A partnership between Pure Earth and the Ministry of Health to strengthen the national healthcare system to better prevent, identify, and treat lead poisoning.

Strengthening Indonesia’s Health System to Protect Children from Lead Poisoning

Pure Earth is partnering with the Ministry of Health to improve Indonesia’s health system to better identify, monitor, treat, and reduce childhood lead exposure to help children realize their full potential.

Protecting children from exposure to lead is important to lifelong good health. There is no safe blood lead level in children. Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to affect learning, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement. To prevent further exposure and reduce damage to their child’s health. The most important step that parents and caregivers, healthcare providers, and public health professionals can take is to prevent lead exposure before it occurs.


Objective One

Build capacity in Indonesia to monitor exposure of children to lead.

Objective Two

Improve environmental health data collection in selected countries by establishing a national system of monitoring exposure of children to lead.

Objective Three

Increase knowledge about sources and pathways of exposure of children to lead.

Objective Four

Strengthen the ability of healthcare professionals to early identify, treat, and prevent lead poisoning, and educate communities and children about lead poisoning and ways to avoid/mitigate risks.

Project Updates

2023

In 2023, Pure Earth Indonesia organized the national launch of the program, solidifying collaboration with the Ministry of Health by signing a partnership – witnessed by representatives from multiple government bodies, WHO, UNICEF, and other key stakeholders. In collaboration with its strategic partner, Vital Strategies, Pure Earth Indonesia developed questionnaires to assess national laboratory capacity and the results will be used as reference for inventory and capacity improvement to monitor lead exposure, especially in children.

Learn more in this overview of the project’s advancements during its first year in Indonesia.

Implementing Partners

Partners include the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Environment, Pure Earth, and Vital Strategies.

Project duration:

January 2023 – December 2027

Resources

The Toxic Truth Report

Pure Earth and UNICEF, 2020

Lead Fact Sheet↗

Pure Earth

Videos

Pure Earth Indonesia: Strengthening Health Systems to Reduce Lead Exposure 2023 Annual Report

A Global Initiative

Today, 1 in 3 children have enough lead in their blood to cause permanent brain damage. This project is part of a broader initiative by Pure Earth to strengthen expertise in national healthcare systems to prevent, identify, and treat lead poisoning in 5 countries. An estimated 292 million of these lead-poisoned children live in Colombia, India (Maharashtra), Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, and Peru. This 5-year project will help these 5 countries to overcome key technical and clinical hurdles to effectively identify, treat, and prevent childhood lead exposures, and to implement effective national action to monitor and reduce lead poisoning risks.

Learn more about each project in ColombiaKyrgyzstanPeru, and Maharashtra, India.