I would like to address some comments that have been raised on Lactnet about
the Breastfeeding Delegation to Russia and Romania that some of you may have
been invited to. I was part of the first Breastfeeding and Human Lactation
Delegation to the People's Republic of China that was held in APril and May
of 1996. These programs are sponsored by The Eisenhower Foundation, a
non-proft organization founded by Former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower
in order to foster interntional understanding. The Citizen's Ambassador (not
"Citizens Abroad") and the People to People Programs are subsections of the
Dwight D. Eisenhower Foundation. This is *not* a commercial enterprise. It
is designed to explore scientific acheivements and deficits around the
world. Jerry Smith is a part of People to People and has been Director of
Medical Programs for many years. He has coordinated the scientific aspects
of previous delegations, such as setting up meetings with the Chinese
Association for Science and Technology, the Chinese Nurses Assocation, and
roughly 6-8 hospitals that were visited on last year's delegation.

The Center for Breastfeeding is a part of the Healthy Children 2000 Project,
a non-profit research and education insititution whose focus is maternal and
child health. Karin Cadwell PhD MSN RN IBCLC (she is both IBCLC Hon for
contribution to the field of breastfeeding and IBCLC through the test) is a
part of this organization. She has been teaching and consulting in the field
of breastfeeding and maternal and child health for over 21 years. Dr.
Cadwell, or Karin, as many of you know her, is a colleauge of mine, and I
can assure you that she is not profiting monetarily, but rather
scientifically from this delegation. She also led last year's delegation to
China and did an admirable job, as any one of the other 25 participants can
atest.


Ruth Maas