PHA-Exch> One Million Campaign on breastfeeding

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: arun gupta arun at ibfanasia.org


> Over the past six months we all have witnessed the most shocking tainted
>> milk scandal that killed six infants and sickened nearly 300,000 more. These
>> babies, well below 3 years, were fed milk powder contaminated with melamine,
>> an industrial chemical used in fertilisers and plastic production. Imagine
>> if the babies were not fed powder milk and in fact were fed on their
>> mother's milk. They could be saved from this unnecessary catastrophe.
>>
>> Add your name to the ONE MILLION CAMPAIGN - NO MORE MILK SCANDALS! SUPPORT
>> WOMEN TO BREASTFEED to stop the push towards feeding babies with milk
>> formula, as well as demand support to women to breastfeed. Click here to
>> sign the petition
>> http://www.onemillioncampaign.org/en/Details_Petitions.aspx
>>
>>
>> Growing scientific evidence points out how vital breastfeeding is to
>> infant survival with health. Women are being forced to stop breastfeeding
>> and give their babies milk formulas because they lack support to breastfeed,
>> whether at the time of birth in family or institutions, or when they are at
>> work, and more importantly due to increasing commercial push to milk formula
>> feeding. Potential disasters are thus waiting to happen across the world.
>>
>> The problem is HUGE. Around 200 mothers give birth to babies every minute
>> somewhere in the world. They need our support. Out of about 135 million
>> children born annually, only 64 million begin breastfeeding within an hour
>> and 71 million do NOT. About 48 million women are successful in carrying out
>> exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, and 87 million are NOT.
>> Click to sign the petition
>> http://www.onemillioncampaign.org/en/Details_Petitions.aspx
>> to demand support for women to breastfeed.
>>
>> Most people think of breastfeeding as something that happens between the
>> woman and her child: that this decision is in the personal domain. However,
>> several factors affect women's ability to breastfeed successfully:
>> traditions, myths, status in the family and society, work load, confidence
>> in her body and sexuality, economic needs, labour laws, domestic and
>> workplace violence and harassment, availability of support services,
>> advertising by commercial baby food manufacturers, and so on. These factors
>> do not allow millions of women across the world to breastfeed their babies
>> optimally.
>>
>> How we respond to this crisis will shape the lives of our children – our
>> future.
>>
>> Today, public concern alone can prevent potential milk scandals – public
>> action to respond to the needs of women to enable them to give the best
>> possible food to their  babies. We need to Act NOW !
>>
>> Join the ONE MILLION CAMPAIGN - NO MORE MILK  SCANDALS! SUPPORT WOMEN TO
>> BREASTFEED.
>> Click to sign the petition
>> http://www.onemillioncampaign.org/en/Details_Petitions.aspx
>>
>> The petition demanding support to women will be presented to the world
>> leaders, at the World Health Assembly in May 2009. Your collective voices
>> will put pressure on the leaders to prevent unnecessary deaths of children,
>> to ensure that every woman in every part of the world is enabled to
>> breastfeed successfully.
>>
>>
>> Be a connector
>>
>> Forward this email to all your friends, your networks, and your family,
>> and let us raise a voice our leaders cannot ignore.
>>
>>
>> With hope and determination to change the world.
>> Arun and Team ONE MILLION CAMPAIGN
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ONE MILLION CAMPAIGN Support Women to Breastfeed is a campaign of the
>> World Breastfeeding Movement with just one mission - to mobilize public
>> opinion through one million signatures, demanding support to women to
>> breastfeed.
>>
>> ONE MILLION CAMPAIGN Support Women to Breastfeed brings together people of
>> all ages from all walks of life to generate the support women need to
>> breastfeed successfully. Through participating in the Movement's campaigns,
>> petitions to local, national and international policy makers, discussions
>> groups, evidence-based information sharing, and actions at every level, you
>> can focus national and global attention on the several challenges to
>> successful breastfeeding and help to resolve them. read more
>>
>> The Team
>>
>> The ONE MILLION CAMPAIGN team assists the members of the World
>> Breastfeeding Movement family to identify issues that pose a challenge to
>> successful breastfeeding, and develop national, regional and international
>> campaigns around them. The team works through a secretariat in New Delhi,
>> India, and international coordinators for different regions.
>>
>> ONE MILLION CAMPAIGN has been initiated by International Baby Food Action
>> Network (IBFAN), winner of the '1998 Right Livelihood Award'. IBFAN has more
>> than 200 public interest groups working around the world to improve infant
>> feeding practices and save lives of infants and young children. IBFAN works
>> for the universal and full implementation of 'International Code of
>> Marketing of Breast milk Substitutes and subsequent relevant World Health
>> Assembly (WHA) resolutions.
>>
>> The International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) is the 1998 Right
>> Livelihood Award Recipient. It consists of more than 200 public interest
>> groups working around the world to save lives of infants and young
>> children
>> by working together to bring lasting changes in infant feeding practices
>> at
>> all levels. IBFAN aims to promote the health and well-being of infants and
>> young children and their mothers through protection, promotion and support
>> of optimal infant and young child feeding practices. IBFAN works for the
>> universal and full implementation of 'International Code of Marketing of
>> Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent relevant World Health Assembly (WHA)
>> resolutions. IBFAN recognizes and endorses the Global Strategy for Infant
>> and Young Child Feeding, committed to improve infant feeding practices.
>> IBFAN follows clear funding policies that do not lead to any conflicts of
>> interest and does not accept funds or sponsorship of any kind from the
>> companies producing breastmilk substitutes, feeding bottles, related
>> equipments, or infant foods (cereal foods). The information in this e-mail
>> is intended solely for the use of the addressee(s) named. Any unauthorized
>> use of the email or its contents is prohibited. Kindly advise me if you
>> have
>> received the email in error. If so, please delete it; if printed, destroy
>> the document; if forwarded, kindly advise the recipient of action to be
>> taken.
>>
>
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