioritizes fam-ily planning and child and maternal health. Thestaff-ing of a Post includes a midwife plus community volunteers and family plan-ning fieldworkers who manage the operations community programs.
The Integrated Community Health Post prioritizes family planning and child and maternal health, T e c h n i c a I backstopping from BKKBN and the Ministry of Health for Post programs was felt to be too limited since at the village level Family Welfare (PKK) programs organized by the Ministry of Home Affairs also played a key role. Hence the Family Welfare program was also integrated into the Integrated Community Health Post.
Revitalization and Development of Integrated Community Post
At the time of the economic crisis of 1997-98 the programs and activities of the POSYANDU declined. From a total of 500,000 active units before the crisis, only half were still active as the cri-sis slashed available funding. This was also true of village midwives whose numbers declined from over 65,000 before the cri-sis to only around 20-22,000 after the crisis. The economic activi-ties of Family Welfare Groups also declined dramatically during this period as government programs dried up.
Current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stated as he came into power that he would pay attention to improvements in health and welfare. On many occasions he has stated that a priority program is the rejuvenation of POSYANDU. A number of local governments have taken up this cause, for example the Special Province of Jakarta that has succeeded in rejuvenating over 4,000 POSYANDU that now meet routinely on the 27th of every month.
Current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stated as he came into power that he would pay attention to improvements in health and welfare.
New POSYANDU in Jakarta, according to Prof. Dr. Haryono Suyono, have worked with the Damandiri Foundation in efforts to become more financially sustainable and complete along with collaboration with the Family Welfare Associations (PKK). In this way POSYANDU support not only health and family planning, but also all key functions of the family in generating welfare in accordance with Constitutional Article No. 10 of 1992.
According to this new concept, POSYANDU programs place people at the center of development. POSYANDU are geared to support family functions so that each family can become the basic unit of strong national development. The functions of the
Prof. Dr. Haryono Suyono, have worked with the Damandiri Foundation
POSYANDU are being moved step by step to the place where all activities are utilized to furthpr empower families.
As is well known, the functions of the family and the rela-tion to POSYANDU according to Constitutional Article No. 10 1992 and Government Regulations of 1994 are as follows:
1. Religious function wherein POSYANDU should motivate fami-lies to serve as the primary teachers of religion such that all family members worship God the Almighty.
2. Cultural function wherein the POSYANDU empowers families to conserve and protect and appreciate esteemed national cultural attributes.
3. Caring function wherein the POSYANDU prepares families to provide a loving and affectionate environment for all members of the family and between husband and wife, children and parents, and between children.
4. Protection Function wherein the POSYANDU assists the family to become the strong protector bringing truth and true examples to offspring and descendents
5. Reproductive Function wherein the POSYANDU develops the family as the organizer of reproduction that is healthy and planned so that children can be high quality and contribute to the nation.
6. Socialization and Educational Function wherein the POSYANDU helps families function as a school and primary teaching-learning center so that children can become leaders of themselves and their community.
7. Economic function wherein the POSYANDU assist families to become a self-reliant unit that can provide physical and spiritual welfare for its members and have pride in its capabilities and self reliance.
8. Environmental Conservation Function wherein the POSYANDU makes sure that families are capable to conserve their natural surroundings so that their descendents can enjoy a healthy environment.
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II. DEVELOPMENT OF PROSPEROUS FAMILY
Introduction
Based upon the past experiences it can be expected that the POSYANDU in a new form in the future can be developed as a 'Health and Social Development Focal Point' and at the same time a catalyst for the empowerment of families so that they are capable of fulfilling all their key functions.
The POSYANDU as a community institution has a very important role at the village and neighborhood level. Through POSYANDU every family can be empowered to be more self-reliant. For this purpose, the POSYANDU has to act as an advo-cator that are created, developed and managed by the community.
