Women religious congregation as driving force behind alleviation of urban poor nutrition

Abstract This article discusses the social role of urban women active in religious studies in improving community nutrition in Cisaranten Kidul Village, Gedebage Sub-District, Bandung City, Indonesia. Using a qualitative method, this study looked into the social networks that incorporate women groups and the values they prescribe to deal with the community’s lack of nutrition through data collection, field observation, in-depth interviews, focus group discussion, and document assessment. The women group’s social role was producing and distributing nutritious food to the local families with under-nutrition toddlers. The selection of 17 informants for the interviews was based on their involvement and knowledge of the program. The research found that Islamic teachings on treating neighbors are the driving force behind the initiative to act on the problem, bringing the number of baby stunting cases from 22 in 2013 down to zero in 2016. The program was continued in healthy food production, aiming to build the women groups’ self-reliance in funding the program, turning into a small-scale business. After 2019, children’s malnutrition remained part of the village life until this paper was written. This psycho-socio-religious study shows that faith-based action requires social infrastructures to contribute to society-based development.


Introduction
Religion has long been the social glue of society (Furbey, 2008;Luetge, 2016;Ness, 2016). Religious values have increased prosocial intentions and actions (J. L. Preston et al., 2010). People prioritized with positive religious concepts are quicker to recognize prosocial words (e.g., help, support), showing prosocial ideas' activation (Pichon et al., 2007). Thus, non-religious positive comments do not produce more prosocial intentions but must be accompanied by religion so that people have more excellent charitable intentions. In other words, social cooperation that seems nonreligious can be intervened by religion for the success of the collaboration. Here religion is a factor that influences sympathetic behavior towards the state of society (Tan & Vogel, 2008).
Understanding why religious people can do good socially can be done in two ways. The first is the divine way, namely that God is omniscient, and as a moral ideal (Gray & Wegner, 2010;J. Preston & Wegner, 2005), so that perfect knowledge directs the behavior of believers (Bering & Johnson, 2005;Boyer, 2007;Roes & Raymond, 2003). When God and His apostles are commanded to do something in social life, believers must obey and carry out these orders (Epley & Waytz, 2010). Another way is that socially, people will help those close to the first (Miles et al., 2009;Saroglou et al., 2020) and facilitate cooperation between them (Wiltermuth & Heath, 2009). So, religious people will help their fellow believers (Norenzayan et al., 2016;Saroglou, 2006;Wilson, 2002), then that sense of solidarity can develop into a social spirit in humans in general (Dawkins, 1976).
In Indonesia, one of the unsolved problems in society is the problem of baby stunting. In 2016 data from the Ministry of Health showed that 14.4% of children suffered from malnutrition (Booth et al., 2019). The high number of cases of malnutrition in Indonesian children cannot be separated from the large number of families living below the poverty line who do not get nutritious food.
Everyone can intend to help the community, but individual activities sometimes hinder that intention (Dawkins, 1976). However, the women who regularly follow the religious studies, feel the need to help the community in Cisaranten Kidul, Bandung City. The women work together to fight baby stunting. In this endeavour, they follow Islamic teachings to love their neighbors. It is important to note that these women are members of their social group but, at the same time, are also members of a women's Islamic study forum called majlis ta'lim. The Omaba supporters are the main organizers in the majlis ta'lim. Vita Fatimah, 54 years old, is the founder of the Baitunnisa majlis ta'lim. And her house is the venue of regular Qur'anic studies. Vita said the movement was based on Islamic guidelines (Interview on 8 July 2018).
A reviewed study by Dolatkhah and friends (Dolatkhah et al., 2020) finds that Islam's guidelines are mainly based on improving lifestyle factors and dietary habits. And so adherence to the Islamic dietary guidelines and lifestyle lead to less risk of diseases. Islam, if practiced, would prevent nutrition-related diseases (Laar et al., 2020). Due to its universal values, Islamic guidelines on what kind of food is recommended for Muslims can apply to non-Muslims (Ramli et al., 2021).
All foods are for humans to consume, except that declared haram (forbidden). And it is only God and his messenger to have exclusive authority to declare something as haram. And what is declared haram has been obvious: pork meat, wine, carrion meat, blood, and meat of animals not appropriately slaughtered in the Islamic manner (Duasa et al., 2021). Other than those, all foods are tayyib (lawful; Husseini de Araújo et al., 2021). The Holy Qur'an blames the people forbidding certain foods: Say: "Who has prohibited the embellishment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants and the good provisions?" [Surah Al-A'raf, Ayat 32].
One of the medical miracles of the Holy Qur'an prohibits exaggeration in eating and drinking. Overeating and overdrinking lead to self-destruction. Less eating and drinking, however, leads to weak and bad conditions. In the middle is moderation with regular and balanced nutrition, leading to living a long and healthy life, physically and mentally. Balanced nutrition stimulates intellectual growth. Islam's main principle on eating and drinking can be abstracted in two words: restrain and abstain (Niri, 2021).
Another point to consider is the number of meals per day. Since the Holy Qur'an refers to the number of people in Paradise eating in the morning and the evening, two main meals are twice a day. While consuming unclean foods, blood, dead animals, and pork are highly forbidden in Islam, eating vegetables and fruits, poultry and fish, and other nutritious food is recommended. The Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him; p.b.u.h.) sayings even inform better ways to eat the tayyib food: slow chewing food, calm eating, washing hands before and after meals, and cleaning the mouth and brushing teeth (Latif & Rahman, 2020).
Ali Tarighat-Esfanjani A and Namazi N. (Tarighat-Esfanjani & Namazi, 2016) make a descriptiveanalytical study on verses of the Quran to seek which verses discuss nutrition. They discover sixtyfour nutritional keywords and 257 nutritional verses. The word and phrase foods, eating, water/ drinking, and their derivatives are repeated 171, 109, and 131 times in the Quran, respectively. This suggests that the Holy Quran contains many foodstuffs and verses with nutritional concepts, and it recommends eating a varied and balanced diet.
Even the World Health Organization (WHO) has put the issue of using religious doctrines to improve the lifestyles of various communities, especially in Muslim countries (Organization, 1998). Still, some factors preventing some children from getting good nutrition have caused several poor nutrition and malnutrition cases in Indonesia and other countries. The term malnutrition covers two conditions: the first is undernutrition. It includes stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height), underweight (low weight for age), and micronutrient deficiencies or insufficiencies (a lack of essential vitamins and minerals). The other is overweight, obesity, and diet-related non-communicable diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer (Wojcicki, 2014).
The women group in an Islamic forum of Cisaranten Kidul village responded to this with the Omaba, acronym of Ojek Makanan Balita, that literally means Toddler Food distributed by Motorcycle Taxi. Under Omaba, they distribute free food, definitely nutritious, which needs funds. Thanks to good communication, the women group could get state oil company PT Pertamina into their project. With the support of Pertamina's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund, the program could bring the number of malnutrition and poor nutrition cases down from 29 to zero within three years. The female social workers work in shifts. Starting in the early morning, a group of them do some cooking. By midday, the nutritious food is ready for delivery. Then other groups begin to load them to their motorbikes. After less than ten minutes, they are off to their respective destinations in the Village. The food distribution is carried out every day to the families on the list for three months, followed by an evaluation from the local baby care agency.
On 12 September 2016, the Omaba program earned official recognition from the Bandung City Mayor. Also, in 2016, Omaba won President Award for Public service innovation. The initiative was also granted Swasti Sabha Wirdha Award in Food Security in 2017. For this latest innovation, having a program initiated by a group of religious congregational women, Omaba can undoubtedly become a project example for the government to solve the community's malnutrition problem in the country. The Riung Bandung Health Center that helped run the Omaba Program was elected one of the 35 best innovators of the public service system by the Human Power and State Apparatuses Ministry in 2017.
This study aims to analyze the ideas, activities, and social networks of groups of women who were active in religious studies and the values they set to address the undernutrition of society, which has been causing stunting babies.

