Indonesia has developed a national guideline for the management of pediatric TB which is designed with reference to WHO guidelines for managing TB in children and to provide evidence-based standards and best practice recommendations that are appropriate for the Indonesian context. This guideline is an effort to improve the comprehensive management of TB in children, which combines clinical aspects, programs, and public health efforts (MOH RI, 2016).

To support tracing activities and TB treatment in children, an active role from parents is needed, especially parents as the main caregivers of children. The pandemic conditions carry out many considerations for the public to visit health facilities and focus attention on health-related to the COVID-19 disease. Therefore, this might cause a lack of TB control and also treatment.

Recently, no studies have been conducted to explore the extent to which the objectives of the program have been achieved in terms of raising awareness about child TB, and changing health-seeking behavior of community parents for appropriate and quick initiation of treatment particularly in this pandemic situation. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practices about childhood TB among parents during COVID-19 pandemic. This is necessary since inadequate knowledge and poor health-seeking behavior can be notable barriers to service utilization and successful TB control in children.

The results of this study will help improve the program in terms of resource allocation, program modification, and also provide benchmarks for future impact assessments. Moreover, the findings of this study will ensure that children with TB get interventions at all levels of health services during COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, it can provide a baseline to develop the future study related to TB preventive and control strategies or interventions for children.

Expected outcomes:

- Basic knowledge of childhood TB among parents

- Attitudes and practices towards childhood TB

- Health seeking behavior of parents in seeking appropriate treatment for children

 
Women in Science Mentoring Program funded via PEER aimed to help junior women researchers achieve valuable skills and experiences in the research project, and also gain better motivation and confidence as women researchers, as well as Improve personal and career development of junior women researchers. This mentorship program involved two junior women researchers in the PI's faculty. They took part and assisted with the project's questionnaires, data collection and analysis, and report writing. The PI organized regular monthly meetings to discuss  the needs, difficulties, and strategies to overcome difficulties of their involvement in the research project.  The PI encouraged and supported the junior women researchers to improve their personal and career development.