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Subject:
From:
rob reimers <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 9 Oct 2006 13:27:33 +0200
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Hi Everyone,

Let me give you some background to how this all happened and where the 
donated breastmilk is going.

Ithemba Lethu is an NGO set up by Prof Anna Coutsoudis  to meet the
needs of babies orphaned or abandoned because of AIDS. They are cared
for in a transition home in Durban , South Africa. It is a small home,
we only have 6 babies at any one time, the idea being to give them love
and excellent nutrition in a loving environment. As the babies are
adopted into families, new ones arrive. Attached to the ngo we have a
breastmilk bank which was started 5 years ago with funding from UNICEF.
In the 5 years we have been running we have seen amazing results
feeding these babies with pasteurised breast milk. Their eczema clears
the diarrhoea stops and they start gaining weight. This is all carefully
documented.
Our donors are local healthy mothers who are screened and we use the
Holder method of pasteurisation.

Sometime ago Reuters filmed a documentary on iThemba Lethu which was
screened on CNN and SKY. 

Jill Youse in the USA, saw this and contacted us about donating milk.
We discouraged her because of the cost and logistics of getting the milk
to Africa. We suggested she rather raise funds to start other Milk Banks
Internationally. We also suggested she contact HMBANA to donate her milk
to them.

She formed a non profit organisation ( the International Breast Milk
Project) and started collecting money. She however persisted with the
idea of donating her milk to the babies in Africa.
We decided to allow her to send one batch to raise the profile of
breastfeeding and her project of starting similar  community based milk
banks in Africa.( She is presently raising funds for an organisation to
start a Milk Bank in Cameroon, Africa)

The first batch of Breastmilk to South Africa was brought by my husband
who was on business in the USA, so it did not cost anything. He must be
the first ever male International  Breastmilk Courier!
The second batch was sent courtesy of DHL. to South Africa.
The donor mothers are all screened and have the blood tests required by
HMBANA.

ABC broadcasting then contacted us and came to do a documentary on the
iThemba Lethu Breast Milk Bank and our babies. This was screened on ABC
news last week. 

In the mean time more mothers became interested in donating milk and
Jill contacted HMBANA and as far as I know has started recruiting donors
for them and referring mothers to them.

Prolacta must have contacted Jill at some stage and offered to test,
bottle and pasteurise the milk for her before it was sent out to Africa
at no cost. This is their only involvement in the project.

Jill is a very driven woman and she is  compassionate and passionate
about helping. I have never met her but have been in email contact over
the last year. The impression I get is that all she wants to do is help
and make a difference in the lives of these babies. She has no political
or hidden agenda.

What her project has done is raise the awareness of the importance of
breastfeeding, it was brought so much good press for breastfeeding
locally and recruited more donors for our project and hopefully will
encourage other community based Milk Banks to be started.

If she does not have all the information about the Milk Banks in the
USA on her site, please would you write to her and give her the correct
info? She would be so grateful.

It is crazy to have frozen breast milk sent all the way to Africa when
we have breastfeeding mothers here. Many of them are already donating. 

The idea is not for this to be a long term project. 
What this project has done though as I said is raise the profile of the
importance of breastfeeding and given some mothers an opportunity to
make  a significant difference in the lives of our very precious AIDS
babies.

In the future the focus of the International Breastmilk Project will be
on establishing similar Community Based Breastmilk Banks.

I hope that helps in giving some background to the issue.

Penny Reimers
IBCLC
Coordinator iThemba Lethu Breastmilk Bank
Durban, South Africa

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