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Fatherly love: Dads step up to plate for child health in East Flores
It has been common practice for fathers to take their children to the local Posyandu in Boru Kedang village, Wulanggitang district, ever since village authorities introduced the Posyandu Bapak (Father for Posyandu) program five years ago.
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Fatherly love: Fathers hold their children at a Posyandu in Boru Kedang village in East Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, on Feb. 21. (JP/Hengky Ola Sura)
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span id="docs-internal-guid-c8ba3ed1-7fff-3938-1740-32fc6c8539e5">Integrated health services posts (Posyandu) are synonymous with mothers and their children who visit them to access basic child health care.
But for one Posyandu in East Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, where traditional gender roles are being challenged, this is not always the norm.
It has been common practice for fathers to take their children to the local Posyandu in Boru Kedang village, Wulanggitang district, ever since village authorities introduced the Posyandu Bapak (Father for Posyandu) program five years ago.
The initiative came from village head Darius Don Boruk, who in 2015 gathered his subordinates and the village midwife to look into his idea of designing the program. Darius said he believed that child development and health were the responsibility of both parents, not just the mother.
When Darius began introducing his plan to the villagers, some residents responded with doubt, while others thought he was out of his mind.
"When we were finalizing the Posyandu Bapak program, there were villagers who refused to take part in the program. But I insisted on it,” he told The Jakarta Post recently.
“I admit that I was pretty hard at first. But our village was one of villages in Wulanggitang that was considered to be lagging behind in child health, so I was determined to start with small changes by initiating the Posyandu Bapak program.”