Methodology
This research uses the qualitative method, which corresponds to field research, to dig into various phenomena and their relationships (Eifling, 2021). It leads to understanding what individuals or groups think about specific social issues (Eccles & Wigfield, 2020). The final report of a qualitative study has a flexible structure or framework. The perspective used in this study is inductive that focuses on individual meanings and translates the complexity of a problem. Here, the researchers were the core instrument. It entails the researchers spend a lot of time in the field to observe and understands the situation (Palmer et al., 2022). The researchers collect data or evidence to develop theories based on what is found in the area (Litwin & Miłkowski, 2020). To this, primary data are directly collected from the first sources (Hasell et al., 2020), including some women religious activists, the head of the Village, the chairperson of the Social Welfare Section of Village, management of the Health Committee of the Village, head of the local Community Health Center, and parents of toddlers covered by Omaba program.
To collect data, the researchers used the reflexive interview method (Loubere, 2017), which is a method that involves the interviewer and the interviewee in the process of elaboration and collective understanding of the perspective and experience of the interviewee (Pessoa et al., 2019). Rather than simply reporting experiences descriptively, interviewees, with the support of the interviewer, have the opportunity to share the meaning of the reality around them and their events without interviewing arbitrarily (McLoughlin, 2020). Thus this method can provide a long time for researchers to get a satisfactory conclusion (Back, 2015). In this study, the researchers interviewed people who were significantly involved (Read, 2018) in efforts to eradicate stunting within three years, from 2018 to 2021, in the local context of a village in Bandung City. This time can be considered sufficient, considering that there may be interesting events to observe and use as qualitative data to draw (Partington, 2001). In terms of data analysis methods, the participants used the social networking method by involving the roles and functions of each party involved in providing nutritional aid to the children. Organizational Sociology scientists commonly use this method to provide a holistic picture of who is involved and what they do (Caniato et al., 2014), including their motivations in their activities.
The current study focuses exclusively on the volunteers working in a village in Bandung, Indonesia. The mention of names written in this study is with their consent. The same is true for health workers. Data mining for respondents was carried out in a way that did not interfere with their activities or harm them. Writing in local languages has been done before writing in English and the current format, and have them approved for publication in the present narrative.

