Hi Linda, Yes, I was part of the relief effort in that I assisted in a small way with the organisation of the response and media management (press releases etc). I took part in some of the Haiti Nutrition Cluster teleconferences (more on the Cluster at http://oneresponse.info/Disasters/Haiti/Nutrition/Pages/default.aspx ) where the issue was raised. There was a lot of confusion about what was happening because these people had not heard of the IMBP before. The donation had been refused but IMBP was tenacious in finding somewhere that would accept it. UNICEF was being inundated with women offering their expressed breastmilk and it took many hours in trying to deal with that issue as a result of reports of the IMBP donation (which I believe was also not used because the Cluster asked that it not). I also spoke directly with the infant feeding specialist contracted to manage infant feeding in Haiti about how having to manage this issue took away from the wider management of the infant feeding emergency response. No biased sources there! UNICEF recently organised an infant and young child feeding in emergencies training meeting in the Philippines at which I was a presenter and again this issue was raised. If IMBP seeks to donate breastmilk in any future emergency then they will be doing so knowing that their donation will cause more harm than good (unless of course the emergency is in the US in which case it could well do good). Karleen Gribble Australia -----Original Message----- From: Lactation Information and Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Linda Sent: Saturday, 4 December 2010 11:59 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Haiti relief Karleen - were you part of the relief effort in Haiti or did you just hear about the chaos from a biased source? Linda Glynn IBCLC South Africa Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2010 16:34:43 +1100 From: Karleen Gribble <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: Sustainability answered And just to remind....the whole issue of US donated banked human milk being sent to Haiti caused chaos and confusion in the emergency response and detracted from the relief effort. Karleen Gribble Australia *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome