Following up on the elderly mentoring activities at Watugedug hamlet, Guwosari, Pajangan, Bantul, SurveyMETER facilitated the training on “The Traditional Javanese Massage Training to Expiate Elderly Senility” for advanced companion cadres. It was held on Sunday, November 13, 2016, at the hamlet head's house of Watugedug. In addition to being attended by 7 cadres, it was also showed up by a male pre-elderly who actively participated in gymnastics and the elderly posyandu.

It aims to train elderly companion cadres to have skills in performing traditional Javanese massage that can be applied when visiting elderly bedridden homecare targets. On this occasion, the Executive Director of SurveyMETER, Dr. Ni Wayan Suriastini M.Phil, was also present and directly involved throughout the training from beginning to end. The trainers were Ms. Yanti and Ms. Rini, two elderly cadres assisted by the Yakkum Emergency Unit (YEU) from Ngentak Sapen, Sleman. Both are cadres of elderly companions previously trained by YEU in their hamlets respectively.

The single-time training session lasted about 1.5 hours. The speaker first presented an explanation about traditional Javanese massage as a whole and then directly practiced it, and later all the training participants took turns doing massage practices with direct supervision from the instructors.

Javanese massage is a massage technique delivered from generation to generation and traditionally carried out in Javanese society. This traditional anti-senile Javanese massage technique begins with a relaxing massage at 3 points, namely: Raden Panji (left and right calves), Boyok (left and right hip and spine), and Cengel (left and right neck). Each point is massaged for 2 minutes.

Thereafter start squeezing therapy by practicing various massage techniques for 3 minutes at 8 points in a row, such as ngisor pongol (between the thumb and index bones of the left and right toes), ngisor kemiri (located at the bottom of the left and right ankles), raden panji (left and right calves), boyok (left and right waist of the spine) cengel (on the left and right neck), pokping (under the left and right ear bones: to get rid of dizziness, stressed, colds, and insomnolence), pilingan (left and right temples), and embun-embun (crown of the head).

In addition to being appropriate for reducing senility, massage is also pertinent for improving blood circulation, soothing muscles, calming mental tension, and increasing appetite. (TPA/JF)