Good nutrition for toddlers
Omaba is a program designed by a group of women from the religious knowledge council in Gedebage Sub-District of Bandung City. The initiative is to realize into action one of the government programs aiming at preventing malnutrition among children under five in adherence to the Regulation of the Minister of Health of the Republic of Indonesia Number 23 the Year 2014 Regarding Nutrition Improvement Efforts (Kemenkes, 2014). As Omaba suggests, this project is only for toddlers who experience nutritional problems. Good nutrition for toddlers is considered the foundation for building a better generation. In other words, it provides healthy food following the standard of nutritional needs in line with the toddler's age. The provision of nutrition-rich food is intensively carried out for three months to toddlers with inadequate dietary intake on the local Community Health Center assessment.
Soni Sondari, the Riung Bandung Community Health Center chairwoman, said that Omaba was a strategy for providing nutritious food for toddlers with poor and malnutrition conditions in Cisaranten Kidul village. It also ensures that toddlers have nutritional food intake every day. Omaba chooses ojek for delivery for practical and efficient reasons. Houses are located inside the neighborhood, crisscrossed by small paths and alleys accessible to pedestrians or two-wheeled vehicles only. With this means of transportation, food sent can reach its destination in fresh and warm condition (Interview on 8 July 2018).
The production of different diet is carried out in the Omaba kitchen thoroughly and undergo tight monitoring to meet the standard of nutritional food for toddlers. In an interview with one of the researchers, Chairperson of the Cisaranten Kidul Health Center Vita Fatimah (age 54) said that the food production must follow the standard of nutrition for toddlers. "Therefore, we work together with nutritionists to make required ingredients for production. We also attend training on food production procedures for several weeks at Nutritional Health Polytechnic of Bandung." Omaba program was developed into providing other social assistances, such as milk for pregnant women to prevent the birth of disabled babies. There was also training for housemaids to take care of children and toddlers in line with the Awareness Movement for Food of B2SA (Beragam, Bergizi, Seimbang dan Aman; Diverse, Nutritious, Balanced and Safe Food) nutrition standard.

Omaba legal basis
In general, Omaba program was made to improve the nutritional condition of toddlers as an implementation of the  Kesehatan, 2009) that requires, as stipulated in chapter IV verse 18: "The government is accountable for empowering and support the active role of the community in every health care efforts." Verse 19: "The government is accountable for the availability of all forms of health care that is quality, safe, efficient and affordable." This Regulation is followed by the Health Ministry Regulation No 23 Year 2014 on nutrition (Kemenkes, 2014), verse 141-143, that stipulates: a) improvement of food consumption following balanced nutrition; b) improvement of nutrition awareness, physical activism, and health; c) improvement of access and quality to nutrition service that is by science and technology; and d) improvement of food and nutrition monitoring system. The Regulation entails the central and local government and the local community to ensure the availability of affordable, nutritious food for all.
With this legal basis and religious impetus, Omaba improves toddlers' nutrition with malnutrition in Cisaranten Kidul of Bandung City. Still, it also minimizes the number of toddlers' malnutrition cases through their prenatal food programs. At the same time, Omaba builds capable human resources for toddler nutrition in particular and children in general.

Food processing and delivery
Before Omaba, the local administration's Food Provision Program is PMT (Pemberian Makanan Tambahan, Food Supplement Provision) program usually included formula milk, instant food, and snacks. Still, in fulfilling the nutrition of children under five, the PMT food items do not meet the standard of good nutrition for children. Besides, the Riung Bandung Community Health Center discovered that this assistance was misused. As Vita Fatimah, who led the Omaba project said that some recipients sold the food items to nearby warungs/kiosks. This made the PMT program ineffective. The woman groups then provided the food package for immediate consumption. The recipients have no choice but to consume them unless the food assistance would go in vain. The food processing is under monitoring by nutritionists, doctors, and health officials at the Riung Bandung Health Community Center.
The Omaba work covers the following stages: Food material selection. Nutritious food manufacturing needs natural, hygienic, and quality food materials, such as fresh vegetables, fruits, flavor, and drinks. Women working for Omaba grow their vegetables, fruits, spices, flavor trees in the PKK's yards by adopting the organic farming method. Every neighborhood administration throughout the country has its PKK (pemberdayaan kesejahteraan keluarga; family welfare empowerment). The Village is no exception. Omaba Treasurer said, it is then guaranteed that food materials meet the quality standard of a healthy diet. But the production has not completed the needed amount due to little farm and land space. Omaba meets the shortfall by purchasing them from the local traditional market (Interview on 12 July 2018).
Processing. The difference between the Omaba program in Cisaranten Kidul and other PMT programs lies in food processing. All food materials, flavors, and ingredients are measured with the standards of the B2SA. Under the B2SA, it is not only the way of processing taken into account, but the food produced should also comply with four nutritional requirements. Even the cooking tool, and utensils should meet the standard. The food consists of rice, vegetables, fruit, milk, and dessert. Omaba volunteers try to make the food taste and look suitable for children and toddlers (Interview with the Omaba Treasurer in Cisaranten Kidul on 12 July 2018).
Distribution. Once the food is ready, the Omaba's delivery team loads them to their motorbikes, and soon each team member sets off to their respective destinations. The nature of the twowheeled transport enables them to go into small alleys and tracks between houses to reach even the most hidden place in the neighborhood. Each team member needs to move fast to get to the targeted house when the food is still warm and fresh. The food delivery was made every day starting at 08:00 am. Before midday, all the foods had reached the targeted families, as narrated by Enok, 59, one of the Omaba's delivery team members, during an interview on 6 July 2018. Enok said: "Since 2013 until now, Alhamdulillah, housewives in this neighborhood regularly distribute Omaba's food assistance to the targeted houses. I'm one of the delivery team members who crossed paths, alleys in this neighborhood every day. Once in a while, I feel tired, but I keep doing it for duty and the good shape of our next generation."

