Mime-Version: |
1.0 |
Sender: |
|
Subject: |
|
From: |
|
Date: |
Sun, 8 Oct 2006 08:40:26 -0400 |
Content-Type: |
text/plain |
Content-Transfer-Encoding: |
quoted-printable |
Reply-To: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
Dear all:
Having worked in many countries in Africa, I've been thinking a bit about the recent call for
donations for human milk in Africa. In many ways this reminds me of the inherantly flawed
system that we have developed for dumping excess foods into food distribution programs rather
than dealing with the root causes of maldistribution of food to begin with. While I certainly would
never want any displaced person anywhere to be deprived of food, the emphasis has been so
severely skewed that many preventable situations are not prevented. About 15 years ago, the
amount of money set aside for emergency conditions was about 100 times higher than for
programs to eliminate the root cause of malnutrition. And trust me, there are successes out there
that empower the local experts to set up sustainable programs for addressing these problems.
Starving children and famine are newworthy --- they catch our hearts. It makes us want to do
something right away. BUT the more mundane work of preventing those famines to begin with are
not interesting to watcth on TV.
So, how does this apply to sending our first world milk off to Africa? It does not set up sustainable
systems in Africa. Right now I'm starting to think about the shipping costs. I was horrified one
time to discover when a pharmaceutical company donated almost expired iron supplements.
Sounds good right? The shippping costs far exceeded the cost of buying fresh iron supplements.
Better to develop local production of those iron supplements. We're talking tens of thousands of
dollars for a one time donation of iron supplements that probably would not even have lasted in
the hot environment they were being sent to. I can't tell you what heat can do to even the best
sealed containers.
I'm starting to think about what the shipping costs of sending frozen milk to Africa would be and
its probably astronomically higher than the cost of setting up local human donor milk banks that
would have appropriate screening in place.
Finally, one has to realize that sometimes these so-called donations are actually fronts for
research.
So, anyone know who is the source of this human donor milk? Is it from a true not for profit
organization?
Best regards, Susan Burger
***********************************************
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
|
|