The POSYANDU as an institution should :
1.Strengthen cooperative manner and community values (gotong royong) in working
together to help solve any community differences and family problems;
2.Refresh and recreate community institutions that may help solve common
community and family problems; Through POSYANDU every family canbe empowered to be more self-reliant.
3. Act as medium for social and family participation in helping to solve community
and family problems.
The empowerment of POSYANDU will help members of families to be more familiar with their functional roles so that they will be more able to empower their own families. Self empower-ment by the same members in the family will make the whole members of the family easily gain self-reliance, able to take over its welfare provision functions and play multiple roles. When this is achieved, the POSYANDU must be ready to play a different roles.
Like the Indonesian philosophy of "ing ngarsa sun tulodo"
or 'from the front lead by example'. This approach means to put people at the center of development as can be seen in the follow-ing points concerning the role of the POSYANDU.
POSYANDU and Empowerment of Mothers with Children still in the Womb To achieve the development of prosperous family, all POSYANDU are geared to encourage the participation of as many families as possible in acting as participants, managers orfollow-ers of the movement. They are grouped into several units with specific program activities.
POSYANDU empowers pregnantwomen In termsof health, the POSYANDU provides examinations and guidance for preg-nant women including improvement of knowledge concerning nutrition, general health, hygiene, physical fitness, and otherthings that a family needs to provide to support a healthy pregnancy. The POSYANDU also need to pay specific attention to the mother,
especially if the pregnancy is unplanned, orthe result of rape, or if there is a chance of birth abnormalities. The POSYANDU must prepare the mother, the family, and the community for any even-tuality.
In terms of education, the POSYANDU prepares the facilities for developing the reading habit and other activities that will stimulate the development of the baby. The POSYANDU can help prepare the family to work hard so that their child will be ready for school as early as possible and able to socialize freely and easily with other children.
In terms of economic opportunities, the POSYANDU is always ready to be a focal point for learning about economic opportunities for its members so that they can be-come more self-reliant and able to provide adequate nutrition for both the preg-nant mother and other family members.
The POSYANDU must prepare the mother, the family, and the community for any eventuality.
POSYANDU and Empowerment for Under-Five and Under-Three Children Concerning health, the POSYANDU provides information and facilities for maintaining the health of under-threes including immunizations, toddler programs, and joint family programs to strengthen community. POSYANDU must pay attention to the parents of children who may have been unplanned to make sure they get appropriate care and attention, and to children physi-cally, emotionally, or mentally handicapped.
In terms of education the POSYANDU stimulates family members to give children a chance to interact with other children of their own age so that their mental and socio-emotional growth is facilitated. POSYANDU also helps to refer children with spe-cial learning, physical, or other challenges to special education or assistance programs so that the child can grow as maximally with-out extreme stress placed upon the parents.
POSYANDU and the Empowerment of Schoolage Children
Concerning health, the POSYANDU assists with health maintenance integrated with other activities at school. The POSYANDU supports nutrition programs for poor children so that they can attend school and be healthy. School age kids are also monitored if they fail to attend school in case their truancy is health related.
In terms of education the POSYANDU motivates families of school age children so that children attend and stay in school. Special attention is given to children of poorfamilies, if necessary the children can be provided with transport to the closest school or other costs provided so that these children have access to ba-sic education. Vulnerable children also need to be monitored and supported so that they do not succumb to pernicious influences such as drugs that might destroy their future.
Concerning economic activities, the POSYANDU motivates parents of school age children to obtain education and training for H In terms of education the POSYANDU motivates families of schooll age children so that chil-dren attend and stay in school.
economic pursuits so that they can become economically active within their family unit. Understand the importance of training in of basic education for the healthy growth of their children. Fami-lies assisted should become increasingly self-reliant economically such that they can provide food and other necessities for their school age children.
Empowering Teenagers of High School Age
Concerning health, the POSYANDU supports health main-tenance for highschoolers especially by giving guidance to par-ents in monitoring and support the growth of their children. Special attention is given to reproductive issues so that parents and children can learn together at the POSYANDU. Parents and chil-dren can continue their discussion of issues within the family so thatthey become an aware family with full comprehension of teen age health issues.