Evaluation and monitoring
After taking Omaba's food regularly, toddlers undergo nutritional status monitoring once a week in the local children's health service post called Posyandu by the Village Community Health Center officials. Posyandu (Pos Pelayanan Terpadu; Integrated Service Post) is available in every neighborhood unit in the Village. Omaba's success story can be seen, among others, in what Alya Putri (6) went through. The female baby was underweighted as well as under-heightened. After a few weeks of having Omaba food, "the baby weight increased from 10 kilograms to 11 kilograms, and the height went up by 3 centimeters," said Lina (27), Alya's mother, in an interview with one of the researchers on 18 July 2018. An increase in weight and height was also experienced by Muhammad Fareel, a one-year-old baby, after a few weeks of having Omaba's food. "When I checked my son's weight at the Posyandu, Alhamdulillah [Praise be to God], I found my son's weight increased by 8 ounces and his height grew slightly higher," Nurhayati, Fareel's mother, said in an interview on 18 July 2018.

Inflaming motivation
All Omaba volunteers are a member of the local majlis ta'lim. Every day after pre-dawn prayer, the women read the Qur'an together, called tadarus. Once a week, they have a special lecture from a particular preacher (muballigh). But since the Covid-19 pandemic, the tadarus and lecture is held by turn from one house to another among the women group members. "In the lecture, we are often reminded of sharing what we have, particularly foods, with our neighbors, especially those who need most. In short, what we are doing at Omaba is the result of what we have listened in the lecture," said Anti Tiani, an Omaba volunteer who is also a school teacher, in an interview on 17 September 2021.
The lecture has a question-answer session when the women ask questions by turn. Some of the questions are related to what they were doing in Omaba. "We are motivated by the spirit to do good for our brothers and sisters, as our religion commands," said Amelia, another Omaba volunteer, in an interview on 17 September 2021.
During the lecture, the women know whether somebody in the neighborhood is sick or getting musibah (tribulation). "We will visit the sick and the unfortunate and give them charity we collected in the lecture," said Siti Fatimah, an Omaba volunteer who is also a vendor, in an interview on 17 September 2021. Citra Dewi, another volunteer, is joining the chorus in saying that what Omaba volunteers are doing is what they have been told in the lecture. "Omaba is essentially sharing with others. That is the main character of every Muslim, men, and women," she said in an interview on 6 October 2021.
The organization is a coalition of individuals or groups who have the same goals and interests. Every individual encountered in an organization usually has different background and abilities. Members of an organization are placed in a position according to their potential. These positions are then arranged into what is called the organizational structure. The organizational structure is a formal or informal relationship between members of an organization (Gomez-Mejia et al., 2007). Organizational structure describes how a task or job is formally divided, grouped, and coordinated (Robbins et al., 2014). To keep the Omaba project going, the community can benefit from it, particularly in dealing with children and toddlers' malnutrition; it is necessary to have a clear organizational structure that clearly defines who does what to reach its goals. In line with the theoretical system, Omaba also makes organizational structure by adopting the village Health Community Center structure with more flexible fashion. Individuals and parties involved in this project are mandated with particular duties and tasks.

Parties on board
The Omaba Project incorporated various parties that play their respective roles. The parties include Riung Bandung Community Health Center, Village administration, Family Welfare Association (PKK), the state-owned oil company Pertamina, Nutritional Health Polytechnic of Bandung, and Cisaranten Kidul Community in general. Figure 1 below is an overview of the structure and network of the Omaba Program in Cisaranten Kidul:

The Riung Bandung health center
The Riung Bandung Health Center takes the innovator, creator, and motivator. Soni Sondari, a Riung Bandung Health Center's staff member, saw that the ongoing food supplement distribution was ineffective. It did not prevent the number of poor nutrition cases from increasing. She then devised an idea to replace food distribution with more efficient, clear-cut objectives, problem-solving food distribution. She proposed a new food distribution program by which the food was previously cooked and processed into a ready-to-consume food package. This project needs others' support. So she got Village administration, the Village Integrated Service for toddlers (Posyandu), women groups of PKK in every neighborhood unit in the Village, and PT Pertamina (Interview on 8 July 2018).

