Author | TATI RAHMAWATI
Personal Information：
2021
Kaohsiung Medical University
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Q：
Based on your professional experience, please reflect and elaborate on the field of health promotion across academics and practice.
A：
Supporting Spiritual Health towards Indonesian Labor Women in Taiwan during Ramadan “Fasting Month” and the Covid-19 Pandemic
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Determined the project concept
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Stipulated purpose to support spiritual health of Indonesian labor women and at the same time add information for stakeholders, academics, and communities to the awareness of migrant workers issues towards their religious practices especially during pandemic period.
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Built trust and created supportive environment
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Offered online discussion session via social media
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Offered Indonesian Muslim workers association information in Kaohsiung area
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Offered a religious institution along with religion teacher information in Kaohsiung area
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Provided Kaohsiung Medical University as a place for onsite discussion session collaborate with related expert
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Implemented the agenda and reported the findings and responses to colleagues and expertise
Reminded participants to interlude gathering religious practices to prevent pandemic transmission. There is no difference between doing daily activities at home before and after the pandemic. Moreover, they should always wear a mask and bring hand sanitizer when they plan to go outside. One participant explained,
Before the corona virus outbreak, we were allowed to go outside on every Sunday by our boss, then we will gather with other Indonesian people for breaking the fast and then our activities continued to perform night pray at mosque. Since corona virus outbreak, we feel very sad because we cannot perform our religious practices together. We are afraid of getting infected by a virus and also our boss does not allow us to go outside as often as before because they are also afraid if we can infect them as we have a change to get contaminate with the virus from outside activities.
Informed participants to acknowledge support systems from their family, boss, agency as well as government. One participant said,
The Indonesian representative government (the Indonesia economic and trade office) distributed free masks, however those who had a holiday on that day and knew the information only could get it. However, I am lucky that my boss always provides a mask for me.
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Technology application
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Elaborated existing literatures to colleagues and expertise
According to Law No. 13 2003 Chapter I Article 1 Paragraph 2 states that labor is any person who is able to work in order to produce goods and services to meet the needs of both themselves and for societies. Furthermore, according to DR Payaman Siamanjuntak in his "Introduction to Human Resources Economics" (1998: 103) workers are residents who have or are working, looking for work, and carry out other activities such as taking care of the household. In practical terms of labor and not labor according to him only differentiated by the limit age of 19 years old. More pursued, female workers is a term for women of Indonesian citizens and unskilled lowlife who work abroad in relation to employment for a specified period with pay (Haris and Azizah, 2018).
The ninth and most sacred month of the Islamic calendar, Ramadan marks the first revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad and is a time of increased spiritual reflection and devotion. Adherents traditionally abstain from food and drink during daylight hours throughout the month, from the first light of dawn until sunset or it is called fasting. A Pew Research Center survey showed that more than 38,000 Muslims around the world show widespread observance of Ramadan. In the 39 countries and territories surveyed, a median of 93% said that they fast during the holy month (Ghani, 2013, Ghouri et al., 2018).
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers discuss how Indonesian labor women experience whilst fasting during Ramadan. The risks of dehydration and cardiovascular strain due to fasting whilst working in physically demanding roles have been demonstrated. However, in addition to COVID-19, workers are also likely to be exposed to additional risks depending on the exact nature of the work they do, in addition to the recognized physical, cognitive and emotional demands of the pandemic (Moothadeth et al., 2020). In addition, there is no evidence that people who are healthy and were previously able to observe the fast without coming to harm, are at any additional risk from fasting in the context of COVID-19 (World Health Organization, 2020).
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Spiritual health challenging in other country during the pandemic
Various cases and issues have been against women migrant workers in the destination country, there are many people who choose to become migrant workers. It may be that this phenomenon is related to the strong impression that the number of jobs is not balanced by the number of job seekers, capital large population which is considered as capital construction, was not accompanied by serious improvements in human resources. As a result, labor is abundant with high unemployment (Haris and Azizah, 2018).
As labor women in Taiwan, while the fasting month occurs during the summer period, they will feel more exhausted. However, because they are used to it then it will not bother them from working. The only sad story was they could not meet their friends. Furthermore, as they can speak and understand Taiwan language very well, it helps them to avoid unnecessary problems with their boss due to the language barrier.
References
GHANI, F. 2013. Most Muslims say they fast during Ramadan. Available: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/07/09/global-median-of-93-of-muslims-say-they-fast-during-ramadan/ [Accessed 2022].
GHOURI, N., HUSSAIN, S., MOHAMMED, R., BESHYAH, S. A., CHOWDHURY, T. A., SATTAR, N. & SHEIKH, A. 2018. Diabetes, driving and fasting during Ramadan: the interplay between secular and religious law. BMJ Open Diabetes Res Care, 6, e000520.
HARIS & AZIZAH 2018. International Mobility Based on Women Labour: Study of Change in Socio-Economic-Cultural Family Former Migrant Worker Jakatawa Bulaksari In the Village, District Bantarsari, Cilacap Seen from the Perspective of Islamic Economic Theory. Ijtimā’iyya, 3.
MOOTHADETH, A., WAQAR, S., GHOURI, N., IQBAL, Z., ALAM, J., AHMED, S. & ABBAS, S. Z. 2020. Fasting during Ramadan and the COVID-19 pandemic. Occup Med (Lond), 70, 306-308.
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION. 2020. Safe Ramadan Practices in the Context of the COVID-19: Interim Guidance [Online]. Geneva: World Health Organization. Available: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/331767 [Accessed 3 Agustus 2022].
Q：
What are your suggestions or expectations for the next exchange of the seminar?
A：
I am grateful for having this continued opportunity. However, while doing this assignment, I was encountering difficulty in reviewing health promotion theory and practice. It is possible that some trainees might come from various educational backgrounds as well as different majors in public health study. Therefore, there is a need for a preamble of health promotion concepts and related health models to brainstorm trainees and facilitate them in integrating their experience towards health promotion. Moreover, I am very pleased if APACPH CCHP provides information about available job vacancies in institutions or on-governmental organizations.