In terms of education, the POSYANDU motivates parents to keep their children in school through high school, especially female children even though this is not yet compulsory. Higher levels of female education correlate positively with greater future independence. Female children from poor families who achieve high school education or beyond are more often able to break the chain of poverty for themselves and for their families. The threats to high school education are early marriage and work for supporting theirfamilies.
The threats to high school education are early marriage and work for supporting their families.
For economic improvement, POSYANDU members who have businesses can provide work and learning opportunities for highschoolers or high school age children not currently in school or who have dropped out. These apprenticeships can provide benefits for both sides as the young adults learn skills and the employers benefit from their labor. Members of POSYANDU can even form cooperatives, or jointly apply for productive credits from Banks with loan guarantees coming from more well-off members of the POSYANDU. Profits from these ventures can be donated to the POSYANDU to improve the social programs of the POSYANDU.
Parents and children can learn togetherat the POSYANDU. Empowering Senior Citizens through the POSYANDU
Families with senior citizen members that are part of the POSYANDU can provide guidance to the younger generation on values, culture, and lessons from their long experience. On the other hand, the POSYANDU can help senior citizens from poor families by lightening the healthcare costs entailed with advanced age. Senior citizens can also provide perspective and wisdom to support village development and maintain peace in the community. A senior citizens group within the POSYANDU can have multiple functions, on one hand they are members while on the other they can support programs and initiatives based upon their experience and through moral guidance for younger members. The POSYANDU can become the venue for senior citizen activ-ism, providing opportunities for senior citizens to remain active and vital.
III. STEPS FOR INTEGRATED POSTS DEVELOPMENT
Development of Integrated Post
From the above points it becomes clear that the POSYANDU is a family facility geared toward programs for poor families, with the goal of making these families working together so that they can improve their common welfare and empower them-selves and their members. Better off families and government fieldworkers can also help by supporting and facilitating the ef-forts of the poorer families. In this light, the POSYANDU is the facility and modality for family empowerment, and not directly the empowerer of family members.
Around 1993-1994 the Minister of Population/Chairman of the National Family Planning Board provided an interesting break-down concerning the empowerment of families via the POSYANDU and the specific programs that make families the focal point of developmentforquality, empowered, self-reliant Indonesians capable of being true active 'players' in national development. The main goal is the development of prosperous families with the twin objectives of making the family an agent of development as well as a wise consumer that can enjoy the benefits of develop-ment while being capable of exercising democratic choices. Above all, we emphasize a 'People-Centered' development ap-proach placing families and their members as the focal point of all development efforts.
1, Families of 'Underfive' children
All the powers of national development, including the Posyandu, must be summoned up to strengthen and prepare the families of underfive children. The Posyandu can prepare through the implementation of movement for "Preparing Families of Underfives", the program between the government and the com-munity that works to support the health of underfive children, their mothers, other family members, while giving everyone a better chance to understand the health needs of mothers and the stages of child development and finally help pre pare the children form undertaking school amongst their peers in the community.
The Support Under-fives Movement can become a key component of the Posyandu and can begin to meet often enough to become a form of Early Childhood Education by the community itself utiliz-ing youth in the community as tutors. Teenage youths
The Posyandu can prepare through the implementation ofmovement for "Preparing Families of Underfives".
can use their out of school time, either morning or afternoon, to serve as tutors for the younger children of the community. These youth can be trained first by professional teachers knowledge-able about the needs of very young learners. Parents who are not employed can also be utilized as 'partners' and facilitators of this kind of community based early childhood education.
The participation of parents as tutors is important since they can continue the educational process with their children within their home environment. Children from poor and marginal fami-lies must be given priority for participation in this program. Chil-dren from better-off families can also participate so thatthe whole community is involved in the endeavor and so that social solidar-ity is improved within the community. If necessary, private sector facilities within the area can be utilized for these programs.
