To expand the benefits, Unilever Indonesia continues the "Santri Berseri 2024" program in the form of training and health education activities that now target administrators, students and female students in Islamic boarding schools spread across 17 provinces. Until the end of the year, this program, which has the full support of the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, is targeted to reach one million santris throughout Indonesia.
Nurdiana Darus, the Head of Sustainability and Corporate Affairs, Unilever Indonesia, explained: "As a Company committed to growing with the people of Indonesia, we always innovate through products and educational programs that are able to meet consumer needs for a cleaner and healthier life. In terms of education, we continue to collaborate with the government and educational institutions to support the creation of healthier future generations."
Unilever Indonesia believes that Islamic boarding schools are strategic educational institutions to be involved with because hygiene and health are very much in line with the values of Islamic teachings. Moreover, the intense interaction between santri/female students who study and live in Islamic boarding schools is an excellent opportunity to model and imitate various positive lifestyle approaches, including “Clean and Healthy Living Behavior” (PHBS).
"For this reason, since 2019, we have organized the 'Santri Berseri' program, which emphasizes the power of peer-to-peer learning when implementing both PHBS and personal grooming, with an emphasis on the importance of personal and environmental hygiene and consumption of balanced nutritious food." Nurdiana continued.
The "Santri Berseri 2024" program aims to expand the benefits to another one million students in 1,000 Islamic boarding schools spread across 17 provinces to reach a total of two million students. The seventeen provinces are North Sumatra, West Sumatra, South Sumatra, Bengkulu, Lampung, Central Java, East Java, Aceh, West Java, Yogyakarta, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, Gorontalo, South Kalimantan, DKI Jakarta, and Banten.
As a form of support and collaboration, each program is also attended by the Regional Office of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in the local city or district. In one of the activities, Dr. H. Ibnu Asaddudin, S.Ag., M.Pd., the Head of the Banyumas Regency Ministry of Religious Affairs Office, said: "This program is very useful because santris are the future generations of this nation, and so they must become digdaya santri; namely santri who are ready to be anybody, ready to be called by the state at any time without losing their identity as a santri. To become an empowered santri, they must behave in a clean and healthy manner. That means taking showers, using shampoo, taking care of their skin and eating nutritious food. If their lifestyles are clean, radiant, healthy, they will grow in self-confidence. It is that self-confidence that will realize the empowered santri."
To start this program, from June to August 2024, NGO partners held Training of Trainers (ToT) activities involving pesantren administrators and Santri ambassadors. This activity focused on improving several habits such as: washing hands with soap, brushing teeth twice a day, maintaining hair hygiene, caring for facial and body skin, preventing body odor as part of personal hygiene, preparing balanced nutritious meals according to the contents of their plates, and managing waste in the pesantren environment.
As the organizer of the ToT activity, Widiandayani, a representative of NGO partners, Unilever Indonesia (PERSADA) said: "We must encourage education and form habits to maintain personal and environmental hygiene together so that the santri can prevent several diseases such as scabies, diarrhea, dengue fever, ARI, and others. Through the 'Santri Berseri' program, we encourage the pesantren community to better understand and implement PHBS so that students will have more confidence and enthusiasm in learning."
Furthermore, the ToT participants will spread their knowledge to the entire pesantren community, especially their peers. In addition, there will be a 21-day movement to establish a clean and healthy lifestyle habits.
"We hope that the entire series of 'Santri Berseri' programs can realize our joint mission to create agents of change who are able to create a healthier pesantren and community environment," Nurdiana concluded.