Village administration
The Village, as the main target of Omaba project, played a strategic role in developing the Omaba program. The Village's high number of malnutrition cases makes it significant in providing regulations, information channels, networks, and human resources. PT Pertamina paid interest after the Village Administration made Omaba an official program. So when the village head, Heny Mustika Sari, approves the Omaba proposal on a nutritious food distribution program, the state oil company soon gave its financial support.

Welfare family association
The PKK, which groups homemakers in Cisaranten Kidul Village, was highly significant in making the Omaba plan into reality. They are the ones who collect food materials, formulate and plan the menus, cook, pack them up, and distribute them their way, that is, by two-wheeled motorbikes. Ten women work on the food production, 13 women work on the distribution section, and several others on the administration and information section.

The Majlis ta'lim Baitunnisaa
Majlis ta'lim Baitunnisa plays a vital role in mobilizing, organizing, and training women for Omaba project. The Majlis ta'lim Baitunnisa executives are initiators, proponents, and managers of Omaba. It is hard to imagine that Omaba would have come into existence without this Majlis ta'lim, which came with the idea and initiative to solve the children's malnutrition problem and provide financial and human resources. It is the Majlis ta'lim Baitunnisa to first find children's malnutrition cases in the Cisaranten Kidul village. They then brought the issue into the discussion to find a solution. This majlis ta'lim holds a regular Islamic study every Wednesday. But on top of this, they have daily Quran reading every morning after pre-dawn prayer, shifting venues from house to house by turn.

Pertamina CSR
However, a good program, capable human resources, and good management would not turn into action without financial support. And thanks to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which is the modern corporate value, PT Pertamina plays its role significantly in this humanitarian enterprise. The local administration allocated a certain amount of funds for this undertaking, but the amount is far from sufficient. "If you only rely on the government budget, the Omaba project will not run as you see now" (Interview on 5 July 2018).
However, the Pertamina CSR fund term ended in 2017, causing a decrease in food production. Then Omaba began to struggle to find alternative financial resources. After a series of discussion, the mothers working for Omaba decided to make commercial food production. They use the profit to keep the Omaba program going.
Then the field of Omaba project extended to business. The mothers no longer only send food to low-income families and market their products around the Gedebage sub-district. Due to the increasing workload, Omaba involved more women working in the kitchen to make cakes, lunch packages, and snacks. And the name of the project now is Dapur Omaba, which means Omaba Kitchen (Interview with Mrs. Enok and Nining, distribution section staffers on 6 July 2018).

Nutritional health polytechnic of Bandung
To get optimal results in preventing malnutrition in Cisaranten Kidul, Omaba could not leave the food production to those who did not know how nutritious food should be processed, treated, and stored healthily. Healthy food for toddlers with malnutrition or lack of nutrition must be designed by trained people who know how to make it. The Bandung Health Polytechnic (Poltekes) organizes training on the nutritional content of healthy food and how to produce it.

Cisaranten Kidul community
The community, particularly residents of Cisaranten Kidul, also makes the Omaba plan into reality. They help Omaba volunteers to enlist toddlers who have nutritional problems. Such cooperative and helpful attitude might be derived from the awareness of how poor nutrition would impact them as a community. But after all, they are also aware of the Omaba project made to meet the community's need for nutrition, as told by Vita, age 54, the Chairperson of Omaba/Health Committee of Cisaranten Kidul Village. "We should work with the community because we did not have information about which toddlers, families were suffering from poor nutrition. Members of the community knew it. We get that information from the community (Interview with the Chairman of the Cisaranten Kidul Health Committee on 10 July 2018).
Omaba's success story can be attributed to the fact that all parties involved plays their roles effectively so that each part of the organization functions well. This is called structural functionalism in Talcott Parson's (Parsons, 1985) theory of AGIL, which stands for Adaptation, Goal Attainment, Integration and Latency. This theory discusses a function which means an activity specifically directed towards meeting particular needs or system needs. Parsons explained that all systems need four essential functions; the first function is Adaptation: the design must adapt to the environment and adapt to the needs. Second Goal Attainment (achievement of goals): a system must define and achieve common goals. Third Integration: a system must manage the relationship between the parts that become components. And fourth, Latency (maintenance of patterns): a system must complement, maintain and improve both individual motivation and cultural patterns that create and sustain motivation.

