The Community Service Activities by SF ITB, Making the Community Health Representatives in Pangandaran
BANDUNG, itb.ac.id – The Community Service Team from the School of Pharmacy (SF) Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) carried out community service in the Pangandaran area, West Java, last August 2020. This activity is a series of community services previously carried out in Bandung City and Bandung Regency.
Community service carried out in several training community health cadres as pharmacist partners and providing education to the community in the Pangandaran area regarding the use of excellent and correct drugs. The jargon is Dagusibu (Get, Use, Save, Dispose) and Germas (Healthy Community Movement).
This community service movement involved several young lecturers, namely apt. Bhekti Pratiwi, M.Sc.; apt. M. Azhari, M.Sc.; Sri Indah Ihsani, M.Or.,; Iwa Ikhwan Hidayat, M.Or., and apt. Wini Nur Auli, M.Sc., chaired by Dr.rer.nat. apt. Sophi Damayanti, M.Sc., as the Head of the Pharmacochemical Expertise Group of the School of Pharmacy ITB.
Dr. Sophi Damayanti said that the community service activity was carried out as a form of ITB's concern in responding to some problems that occurred in the community. For example, according to Ministry of Health (MoH) data, out of 35.7% of households that store drugs, 81.9% of them store hard drugs and antibiotics obtained without a doctor's prescription. "This drug is used for self-medication or self-medication of the illness. This shows that some Indonesians do not have a good understanding of how to self-medicate and use good, correct, and rational medicines," she said.
This series of community movements began with a survey to fill out a questionnaire to know the extent of public knowledge in Pangandaran regarding drug use. Furthermore, they were given training on knowledge, self-medication (self-medication), rational medicine knowledge, and the use of food additives that are safe for consumption.
Furthermore, the ITB team also distributed several health support books for educational purposes, written by lecturers and several School of Pharmacy (SF) ITB alumni. In addition, the ITB team also informed them about hazardous chemicals in foods and drugs according to the information provided by the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency. For example, one dangerous chemical in foods is borax, which is currently widely misused.
Furthermore, the training session for community representatives was carried out on August 22, 2020, in the Cikembulan Health Center Hall. Twenty representatives from five health centres in Pangandaran Regency have attended the training. This training was divided into two sessions: presenters and workshops related to drugs and foods. The community service was finished by the virtual dissemination of posters of the results of the activities in the 2020 Indonesian Pharmacists Association Annual Scientific Meeting (PIT) on November 5, 2020.
This series of community service activities in Pangandaran has been published in Media Indonesia as of May 25, 2021. ITB team hoped that the event would educate the Pangandaran community related to foods and drugs. "Hopefully, the trained community representatives would provide basic knowledge and empower their communities," said Sophi.
Reporter: Nur Rama Adamas (TPB FTSL, 2020
Translator: Billy Akbar Prabowo (Metallurgical Engineering 2020)
scan for download
