Single mother, Evi Herawati, from Saruni village in Pandeglang, Indonesia had already suffered unimaginable loss when she discovered her youngest child, Syera, had contracted dengue fever last February.
Within the space of a year, Evi had not only lost both of her parents, but her husband passed away unexpectedly, too, leaving her to raise their four children alone. So when little Syera started showing worrying health symptoms—fever, shivering, and a bleeding nose—Evi feared the worst.
“When my child got sick, I didn’t know it was dengue fever. When I found out it was dengue, my heart dropped. I felt like my soul left my body. Why does it have to be my daughter? Take me instead,” she explains.
Thankfully, help swiftly came in the form of family friend and Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) volunteer, Bu M’Bai.
Recognizing the symptoms and the urgency of the situation, Bu M’Bai quickly reported the suspected dengue case to her supervisor, who escalated it to the local health authorities. She and her fellow volunteers then quickly took Syera and Evi on their motorbikes to the nearest health centre, where Syera received the urgent medical assistance she needed to survive.
“My daughter was treated for six days. The PMI team always came to visit, they monitored every day. I was very moved by PMI. I was delighted that there is someone who could help, who is always ready to help,” says Evi.
Happily, Syera made a full recovery and is back to her normal, bright self—playing with her friends, going to school and helping Evi around the house.
Evi and Syera sit and talk with family friend and Indonesian Red Cross volunteer, M’bai, outside their home in July 2024.
Photo: Rebecca Cole/IFRC
What is dengue fever and why is it a public health threat in Indonesia?
Dengue fever is a viral disease spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, typically found in countries with tropical and subtropical climates. Symptoms include fever, headache, pains and a rash, and severe dengue can lead to death if not detected and treated quickly.
Dengue cases surged across Indonesia in 2024 and there are fears that rising temperatures due to climate change will create more favourable conditions for dengue-carrying mosquitos to replicate and survive longer, risking even more lives across the country.
But through the Community Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness Programme (CP3), funded by USAID, the Indonesian Red Cross is supporting communities and partners to reduce dengue risks so stories like Evi and Syera’s can become a thing of the past.
A prepared community is a healthy community
CP3 volunteers conduct regular house visits, hold community meetings, and run sessions in schools to educate people about the dangers of dengue, what to do if they notice symptoms, and the steps people can take to stay safe. These include wearing long clothing, applying mosquito repellent, and following the ‘3M program’ to eliminate potential mosquito breeding grounds in the home: draining water containers (‘menguras’), covering water sources (‘menutup’), and recycling items which could collect water (‘mendaur ulang’).
Schoolchildren from MTs MII Cidangiang school in Saruni village smile and make the hand gesture for the CP3 programme after participating in a dengue awareness session led by Indonesian Red Cross volunteers in July 2024.
Photo: Paul Wu/IFRC
Ade Sutisna, Head of Saruni Village, reports seeing real change thanks to this community engagement:
“The community here is vulnerable to diseases. But with the presence of CP3, thank God, when community members are ill, they take swift action and the volunteers quickly bring them to the hospital. A few years ago, a lot of people would die here due to dengue fever. Now, with the health promotion and preventive measures from volunteers, the number of cases has reduced.”
Promoting a clean environment
Community members in Saruni village, Pandeglang team up with Indonesian Red Cross volunteers as part of a ‘Clean Saturday’ initiative to clean up their local area, eliminate potential mosquito breeding grounds, and reduce dengue risks.
Photo: Paul Wu/IFRC
To further reduce dengue risks at the community level and foster community spirit in the fight against dengue, CP3 volunteers run weekly ‘Clean Saturday’ events whereby community members conduct a mass clean-up of their local area. People unite with brooms, dustpans and brushes, binbags and other cleaning equipment to tidy up their community, remove litter, and drain any stagnant water sources. CP3 volunteers also assist with larvae monitoring at these events, distributing a special insecticide powder called Abate which can be safely added to people’s drinking water stores to kill mosquito larvae.
CP3 supervisor, Yadi, helps local health authorities in Saruni village to conduct ‘fogging’ (spraying a fine mist of insecticide into the air) to kill mosquitoes in targeted areas. This is usually done as a response measure in areas where large numbers of dengue cases are identified.
Photo: Rebecca Cole/IFRC
Early detection, early action, healthier communities
Using a digital community-based surveillance system set up in 2022 called ‘SatuSBM’, CP3 volunteers, like Bu M’bai, are constantly on the lookout for signs of dengue and other unusual health events in their community and can report alerts at the press of a button to their supervisors and local health authorities. Not only does this facilitate a rapid health response and help save lives, like in Syera’s case, the data collected also supports the Indonesian government to monitor dengue cases, identify any hotspots, and take further action at scale.
Indonesian Red Cross volunteers Bu Susi and Bu M’bai use a mobile phone-based community-based surveillance system called SatuSBM to report unusual health events in their community to their supervisor, who can then investigate quickly escalate to the local health authorities for rapid response to disease outbreaks.
Photo: Rebecca Cole/IFRC
As Dian Handayani, Deputy of Prevention and Disease Control for Pandeglang District Health Office, puts it:
“We have dengue endemic districts here in Pandeglang which experience cases throughout the year. We greatly appreciate PMI, we feel like partners. PMI has mobilized the people to be on the lookout for mosquito larvae at home, to help us by reporting cases discovered by the people to our health workers so that we can treat them quickly and appropriately. This can support the eradication of dengue fever.”
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The activities featured in this article are part of the Community Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness Programme (CP3). Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), CP3 supports communities, National Societies and other partners to prepare for, prevent, detect and respond to disease threats.
If you enjoyed this story and would like to learn more, sign up to the IFRC’s Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness Newsletter or visit the Indonesian Red Cross Society’s website.