During my trip to Indonesia, I was able to meet with Bandung District’s First Lady, the Head of the District Health Office, and the District Health Office Deputy.
Save The Children’s SELARAS program is very complimentary to their mission to improve community health through improved environment sanitation at home, improve access to clean water, latrines or toilets for safe defecation, and waste management.
They treated us like family.
Save The Children’s SELARAS program is a health, hygiene and hand washing initiative for newborn survival in Bandung district in West Java, Indonesia. SELARAS aims to contribute to a reduction in newborn mortality in four sub districts in Bandung district and will contribute to Save the Children’s global EveryOne campaign which aims to reduce child mortality.
SELARAS is implemented in the same areas as the USAID-funded Expanding Maternal and Newborn Survival (EMAS) program in Bandung district, which focuses on improving emergency obstetric and newborn care in first and second – level health facilities. By doing this, SELARAS will support the complete continuum of care from the household to the district hospital and will be able to leverage the EMAS project’s local and national relationship for even greater impact.
This five years project will achieve its objective by increasing the quality of hygiene and hand washing practices among health facility staff, village midwives and Traditional Birth Attendants to prevent infection during delivery and postnatal care, increasing knowledge and improving practices of household caregivers in newborn health, and improving the policy and resource allocation environment to support improved hygiene and hand washing practices for newborn survival.