Jakarta's urban poor: 15 family nutrition classes

Building a Foundation of Nutrition Knowledge

The previous report described the first cycle of the Nutrition course. The second cycle was conducted in the Fall (Sep-Nov 2025) at one partner preschool in Krendang. Over five sesesions, 16 participating parents learned about carbohydrates, protein, vegetable, water, and fruit – not just about its importance but also how to practically incorporate it into their families’ diets. The verbal feedback that we received from the participants was consistently positive. Quizes were administered before and after each session to assess change in knowledge. Results showed significant improvements in the average score, particularly for:

• Carbohydrates (from 50% to 87%)
• Protein (from 31% to 63%)
• Vegetables (from 42% to 67%)

There was a slight decrease in the average quiz score for the water topic which we will note for the next time we prepare to teach on water in the future.

UPH Collaboration: Cooking Demonstrations & Children's Activities

In line with our organizational value of collaboration, Bina Berdaya Bangsa forged a new partnership with Pelita Harapan University (UPH). We, together with UPH, conducted the session on fruit. Additionally, UPH conducted cooking demonstrations for 15 parents where the parents learned to make "vegetable balls" using an easy recipe that combines carbohydrates, protein, and vegetables. Children learned through playing activities about fruits and vegetables. One of the participating mothers said, "I never thought vegetables could be made so delicious, and this recipe is also cheap and easy."

Real Change Through Home Visits

As follow-up to the nutrition course, six families opted to participate in the series of home mentoring visits. We made a total of 21 visits among these families with the purpose of empowering parents to implement small but consistent changes in the way they parent, set their child’s daily routines, and shape their child’s eating habits. One of the strongest impacts that we saw was in Mrs. Hafizah’s child's sleep pattern and screen time on electronic devices:

• Bedtime shifted from 3am to 11pm.
• Daily screen time decreased from 5 hours to 3 hours 20 minutes
• Mrs. Hafizah's child began drawing and praying as alternatives.

“I learned to talk to my child without getting angry. It turns out that he can change if I'm consistent," said Mrs. Hafizah.  This change demonstrates that simple interventions can have a big impact when families are supported to parent more effectively. In addition, we provided tips and tools to equip parents to teach their kids on particular topics. One of the mothers, Mrs. Arsya, reported, “The flipbook made it easier for me to explain why vegetables are important, not just telling him to eat.“

Challenges

Sometimes there were challenges to participants fully learning the material due to their late arrival to sessions or due to distractions from children during sessions.  External factors also made it difficult for some families to implement changes at home on a consistent basis.  Lack of support from the father caused some mothers to quickly tire of trying to make changes. These challenges highlight some of the realities of underprivileged families in Krendang that should be addressed or taken into consideration in program design in the future.

Looking Ahead to 2026

After evaluating the Nutrition program in its totality, along with looking ahead to the future direction of Bina Berdaya Bangsa, we decided not to continue the Healthy Family Program after 2025. The main reasons are:

• Our focus is community empowerment, not long-term services that cannot be taken over by the community.
• Our partner schools have not yet demonstrated readiness to continue or integrate the program into the school’s activities and priorities.
• Without local commitment to the program, the sustainability of the program cannot be achieved.

Nonetheless, our relationships with the kindergarten schools in Krendang remain strong, keeping the door open for collaborations of a different form in the future. We are grateful for this year’s Nutrition Program families - for their dedication to engage and for the progress they made in enacting healthier lifestyles for their families for the long run. We remain committed to seeing community and social infrastructure strengthen and grow in Krendang. So stay tuned and journey with us in 2026 as we move forward in this vision with new approaches.

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