Attention needs to be paid to the fact that all children need to receive equal treatment in order not to create any sort of gen-der imbalance. Male and female children must have equal op-portunities to participate in early childhood education activities. All male or all female programs targeting either one or the other of the sexes should not be allowed. The provision of health ser-vices such as immunizations should also be gender balanced so as not to favor male children only.
Within the development of the Movement for Development of Underfives government personnel including doctors, midwives, kindergarten teachers, psychologists, and child development spe-cialists need to provide guidance to the Posyandu. If local private facilities or organizations are present they can also be a source of support for the Posyandu. This can be a form of cross-subsidy,
wherein the Posyandu provides not just for those that can afford services, but also for those that cannot.
The families of Underfives often comprise parents of repro-ductive age, hence information and services related to family plan Male and female children must have equal opportunities to participate in early chi/dhood education activities.
Procluctive health must also be provided for full family empow-erment. Mothers and fathers must be invited often and together with the older children so that they can re-ceive information related to reproductive health, including information on HIV/ AIDS.
Families of Under fives might also be working families wherein both mother and father are employed full time. When the work, parents are often forced to leave children to grandmothers or other relatives. Due to this, a childcare/day care program may need to be established. Programs such as this can also become part of the Underfives Development Movement. The Movement can develop childcare/day care programs in cooperation with the Posyandu. Such Posyandu programs must be carefully prepared since children will spend many hours within the program.
2. Families of Teenagers
Concerted efforts must be made to make families aware of the fact that teenagers are the core of the future of the nation, 'seedlings' that must be carefully tended in order that they grow to be moral and of high quality. Parents of teenager must be aware that they are agents of development that must support their teen-age children as they mature so that they become a potent force for national development.
Parent must learn to understand the problems that face teenagers, support them always in their schoolwork, make sure they receive good nutrition, provide safety and security, and make sure they grow up in a moral, religious family environment that provides strong moral and principle guidance.
In this period of family development, when children reach teenage, mothers often do not work outside the home and also feel that their reproductive chores are at an end. At this time, many mothers get the desire to return to the labor force and un-dertaken productive work even though it is at this stage of devel-opment that children most need attention and careful guidance as compared to their younger years. The balancing influence of the Posyandu can be critical at this juncture.
Teenagers are subject to very powerful mental, emotional, and physical changes. As they reach puberty they feel new im-pulses and wish to obtain information concerning these changes in their life. However they are often too shy to ask their own par-ents, or fear that their 'all know-ing' parents might make light of their questions. Parents also might be reaching a sensitive age of many changes, such as discontent with their marriage, Concerted efforts must be made to make families aware ofthe fact that teenagers are the core ofthe future ofthe nation.
problems with the neighborhood, menopause. There are many possible types of conflict that can distract the attention of parents away from their children.
The sexually oriented emotions of teenagers increase, while Teenagers are subject to very powerful mental, emotional, and physical changes.
At the same time the sexual appetites of their parents may be falling off in middle age. This difference can also lead to misun-derstanding and conflict within the family. Parents, however, might still be of fertile age and hence still risk pregnancy, even though pregnancy at ages over 30 presents a range of risks of complica-tion including death hence it is hoped that mature families main-tain their contraception regimes.
Many parents of teenagers have been married foroverten, or even twenty years or thirty years. To brighten the family environment, the Posyandu offers meetings and other venues; while it is best for family members to keep things light by throwing family gatherings or parties for birthdays, anniversaries, and other events. The Posyandu can be a place for these family happenings, and the whole family can benefit from the words and advice provided by the Posyandu staff at such events.
In most cases teenagers will also have grandparents around. These oldest family members should also be recog-nized at events and theirwisdom and experience honored. Events such as this can also serve to bring together the younger and older generations, teenagers and seniors.
