Dear friends, Join the virtual workshop! WABA, the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, announces the initiation of its virtual workshop on the breastfeeding rights of working women. This website will provide ongoing information about the activities taking place at the "WABA International Workshop on Breastfeeding, Women & Work: Human Rights to Creative Solutions" in Quezon City, the Philippines on June 1-5. Funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida (or ASDI), this seminar will be of interest to breastfeeding advocates, feminists, and union activists alike. This year the International Labour Organization (ILO) has begun work on revising its convention on maternity protection. This presents an opportune moment to examine why so little progress has been made on the Innocenti Declaration goal to develop "imaginative" legislation in support of the breastfeeding rights of working women. WABA is taking this opportunity to: * examine what we know on this topic, * review the results of the work done so far by eight NGOs around the world under its mother-friendly workplace seed grant project, * develop an international strategy for further work on this issue,and * plan advocacy support that groups around the world may need to lobby their ILO committees, unions and employer organizations to ensure that the new ILO convention takes us a step further toward achieving a world in which working mothers receive the support they need to breastfeed including the right to stay home with their babies during the recommended period of exclusive breastfeeding without being penalized through loss of income, job security or seniority. Presentations at the meeting will be made by representatives of WABA, representatives of NGOs from countries around the world that have been working on this issue at home, researchers, the International Baby Food Action Network IBFAN, the ILO, UNICEF, WHO and Sida consultants. TO VIEW THE WEBSITE AND EVEN PROVIDE YOUR INPUT INTO THE PROCEEDINGS, VISIT THE WABA WEBSITE AT http://www.elogica.com.br/waba/seminar.htm Sincerely yours, Denise Arcoverde WABA - World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action [log in to unmask] "Lactancia Materna: La Mejor Inversión" SMA, 1998 Judy Canahuati, MPhil., IBCLC PO Box #512 San Pedro Sula, Honduras Telephone: +504-550-9737, Fax: +504-550-7482 E-mail: [log in to unmask] "The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination." John Schaar