The Brazilian organization 'Amigas do peito' which was supported in the
early days by the Norwegian BF mothers' organization Ammehjelpen, had a
great scheme for getting the message to children in communities where
breastfeeding was devalued.
They would hold festivals using a giant carnival puppet-mother with breasts,
who would answer questions called out to her by spectators.  They would
dance along with her, singing 'mama yo quiero', through the town on their
way to the festival spot, to attract attention.  The audience could ask the
puppet 'Mama, my baby wants to feed all the time and I don't know if I have
enough milk!  What should I do??' and she would answer.  Might not work in a
more Anglo culture  but it was very successful in Brazil. 
But they also had a regular feature for children, called the breastfeeding
art studio.  They set up lots of easels with paints in a large ring, in the
center of which there would always be a mother, one of the members of
Amigas, sitting and breastfeeding her child.  The children used her as a
model, and their paintings were hung on a wall for the duration of the
festival.  They would bring their own parents and grandparents and aunts and
uncles to see their work, and there would be an entire wall of children's
painted depictions of mothers and babies by the end of the festival.  They
were encouraged to take home their work at the end of the event.  You could
do the same thing with water color markers and tables or even just
heavy-duty cardboard for children to hold and sit on the ground, the main
thing is to have enough for everyone and a model dyad available all the
time.
Bibi Vogel, the woman who hit upon this concept, died of cancer a few years
ago, far too young, but I heard her describe this in 1993 here in Norway and
I thought it was brilliant.  It gets the image of breastfeeding imprinted in
the minds of children.  It forces adults to see breastfeeding, which was a
problem in Brazil then, and may still be now for all I know.  Breastfeeding
was hidden, shunned, not talked about.  Bibi wanted it to be out there, a
normal part of life. 
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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