3, Families of Seniors
'Families of seniors' are those families having members over 60 or 65 years old. Usually these families still have members who are active, and youth who are coming into productive age and who provide hope for seniors. Sometimes, however, seniors live alone if they have no children orgrandchildren to careforthem.
The whole family must pmvide a conducive environment so that seniors can enjoy the remainder of their life in security, productivity, and happiness.
Within families the presence of a senior is a new nuance. This will become increasingly common as life expectancies grow longer. In such circumstances, each family member must learn how to create a dynamic environment for the seniors in their midst. The whole family must provide a conducive environment so that se-niors can enjoy the remainder of their life in security, productivity, and happiness.
Seniors who remain vital and fit need to be provided oppor-tunities to contribute and to create including work outside the household if available and in line with physical abilities. Those not physically able should still maintain a place of respect and honor within the family and the community.
Special Programs
Without taking away from the need to prioritize programs for the poor and marginal, there are some general community programs that are geared to reach all members of the community without differentiating based upon social or economic status. These programs need to be developed to provide a broader spec-trum of service and more color to activities of the Posyandu and PKK.
1, Reduction of Child and Maternal Mortality
One long running campaign is the "Movement for Save Motherhood". This movement is aimed at stimulating each and every family, especially those of reproductive age, to improve their knowledge and competency in the area of reproductive health. This program, in conjunction with programs on family planning and midwife training, has been effective in reducing child and in-fant mortality significantly.
Nevertheless, because former levels of child and maternal mortality were very high, the current situation is still far from ac-ceptable. This program needs to be extended with even stronger support and motivation and seriousness, especially amongst poor and marginal families of reproductive age. Ouality reproductive services and midwives need to be readily available and the aware-ness of the general community on these issues needs to be greatly improved as compared to previous times.
Mortality risks in this area include underage or overage couples, and pregnancies with little or no time interval. This risk is large due to the large number of young couples in the population that are poor and have little access to good information and services related to reproductive health.
This movement will press for, among otherthings, changes in attitude and behavior within the family, especially husbands and wives, so that they will go to the check-ups with doctors or midwives together. This change will encourage the whole family to provide support to the mother during the course of pregnancy and reduce the risk of illness, injury, or death due to pregnancy and giving birth.This movement will also force midwives and doctors spe-cializing in reproductive health to more often conduct home visits Mortality risks in this area include underage or overage couples, and pregnancies with little or no time interval.
To pregnant women and to conduct more advocacy and educa-tional activities concerning reproductive health with the hope that the coming younger generation will develop positive attitudes and practices related to pregnancy and birth that will be healthy, safe, and far from any sort of unnecessary mortality.
2, Support for Prevention of Malnutrition, Bird Flu, and other health problems
Modern communities face a range of life problems that area nearly without limit in scope or number. Problems arising in one area can also easily spread to other places at high speed due to mobility of the population and transportation infrastructure. Mal-nutrition can be prevented with close monitoring by the Posyandu. Children from both poor and better off families must obtain infor-mation from their parents who are members of the Posyandu.
This also goes for families of poultry raisers due to the ar-rival of Bird Flu. These families must get solid, useful information on prevention of disease and the safe preparation of poultry for consumption.
3, Support for Campaigns for HIV/AIDS Awareness
Children from both poor and better offfamilies must obtain information from theirparents who are members ofthe Posyandu.
Support for this campaign needs to be given to families with young children, school age children, and seniors. The HIV/
AIDS virus can attack anyone, young or old. Every family needs to be empowered comprehensively in order that prevention ac-tivities are accurate and no one becomes a needless victim of this disease.
The detailed targets of this program are in general as follows:
a. Families one of whose members is HIV/AIDS positive. The goal is that the person is not ostracized and that the disease does not spread uncontrolled. Infected families can help with prevention and make sure no other family members become infected.
b. Families one or more of whose members works within a high risk environment or occupation including hotels, entertainment complexes, discos, hospitals, transfusion centers, and other places.
c. Families one or more whose members visit frequently in the above mentioned
places.
d. Families one or more ofwhose members travels freguently for work or other reasons.
e. Families having high risk levels such as dentists, obstetricians, optomitrists, and blood transfusion specialists.
f. Young families, youth, and other families.
