Heather you wrote:

"But don't we want more details than this? What partnership? Which
segments? Is there anything we can read to see this possibility for
ourselves?

I am happy to write campaigning/protesting letters to anyone...but I
do need to know what I am protesting about : )"

I am not sure by your question whether you missed the initial letter I posted
from Ted Greiner and Michael Latham to Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of
UNICEF or whether you want further information.  If you didn't see the letter
it was posted June 8th, 2000 under my name with the subject being UNICEF
Infant Formula relations.

I believe that the information that Ted Greiner and Michael Latham received
was confidential about the partnership.  And I do not know the name of the
company who they plan to partner with(although I have my suspicions).  I
think you might want a little background information.  It was projected in
1996 that the UN would run out of cash by the end of 1996. see
http://www.lfsw.org/update.2.96.html  There was a vote on a plan to put the
UN back on sound financial ground.  I don't know what that plan was but by
1999 we have the Director-General of WHO, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland thanking
the pharmaceutical industry and naming Glaxo, Novartis(Gerber is part of
Novartis)and Pharmacia & UpJohn specifically.
http://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/english/19990130_davos.html

She(Dr. Brundtland) mentions that this partnership with the 3 pharmaceutical
companies "provides a model which can provide a basis for future partnerships
with the private sector in other important health areas."  I don't know if
any other breastfeeding advocate has asked UNICEF about what company has the
contract for providing the formula for hiv infants in developing countries,
but I did ask.  I was told that that information cannot be given out and that
it was a company that had not broken the WHO Code of Infant Formula
Marketing.  I find it interesting that this company will not be named.  Why
not?  I was told that this would amount to advertising...not with me it
wouldn't be advertising.  So when I read Ted Greiner's and Michael Latham's
letter to Carol Bellamy, it was not surprising and I believe it to be true.
In fact the only way I have come to understand the change in direction the
WHO has taken in regard to hiv and breastfeeding in developing countries(the
use of formula if the mom has resources) is to believe that this partnership
has already evolved somewhat.  Hope this is helpful to you.  Valerie W.
McClain, IBCLC

PS.  I'd also like to draw your attention to Maureen Fjeld's post(June 8,
2000) where she writes about a political scientist not being allowed to
breastfeed her 5 month old baby at a UN meeting.  This is certainly an
example of an organization that obviously has very little understanding of
the importance of breastfeeding(the need of mothers and babies to be
together).  We are a society that cannot understand why breastfeeding often
just doesn't work out and yet that very same society puts up a million
roadblocks making the obstacles so high that only the most determined get
over those obstacles.

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