Child doctors to make Jakarta a healthier city

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With her bright eyes looking straight at the audience, 10-year- old Garnis faultlessly answered all the questions posed regarding her duties as a "child doctor".

"I will always remind my friends to keep our surroundings clean so that we don't catch any diseases. For example, I will warn them if I see them littering," the fifth-grade student of the Tarsisius elementary school in Menteng, Central Jakarta, said to the city's deputy governor, Fauzi Bowo.

Fauzi officially launched the "training course" for the child doctors on Thursday at State Elementary School No. 1 in Gondangdia, Central Jakarta.

Wearing a doctor's white coat, Garnis and 119 other students from fourth, fifth, and sixth grades were present to witness the start of the training course. They were representing 600 child doctors attending 90 schools in Jakarta's five municipalities.

All of them will receive two weeks of training on healthy lifestyles, disease prevention, including eating clean and healthy food to prevent diarrhea, and good sanitary practices, such as keeping restrooms and their surroundings clean.

Trained teenagers from the Jakarta Youth Red Cross and doctors from the Jakarta Health Agency will help provide training to the children.

German multinational PT Beiersdorf Indonesia, which produces medical and beauty products, such as Hansaplast and Nivea, is sponsoring the program.

"We hope that this small contribution can help elementary school students increase their knowledge on healthy lifestyles and basic medical prevention measures, as well as encourage other schools to join the program," PT Beiersdorf president director Juergen Rohlfshagen said.

Fauzi, who is also the chief patron of the School Health Unit Program in Jakarta, said that the Child Doctor Program was aimed at educating children from the very beginning about how to prevent the transmission of communicable diseases.

Although the program was originally launched back in 1980, it faced many challenges, including a lack of funding and attention, said Fauzi. But that was all about to change now, he added.

"With a number of communicable diseases threatening Jakarta, the Child Doctor Program will make children aware of prevention measures right from the very beginning. We hope the kids will help us make Jakarta a healthier place in which to live," he said.

Jakarta is periodically hit by a number of deadly diseases, including dengue fever and cholera, as well as regular diarrhea outbreaks that claim the lives of many children every year. Experts have said that many Jakartans fall ill because of poor sanitation and unhealthy lifestyles.

The latest deadly disease to have emerged here is the human variant of bird flu, which claimed the lives of a father and his two daughters in Tangerang.

Currently, around 62 percent out of a total of 3,252 elementary schools in Jakarta have enrolled in the Child Doctor Program. There are 25,830 child doctors in the capital.

"I want to be a doctor someday so that I can help people who are sick. Right now, I will try to help my friends to stay clean and healthy," said child doctor Fikri, 10, from the host school.