Youth volunteers in action:

children help improve school performance

Riska, who is in the 5th grade at school, actively encourages fellow students to be clean and she even checks their fingernails every morning!

She is one of many students who has received health promotion training provided by Plan in collaboration with local health units.

Riska inspecting the hands of her fellow students

Poor sanitation and inadequate hygiene practices account for the ever-increasing spread of infectious diseases among children. Particularly in rural Indonesia, food and water-borne diseases such as worm infestation and diarrhea are common. 

This greatly affects children's ability to focus, as well as their responsiveness in school, and in some cases causes the children to drop out of school altogether.

With Plan’s assistance children on the Island are addressing the problem of infectious disease by changing their habits and the behaviour of their peers using a Child-to-child approach.

With the knowledge and skills acquired from their training, children work directly with their schoolmates and have been influential in changing attitudes toward personal hygiene and cleanliness. Ultimately this improves school performance.

Plan helped to train students from 11 primary schools - all of whom are now avid health promoters.  Riska has become so committed and active that we would not be surprised if someday she becomes a health professional.

“I am very happy to be a school health volunteer so that I can help others," she says.