4, Universal Primary and Secondary Education
Another cross target program that promotes positjve atti-tudes and behaviors is the Universal Primary and Secondary Education program. Currently this program is targeted up to jun-ior secondary school, and hence to teenagers and youth. Due to the rapid advance of globalization, Posyandus and families in cit-ies and villages must work hard to lift the minimun schooling that children obtain such that they can keep pace with the developing world around them. If possible all children should be encouraged and supported in completing their high school education.
Universal Primary and early Secondary Education needs to be pushed to become Universal High School education of a full 12 years for all children. Like other empowerment programs, the primary goal is to provide access to education for poor and marginal families. Priority also has to be given to making sure that young women enter and continue in school as long as possible. This can easily be monitored by checking the attendance at the local high school. If there are unequal numbers of boys and girls, then something is wrong. Schools not making sure that young women have full access and support in completing their school-ing should be sanctioned.
Currently this program is targeted up to junior secondary school, and hence to teenagers and youth.
5, Support for Literacy Programs
Recently the awareness of the importance of preventing illiteracy has risen. The awareness is there that without a literate population capable of reading and writing fluently the nation will have trouble progressing. All citizens must have basic literacy skills so that they can participate effectively in national develop-ment as full and active citizens.
Posyandu's are an organization that serves the full range of economic, social, and educational strata within the community. As such, the Posyandu is aware of the poor and marginal who may be in need of educational assistance. Since the clientele of the Posyandu consists of many educational levels, it may draw upon the more educated members to serve as tutors for those who lack literacy skills.
Efforts to wipe-out illiteracy can be joined with other em-powerment in the area of people's economic development. Learn-ing materials for literacy programs can contain useful information that can help new readers to acquire the knowledge necessary for earning a better livelihood. Areas covered can include agricul-tural technology, home industry, trade, and development of hu-man skills for micro enterprise based in the family and in the com-munity.
6, Support for the Family Welfare Campaign
The family welfare campaign has the goal of empowering every family in Indonesia to reach its full potential. Capable, em-powered families will be able to develop all members of the family from underfives, to teenagers, to young adults, to adults and se-nior citizens. Such families will be knowledgable about family planning issues, reproductive health, and other areas that will al-low them to live healthy, productive, and independent lives.
The Self-reliant Family Planning Program strives to build self-funding programs utilizing private sector midwives and rtiedi-cal personnel. This program will attract community members in creasingly aware of their rights, and will allow them to choose on their own the methods of contraception that best suit their condi-tions.
The Family Welfare campaign will also support programs geared toward improving the welfare of underfives, youth, and The Family Welfare campaign wi/l also support programs geared toward improving the welfare ofunderfives, youth, and those ofworkforce age.
Those of workforce age. Due to this, the Family Welfare Cam-paign is multi-dimensional. First, it strives to improve motivation and capability to fulfill the demands of the community while sec-ond, it prepares citizens and families to understand and benefit from democracy and the unity of the nation.
IV. CONCLUSION
All of the above emphasizes the priority of making citi-zens and families the center and focal point of development.
If care is not taken, our activities may end up focusing upon POSYANDU program implementation. It is not impossible that we forget what is the real target, the families and their members, or the programs, as we become obsessed with programs. Even if programs are well-implemented, high quality, and involve many persons but forget that people are the goal, not the programs, then the service approach of POSYANDU, PUSKESMAS and other government ser-vices are wrong and are not reaching their true goals.
If this occurs, then our MDG targets, and in-deed our national devel-opment targets, will not be met. Poverty elimi-nation will also not be achieved. This failure will make the country appearthat it is not committed to achieving its development goals and agreements, and we will be embarrassed in international for not performing. |
