The legacy of a public health graduate is often measured by their success in making a real impact on local communities. This principle is what led Kurnia Ramadhani, a 2005 graduate of the Faculty of Public Health (FKM) at Universitas Airlangga, to step far beyond regional community health centers (Puskesmas) and enter the academic realm in Europe.
Kurnia's career began as a health educator, but she solidified her position when she served as the head of the Tongas Puskesmas. There, she initiated a creative breakthrough by empowering mobile vegetable vendors, locally known as 'wlijo', as stunting education agents. This culturally tailored strategy proved effective, drastically reducing stunting cases from 627 children in 2019 to just 80 in 2022.
Not stopping at stunting prevention, Kurnia also initiated the 'Mbakyu Sahabat Bumil' (Mbakyu Friends of Pregnant Women) program to maintain zero Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR). This innovation, based on empowering health cadres, gained international recognition, leading her to present the results of this fieldwork at the Women’s Health Conference at the National University of Singapore in 2024. For her, health innovation does not always require expensive technology, but rather empathy in humanizing social interactions.
To keep pace with the times, Kurnia modernized health services through the implementation of a WhatsApp Chatbot and the 'Sister Gadis Sehat' (Healthy Girls Sisterhood) movement to reduce anemia among adolescents. She believes that adolescent health is the primary key to breaking the chain of health issues from upstream to downstream, as they are the future mothers who will shape the next generation.
Equipped with a wealth of field experience and an impactful track record, Kurnia is currently pursuing her doctoral (PhD) studies at the University Medical Center Groningen, Netherlands, through the LPDP scholarship. Her research focus, supported by the Aletta Health Grant, aims to strengthen adolescent anemia prevention policies in Indonesia. She hopes this academic step will serve as a bridge to create more inclusive and solution-oriented health policies for her homeland.
