MHS: Source date is: 17-Aug-95 12:12:00 -0300 EDT
I think somehow this didn't go out yesterday. Sorry, if you already
received it.
In the accumulated digests I somehow missed a post from Roberta Graham
related to having only seen one person from Latin America at the ILCA
conference, but I found it yesterday and I would like to respond. I think
it is important to respond on the net rather than privately. One of the
reasons that I have not been communicating with anyone lately was the
accumulated work after coming back from a very successful three day workshop
that took place WITHIN the La Leche League International Conference where we
put together representatives of groups working in peer counseling in Latin
America and the Caribbean and those working in other parts of the world. At
that conference there was a very healthy representation from Latin America.
There were several reasons for this.
1. At least three-four sessions were in Spanish.
2. There was scholarship money available for their attendance.
It seems to me that these are two critical factors for participation not
only from Latin America but from many other areas of the developing world.
Having sessions in languages other than English makes our information
sharing much more accessible. Even if people read English, they are often
hesitant to communicate in a language in which they feel uncomfortable.
Through Wellstart's lactation management education courses and the work that
the expanded promotion of breastfeeding program has done world wide we have
been able to stimulate translation of many materials into Spanish, French,
and most recently Russian. A new project may hopefully will allow us to
begin to make many more materials available in Arabic.
Being able to communicate in local or at least regional languages vastly
improves the possibility of networking. Fortunately for us, or we wouldn't
have gotten as far as we have, in Latin America, there are many people who
manage English at least passably well. There is, in Latin America, over 20
years of work that has gone into breastfeeding promotion, hampered by
distances, by difficulties in communication, by the cost of air travel, by
the lack of translation of research. However, in spite of all of this,
starting back with some early work through INCAP and the Caribbean Food and
Nutrtition Institute in the 70s, continuing with the founding of La Leche
League in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Honduras in the early 70s,
continuing with a great deal of work during the 70s and 80s, including the
founding of the first National breastfeeding commission (I think anywhere)
in Guatemala in 1979, the development of the Mothers' Program in Brazil
(through LLLI's Rebecca Magalhaes, who is in the US now), CALMA in El
Salvador, PROALMA in Honduras, the wonderful work of Leonardo Mata in Costa
Rica starting in 1974-5, of Judith Salinas and the other Chileans, ASCOFAME
in Colombia, the slow hard work that La Leche League of Mexico has been
carrying out in trying to educate Mexican health practitioners since 1982
(the chairperson of the LLLI Board is Paulina Smith from Argentina, living
in Mexico), finally the certification of a few LAC practioners as lactation
consultants (most are daunted by both the language and the cost and, of
course, the references are generally not in Spanish--and the language is
certainly daunting, as Cathy Liles and I realized as we tried to get this
year's exam into the best possible form in Spanish--in time for it to be
administered).
There is a large and very active network in Latin America -- over 140
Wellstart Associates, IBFAN in almost every country, WABA increasingly
spread out. In 1994 WBW was celebrated in 400 BRAZILIAN cities and towns
and I don't know how many this year. The first Baby Friendly Hospital in
the Americas was in Bolivia (there are currently about 33% of the hospitals
in Latin America are reported as BF (somewhere around 450 hospitals) and of
course Colombia gave the world Kangaroo Care. The Latin America
Perinatology Center, in Uruguay, is working on a breastfeeding policy and is
beginning to think through the issues related to incorporating breastfeeding
There are 17 different organizations in Brazil alone working on
breastfeeding! Chile has produced a great deal of important research,
including the LAM field studies that showed the efficacy of LAM. Kay
Dewey's group has worked in Peru and is currently working in Honduras on the
growth of the exclusively breastfed baby and has already published several
important pieces. It is really amazing, if one takes into account the
communications difficulties alone -- that all of what is going on is
actually going on.
Over the course of the last couple of years, Wellstart has been actively
involved with both PAHO (the Pan-American Health Organization) and UNICEF
trying to strengthen and institutionalize the health institution and
community practices that are supportive of breastfeeding within the Latin
American and Caribbean region. All of us together had made a fair number of
advances.
In any case, if you are all interested in this subject, let me know because
it might be worthwhile doing an article for JHL or talking about the Latin
American breastfeeding scene at the 96 conference.
Wellstart has worked with teams from over 50 countries and there are now
over 500 associates worldwide working in Ministries of Health, teaching
hospitals and in other positions where we hope that they can influence
health institutions. Many of them are doing excellent work.
We are concerned about continuing to advance with these particular projects,
because the funding situation at USAID is increasingly precarious and
although Congress seems to be leaning toward giving money to child survival,
there is no assurance that any of this will be earmarked for bf (similar to
WIC situation). So, those of you who like legislative challenges have
something new to communicate to senators and Congressmen. The bill will be
marked up around 10 September, so there isn't much time to express an
opinion.
If you want to network with any of the people in LAC, email me privately and
I will give you names, faxes, email addresses.
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