Tanoto Foundation’s SIGAP team recently organised a talk titled “The Parent’s Smile is the Future of Children” for dozens of parents in the Akasia Tebet neighbourhood in South Jakarta, Indonesia.

Anna Surti Ariani, a psychologist, and Sogi Indra Dhuaja, a foster care activist, were featured as speakers at the event.

The SIGAP program aims to support human capital development in Indonesia through integrative holistic early childhood care and education for children in the country.

“The smiles that parents give to children, especially those aged 0 to 3 years, are very meaningful for their development. Children who are often given smiles are more likely to be optimistic people, while  the children of parents who care less and never smile may grow up to become closed, and lacking in confidence,”

Anna Surti Ariani.

Such habits of parents which may seem trivial can actually have a big impact on children’s development and this needs to be known by all parents, as proper parenting can determine a child’s future, she added.

The quality of human capital in Indonesia remains a current concern, with Indonesia ranking 87^th out of 157 countries in the Human Capital Index (HCI) survey by the World Bank.

In Southeast Asia, Indonesia ranks below Singapore (1), Vietnam (48), Malaysia (57), Thailand (68) and the Philippines (82).

Improving the country’s HCI rank has to be done in a structured and sustainable manner, and human resource improvement in Indonesia must be carried out early, even before children are born.

This is one of Tanoto Foundation’s areas of focus, with the Foundation running various activities in addition to its SIGAP program, as part of efforts to support early childhood education and development in Indonesia.

Improve the quality of ECED Centers

Tanoto Foundation partners with early childhood education centers and supports them with teacher training, learning aid development, book donations and classroom renovations. Tanoto Foundation also supports the development of RPTRA Akasia in Tebet and RPTRA Bahari in Gandaria, South Jakarta – integrated child-friendly public spaces meant to be the center of activities to improve early childhood care and education.

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Supports stunting reduction

Tanoto Foundation actively supports the government’s efforts to reduce stunting rates in Indonesia. One of the ways it does this is through its support of Stunting Prevention Ambassador training in Cianjuar West Java, organised by the Indonesian Office of the Presidential Staff and the National Poverty Eradication Acceleration team. Stunting Prevention Ambassadors are trained to raise awareness among their communities about the importance of reducing stunting, in collaboration with their local Posyandu (integrated health service centers).

Supports child development research

Tanoto Foundation is well aware that good research is required for good policy-making, and financially supports research which aims to solve child development issues in Indonesia. Among them is research being conducted by SMERU Research Institute to create Nutritional Status Maps in Indonesia which map stunting areas in the country and facilitate the development of effective solutions. Tanoto Foundation also helps to communicate and disseminate these research findings.

Written by Arini Dina Yasmin, Tanoto Scholar from Brawijaya University

Last month, our team won the gold medal in the education application category at the 2019 Young Inventors Exhibition (WYIE) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

We won with SMAOTHER (Smart Mother), our stunting prevention education smartphone app – which we also named our team after.

Our SMAOTHER team is made up of eight students, three of whom are Tanoto Scholars from Brawijaya University: Adam Syarif Hidayatullah, Ismelia Novitasari, and myself, Arini Dina Yasmin.

The idea to create SMAOTHER came from Tanoto Foundation. While participating in Tanoto Foundation training activities, we listened to presentations about their various programs to improve human capital development in Indonesia.

One of Tanoto Foundation’s areas of focus is contributing to the prevention of stunting in Indonesia. We looked more deeply into stunting, and it turns out the problem is very serious and complex in Indonesia. The stunting figure is still quite high in the country – around 30.8 per cent – according to the 2018 Basic Health Research survey data from the Ministry of Health.

This inspired us to make an app to educate people on stunting prevention. We wanted to get involved, do something to help improve the quality of human resources in Indonesia.

We began the process of creating the app in March 2019. It took about two months of hard work to complete it. Each team member had a role in developing the app – data collection, content creation, or the technical process of making the app itself.

We often had to work late during that time. We even worked until dawn in the days nearing the deadline. Since starting the project, we were determined to spend time on it with the notion that we were going to create something that would be beneficial to the nation. As young people, we feel the need to be involved and offer solutions to existing issues. We can’t just stand idly by.

Our SMAOTHER application has several features. First, it contains educational information about stunting.

It also contains news and tips on maternal and child health. The app features information about pregnancy and fetal development according to age, which users can use to compare with their own pregnancies.

SMAOTHER also allows users who have children below five years old to input their biodata (including the child’s age and weight) which will be sent directly to their nearest Posyandu (Child Health Centre) so that the centre can monitor the child’s health.

We are proud because our efforts have been recognised at several regional forums. The 2019 WYIE was attended by participants from 11 countries, including Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Qatar, Australia and China.

Right now, we are planning to further develop SMAOTHER by releasing it to the public. We hope this small step can help the government in preventing stunting in Indonesia.