Indonesia: Jakarta - GCC educates youth on Dental Health

GCC Indonesia and the Indonesian Youth Health Ambassadors organized an action to celebrate The National Month of Dental Health and promote dental health for kids in the suburbs of Jakarta, Pekojan on September 24, 2011. Indonesian Youth Health Ambassadors is a youth movement formed by one of the GCC Indonesia leaders, Dea. There were two GCC Indonesia leaders and fourteen university students from various universities that participated in this action. This activity was related to Food Security Action Month. Kids like to eat street foods that contain a lot of sugar and gluten. Therefore, it is very important that children properly regularly brush their teeth.

Fifty children from second grade to fifth grade attended the action that consisted of lecture and workshop. The short lecture’s main objective was to understand the anatomy of teeth and the process of tooth decay. The workshop taught children to brush teeth in the correct way. Then the children were divided into two groups: The first group attended the short lecture section while the second group attended the workshop section.

Dea, the Coordinator of this campaign said that she hoped children would understand and improve their ability to maintain dental hygiene behavior. The action took place in Pekojan, one of Mercy Corps Indonesia livelihood program working areas.