Prof. Zullies
Prof. Zullies di Depan Maskot
Perhaps kid doctor is not peculiar to our ears, but we rarely hear the term kid pharmacist.This idea was initiated by Prof. Dr. Zullies Ikawati, Apt, and supported by Dr. rer.nat.Triana Hetriani, M.Sc., Apt and Prof.Dr. Agung Endro Nugroho, M.Sc., Apt ,. All of them are professors at the Faculty of Pharmacy, UGM. The importance of providing knowledge to children about drugs, prompted her to introduce health field to children through kid pharmacist program. Zullies start the program by taking students of Luqmanul Hakim and Kentungan Elementary School on an extracurricular activities called “Apoteker Cilik” (Kid Pharmacist) to learn about medicine, healthy snacks and traditional medicine,
"People who are not familiar with pharmacists can learn more about who pharmacist is and what they do. " Zullies said on Monday (4/1).
Supported by research grants from DIKTI, Zullies has started to teach kid pharmacists since August 2015. Through this idea, Zullies wants to collaborate kid doctor with kid pharmacist. According to Zullies, information about healthy sncaks, drugs and herbs are still confusing. Sometimes people still misinterpret what unhealthy snacks are, the dangers of drugs and what herbs looked like. Through this kid pharmacists program, we are expecting children can become agents that can fix the confusion.
By collaborating with PIOGAMA (Gadjah Mada Drug Information Service), Zullies and the team socialized information related to the mentioned topics every day as an after-school program. To attract the kids, they use 3 Mascots which are Jeksi, Tabby and Kapsi. Jeksi is originally came from the term “injection”, it has similar shape like a syringe with a green colour. Tabby comes from the word “tablet”. It has colour of pink. Kapsi is taken from the word “capsule” and it shaped like a capsule with red colour.
"Our main target is 5th graders, because the 6th graders would be busy preparing for school exams, and 4th graders are still too small. However, we could arrange something if they are interested to join us, " Zullies said.
Besides assisted by mascots, Zullies also makes comics about kid pharmacists. Hopefully, this comic book could be socialized to all Indonesian children across province.That way, children can become health agents.