‘Aisyiyah in Sumedang Trains Women Community Leaders

Health, including reproductive health, is one of the basic rights of all citizens. However, in Indonesia, women’s access to reproductive health services still requires further attention. Women’s access to reproductive health services is limited due to a combination of policy,, limited capacity and skills of health providers and workers and also women’s low awareness of the importance of reproductive health.

In addition, the lack of awareness about the importance of women’s leadership in improving women access to reproductive health services is a contributing factor to low levels of demand for and access to services at the community level.

Nur Hajar Setyowati, from ‘Aisyiyah Head Office believes, “Strong leadership by community’s women leaders leads to the increase of women’s access to reproductive health services at the community level.”

As a MAMPU partner, ‘Aisyiyah continues to foster women’s leadership capacity through its cadres. A training event titled “Training of volunteers to Strengthening Women’s Leadership and Reproductive Health” was held in Sumedang from 18-19 February 2017 to empower cadres.

Attended by 62 participants, ‘Aisyiyah provided informational about women’s leadership, information about reproductive health issues and government policies on breastfeeding, family planning, cervical cancer, nutrition and national health insurance shared by the Sumedang Department of Health.

“After the training, hopefully the cadres understand the relations between reproductive health fulfillments with the importance of women leadership to access reproductive health services,” said Hajar.

In addition, participants were provided with the skills in forming women’s groups and to advocate for policy change at the community level.

Reported by Suri Putri (‘Aisyiyah)