Encouragement of conscience
Of course, the under-five children malnutrition cases had been a cause for concern for Muslims. The women were inspired by the Qur'an and the teaching of the Prophet Muhammad that someone is not a believer until she helps her starving neighbor. Vita said that she got no payment whatsoever for her work. "We at Omaba do not get paid. We do it from our hearts. Neither do we get money from the targeted families or toddlers. The food we give them is free of charge. The only reward we earn is our spiritual relief and happiness when we see our targeted children grow healthy (Interview with the Vita Fatimah on 8 July 2018). A family member also affirmed this: "My mother is a volunteer in Omaba. She works sincerely. The mothers here see the duty as a call. They just cannot stand to see the children suffering from poor nutrition. Sometimes I imagine what if the children's mothers were rich. When I deliver food to the targeted toddlers, I take my time to talk to them. I hold the babies in my arms. Occasionally I give them money or snacks. It was my own money. Yes, we get money from the Omaba, but that was enough only for the gasoline. Sometimes that was not even enough. If there was a problem with our motorbike, we had to fix it with our own money (Interview on 6 July 2018). Omaba's free services do not necessarily make Omaba volunteers work inattentively or give bad services. Omaba volunteers always give the best service to their clients or targets, as Didik Wisnu Pratama, the father of a poor nutrition baby and a recipient of Omaba food assistance, told the researchers. "Omaba volunteers work fast, responsive and nice" (Interview on 6 July 2018). Support from various parties. Under Omaba, the government-sanctioned food distribution changed for the better. But this became possible due to the involvement of more parties in this project. The local government has allocated a certain amount of money for nutritious food assistance, but with the support from PT Pertamina CSR funds, the distribution improved. And the combination of government and Pertamina CSR funds generates support for broader parties, not only in the form of fund donation, but also in moral and facility supports. One of the significant supports is from the Cisaranten Kidul Village administration, which made all Omaba works legal and even obligated families to support it. "The thing that can make Omaba survive until now is the support from various parties, both in moral and material. Continued cooperation with the local government, village administration, volunteers, and the families as assistance recipients had an impetus for Omaba volunteers to carry on (Interview with the Head of the Cisaranten Kidul Health Committee on 10 July 2018).
Unyielding spirit. The great enthusiasm of the Omaba volunteers in dealing with cases of malnutrition makes this program survive and continue to grow over time. Despite the community rejection at the first place, the Omaba volunteers show an unyielding spirit in carrying out their duties (Interview with Welfare Section of Cisaranten Kidul Village on 5 July 2018).
Acceptance from the community. Although the community first refused Omaba, due to the dissemination of information and continued explanation, most notably due to what they experienced, the community finally accepted the Omaba project. They even became enthusiastic about it (Interview with the Welfare Section of Cisaranten Kidul Village on 5 July 2018).

