Right Livelihood Award goes to the International Baby Food Action Network

I'm proud to share with you that the Right Livelihood Award Foundation
has announced its 1998 prizes and the International Baby Food Action
Network (IBFAN) is one of the four recipients.  The citation from
the Right Livelihood Award (RLA) Jury is as follows:

"The RLA Jury has honoured IBFAN 'for its committed and effective
campaigning over nearly twenty years for the rights of mothers to choose to
breastfeed their babies, in the full knowledge of the health benefits of
breastmilk, and free from commercial pressure and misinformation
with which companies promote breastmilk substitutes'. The RLA calls on
governments everywhere to legislate according to the World Health
Organisation's International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes,
and challenges the companies which continue to break and bend the Code to
put the health and lives of babies before their profits."

Patti Rundall, the Policy Director of Baby Milk Action, who has been
working on the campaign for twenty years said:

"The story of IBFAN demonstrates the importance of long-running campaigns
which address the really difficult problems - however impossible this may
seem at the outset. After all, the companies that need to be controlled
think globally and long-term. They have enough resources to wait, hoping
that we will eventually move on to the next subject or give in. IBFAN's
determination to remain focused on this vital area, to keep its
independence, and to speak out wherever necessary have been major factors
in any successes we may have had."

The vast majority of infants can be safely breastfed. Where water
is unsafe an artificially fed child is up to 25 times more likely to die as
a result of diarrhoea than a breastfed child, according to the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The World Health Organisation
estimates that reversing the decline in breastfeeding could save the lives
of 1.5 million infants around the world every year, yet companies continue
to market artificial foods in ways that undermine breastfeeding.
IBFAN's latest report Breaking the Rules
(http://www.gn.apc.org/babymilk/update22.html#3) Stretching the Rules
1998 exposes company malpractice following monitoring in 31 countries.

Congratulations to IBFAN and all IBFANers and friends!


Denise Arcoverde
World Breastfeeding Week Coordinator
===============
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WBW '98 - "Breastfeeding - The Best Investment"
WBW '99 - "Breastfeeding - Education for Life"
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