LLL Indonesia
F.B. Monika Purba, LLL Indonesia
Monika became a Leader in the United States. After living in New York, USA, for several years, she returned to Indonesia. Several months later, she started a new La Leche League Group in Bandung, Indonesia.
Monika said “It was a challenge to start a new Group in Indonesia because only a small percentage of mothers in Indonesia know about La Leche League.”
A few working mothers from PT Len Industri (Persero) were interested in the idea of La Leche League Series Meetings and proposed the meetings to their human resources department. It didn’t take long before the company approved monthly meetings to be held inside the office during the lunch break.
The first Series Meeting was held in November 2014. No babies came to the meeting because the mothers couldn’t bring their children to work during office hours. Some of the mothers express milk during office hours (between eight and nine working hours) and Monika’s suggestion of a pumping or breastfeeding room is currently under review with the managers. Fifteen working mothers excitedly attended that first meeting and they were all really looking forward to the next one.
Translation of LLL leaflets
Monika has translated the LLL tear-off sheets Breastfeeding Tips, Is My Breastfed Baby Getting Enough Milk, Introducing Complementary Foods and the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding Tear-Sheet Toolkit into Bahasa Indonesian. The translation of Breastfeeding Tips is already in print and the mothers of LLL Indonesia were delighted to receive a copy during their third meeting in March 2015. Monika explained “The tear-off sheets are much more useful than books. All the LLL books that I have are in English and most Indonesian mothers can’t read English.”
More than 20 mothers came to the meeting last month and the company management allowed an employee’s wife (who doesn’t work in the building) and her baby to be present, too. This meant they had their first baby in attendance!
For further information about La Leche League Indonesia see https://llli.org/indonesia.html
Monika Purba lived in the United States for several years and became accredited as an LLL Leader in September 2013 with Rochester South New York Group. In June 2014 she moved back to Indonesia, becoming the first La Leche League Leader there. Monika lives in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, with her family, including her two sons aged eight and six years old.