Problems and solutions
This nutritious feeding activity needs to fix several problems: lack of political awareness, congenital diseases, and poor parenting.
Lack of political will. Vita said that it would not be difficult for other administrations in Indonesia to implement the Omaba program in their areas, considering that cases of poor nutrition and being underweight among babies are everywhere in the country. But lack of political will among local decision-makers has made Omaba nothing more than an excellent example in dealing with baby stunting. It has yet to drive other local administrations and communities to make it a natural social movement. A local doctor said, "I had often been invited to present the Omaba program in front of local administrations, Health Ministry officials, and even President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). They were happy about what I presented and gave high appreciation. But that was it. No action plan follows." (Interview with the Chairman of the Health Committee of Cisaraten Kidul on 10 July 2018). Table 1 shows the decreasing number of stunting symptoms in Cisaranten Kidul every year. In 2019, from the research target of 1621 children, there were stunting in 4 children under five (0.24%); while in 2022, from the research target of 1812 children, there were stunting in 4 children under five (0.22%); and in 2021, from the research target of 1481 children, there were stunting in 2 children under five (0.10%). Thus, the graph was decreasing, as shown in Figure 2.
Thanks to the women's effort to eradicate malnutrition for the children in Cisaranten Kidul, Table 2 shows the decreasing number of malnutrition symptoms every year. In 2019, from the research target of 1621 children, there were 9 malnutrition cases of children under five (0.50%); while in 2022, from the research target of 1812 children, there were 6 malnutrition cases of children under five (0.30%); and in 2021, from the research target of 1481 children, there were 4 malnutrition cases of children under five (0.20%). Thus, the graph was decreasing, as shown in Figure 3.
Congenital diseases. One of the obstacles to the effectiveness of the Omaba project is the presence of hereditary diseases among the food assistance recipients. The genetic condition hinders children's body growth. In many cases, Omaba volunteers are unaware of this congenital disease, causing no nutrition improvement despite consuming Omaba's nutritious food. The disease was finally detected after the local Community Health Center checked children regularly. Vita said families are unwilling to scale up their babies in the Health Center, despite regularly advising to do it every three months. "We pay attention at those babies who were underweight; then we found a baby suffering from tuberculosis. We recommended the baby get medical treatment. And after quite some time, the baby was in good shape; his weight increased. The tuberculosis was gone." (Interview with the Head of the Cisaranten Kidul Health Committee on 10 July 2018). Source: Riung Bandung Community Health Center Report, 2021.  Source: Riung Bandung Community Health Center Report, 2021.
Nining Herningsih (age 50), an Omaba delivery volunteer, said that most Omaba volunteers had no common knowledge of medics and disease.
We are just ordinary housewives. We do not know exactly whether a baby suffered from a particular disease or not. As long as a baby looks fine, then we think they are in good shape. Only after the Puskesmas check them, we know why certain babies we give nutritious food showed no improvement in health condition and weight. (Interview with the Distribution Section of the Health Committee of Cisaranten Kidul on 12 July 2018).
Along with congenital disease, children's body condition is unattended, unhealthy, and unhygienic. Nining said excellent and nutritious food would not keep children under five healthy if raised in unhealthy surroundings. A local government official says, "That's why we help families set up and clean up their homes together. We fixed houses to become livable (Interview with Distribution Section of the Health Committee of Cisaranten Kidul on 12 July 2018)." Poor parenting. Poor parenting is another issue that causes malnutrition. Mothers just let their children buy and eat unhealthy snacks and street food without looking at the food ingredients and material contained. "Some mothers give that kind of food early in the morning before breakfast, which is harmful," said Nok (56), the distribution officer for Omaba. During an interview on 6 July 2018. The Omaba program can reduce the number of baby stunting cases from 27 to zero in five years, from 2013 to 2018. Whether or not this is a success story remains to be seen. Eradicating 27 cases of poor nutrition in five years might be considered too long, considering how much funds and energy it took to achieve that. After all, awards from the Bandung City Mayor and Health Ministry indicate success. There has been a significant decline in under-five malnutrition cases in Cisaranten Kidul village from 2013 to 2017, the term of the Omaba program. The data was collected from the Riung Bandung Puskesmas. Omaba then used the data to determine which toddlers would receive Omaba's food assistance.
However, in 2018, the number of under-five malnutrition cases in Cisaranten Kidul village rose again. Omaba's success story ended soon, despite a slight decline from 2019 to 2021. Some people began to doubt whether the Omaba program was effective. Our observation of the location found that at least two factors behind malnutrition cases' upsurge were beyond Omaba's control. The first factor was the incoming migrants to the Village. Retna Ningsih said Omaba did succeed in bringing under-five malnutrition cases down to zero. But as time passed by, more migrants came into the area and settled there. These migrant families carried with them their under-nutrition babies. Retna Ningsih was the Secretary I of the Health Committee and head of the Riung Bandung Public Health Center, Social Welfare section. The second factor is premature birth. The number of early birth cases added up to the increasing number of under-five malnutrition cases. "After all, premature birth also helped increase the under-five malnutrition cases. Maybe because the mother did not provide enough nutrition for her infants when the babies were still in the womb, they also ignored which foods they are supposed to consume for the sake of their babies (We fixed houses to become livable)." The following are some recommendations from this study: regeneration, plastic packaging, prioritizing local fruits and vegetables, and self-reliance.
Regeneration. There is a need for a new generation to keep the program going long-term. This requires the recruitment of new volunteers. But only when people are interested in the program will they be willing to become volunteers. In this case, people are still lacking interest in the program. Regeneration becomes a problem for Omaba because almost all Omaba volunteers are 50 years old and above. Supposedly, they are the ones who become the targets of a program that is designed to help the elderly. More information is needed to make the Omaba program attractive to the younger generation. It would also be good to consider that the information was spread and designed interestingly. More regular training where Omaba's insights were passed on to the younger generation will also attract the public.
Plastic packaging. When the world is struggling for sustainability and long-term prosperity, using environmentally hazardous materials is against the spirit of the times. Omaba program still uses plastic packages for food to be delivered. While plastic is a non-recycled material, its use will increase the amount of non-organic waste in each house and harm the environment. The primary function of food packaging is to protect the food product inside, keeping its freshness and nutrition content intact. It preserves flavor, color, and smell for commercial purposes that attract consumers. Besides, the package also prevents the food from undesirable changes due to microorganism invasion from outside, protecting the food during transport and storage against microbial spoilage and chemical and physical changes. The packaging functions were required for a food package system expressed as PC3, which stands for Protection, Containment, Communication, and Convenience.
Prioritizing locally grown vegetables and fruits. The food industry has involved various methods, techniques, and ways to make food attractive to markets. Those methods utilize chemical substances and storage systems to make the food products endure longer and remain edible. Many researchers found the chemical contents hazardous to the human body and children under five. Some researchers even discover viruses on display in supermarkets, malls, and groceries. The Village residents can intensify and maximize their organic farm to produce more hygienic, safe, and healthy vegetables and fruits, later used for Omaba's nutritional food program. When appropriately managed, the Village organic farm can produce the number of vegetables and fruits needed by the Omaba program.
Self-financing. Omaba volunteers cannot rely on short-term corporation funding to keep the healthy food assistance program long-term. The Pertamina CSR fund was available only for four years: 2013 through 2017. When the Pertamina funding terminated in 2017, so did the food assistance works. Families with poor nutrition children no longer receive nutritious food assistance. Cases of malnutrition happened again after 2017 in Village, but Omaba's ability to deal with the problem has degenerated. One solution is to diversify Omaba products from food production into several other business items, with food remaining at the core of the business. This diversification can generate income to finance food assistance programs.
But alongside with legal basis is Islamic call to care for unfortunates. The call is repeatedly addressed in the local majlis ta'lim. The Quran and the Prophet Muhammad's (p.b.u.h.) sayings are internalized in the women group's struggle to help the unfortunates. Every woman group member memorizes Prophet Muhammad sayings such as, "The best of you are those who most benefit others" (Ali et al., 2013). Also, there is a saying, "He who sleeps on a full stomach while his neighbor goes hungry is not one of us" (Toker, 2021).
Most religions have some thematic principles that make them similar, namely concepts of God and love, honesty, altruism, miracle workings, and peacekeeping, despite differences in rituals, symbols, and other elements. Islam's main message to human beings is a noble character (akhlaq karimah) that springs from hearts full of love. And this love emanates from God's foremost characters arrahman (all-loving) and ar-rahim (Merciful). Although religious beliefs may play a significant role in some actions, it is not the only factor influencing behavior. Factors like genetics, environment, parenting, drives, and needs are part of behavior thrust. In modern science, sound and edible food can be translated as a nutritious intake needed by the human body (Cardenas et al., 2019). Nutrition is also a human food science (Ditlevsen et al., 2019). It involves research and scientific methods to answer questions: Which foods and how much people should eat.
The science explains how a balanced nutritional intake maintains the health and fitness of the human body. So is the other way around: Lack of nutrition and even malnutrition can lead to health deterioration and increase the risk of exposure to various diseases (De Lorenzo et al., 2019).
Many parents are unaware of keeping nutritional intake balanced for their babies or toddlers (Salvatore et al., 2018). Therefore, public education on nutrition is needed to build a healthy community (Porter et al., 2018). In contrast, a balanced dietary intake covers all sources of body energy, vitamin, calories, and fiber (Schnabel et al., 2019). This research shows that a religious approach is needed to solve social problems like stunting and malnutrition. Some belief more in religious orders than health warnings (Whitehead & Perry, 2020).
This study shows the role of religion in society. Religion largely determines these attitudes on what consequences will arise from every human action in this world and the hereafter; also, the qualities of helping others, justice, compassion, violence, and sincerity are qualities favored by Allah. This follows the theory that good behavior in society is religious because it is God's command. God here functions as a moral authority by setting rules of right and wrong and enforcing the rules with a supernatural threat-reward system (Epley & Waytz, 2010;Quadri, 2021).
Religion influences human behavior and determines human actions (Bottemanne et al., 2020). This study also shows that religion is the bearer of a code of ethics, a set of rules and regulations that enable believers to function culturally (Dama, 2021;Rahman & Bukhori, 2022). Religion plays a vital role in shaping a society's self-identity and collective identity (Razaghi et al., 2020;Vermeer & Kregting, 2020), influencing attitudes, norms, and behavior. So, it is no exaggeration to say that religion can be the secret to our success as a species (Batson, 1983).
This study shows that religious studies can give birth to social activities developed from religious rituals. The bond among religious adherents gets more robust as they experience the same movements, sounds, smells, physical sensations, and sights (Atran, 2006;Rappaport, 1999). Other scholars have emphasized the importance of ritual in demonstrating a commitment to the group (Irons, 2001). Religious affiliation requires various behaviors of its congregation to join and remain in a good position in the group: elaborate rituals and rites of passage, commitment to faith and public service, contributions of time and money, wearing unique clothing, and reading and studying various scriptures are just a few examples to illustrate this point (Sosis & Alcorta, 2003). The effort and difficulty associated with this ritual can further increase commitment and trust among group members, thereby increasing the possibility of intragroup cooperation and prosociality.

Conclusion
Islamic teachings about treating neighbors well are the driving force behind women's initiatives in Cisaranten Kidul Village to act on the problem of malnutrition by producing and distributing nutritious food. The women participating in regular Islamic studies practice these teachings. They named the action Omaba, an abbreviation of (Ojek Makanan Balita), which means the delivery of Toddler Food by ojeks (motorcycle taxis). This proves that religious values play a significant role in mobilizing the urban Muslim community. They are housewives who developed a new food supply program that successfully reduced infant stunting rates. This study suggests that religion can become a force of transformation in a religious community. Therefore, the government can count on religious programs in community building. Future research can expand on this topic by incorporating a strategy for involving religion in broader community development.

Limitations of the study
While this study focuses on issues of community participation in stunting eradication through the provision of nutrition to children, specifically in a village in Bandung City, Indonesia, these problems could be similar to other communities across the country. Thus, a cross-national review that includes various agencies from several regions can shed more light on this issue and provide a platform for meaningful discussion and change in participating and in legal advocacy to the government.