Dear Colleagues,

Forgive me if I am emotional, but we are facing a crisis and humanitarian
disaster here in South Africa and you would have to have a heart of steel
not to become emotional.

Let me give you some figures so you have a better understanding of our
situation.
 40% of the pregnant women in our province are HIV positive.
 40% of deaths in the 15-49 year olds were AIDS related in 2000.
1 million children orphaned due to AIDS in 2006
 2 million children will be orphaned in South Africa by 2010
Many families are headed up by children, some as young as 10 years old
because both parents have died.

Because of the infection rate amongst our pregnant women, the pool of woman
to draw donor mothers from is not large. Our breastfeeding rates are not
high in this country, there has been very aggressive marketing of infant
formula and the spill over effect from HIV on breastfeeding has taken its
toll.
Many of the mothers who do breast feed stop at around 4-5 months when they
return to work.( A huge concern and I am looking into this for my Masters
Degree)
We believe that the promotion of Milk Banking goes hand in hand with the
promotion and protection of breastfeeding, something we are working hard on.
But even if every breastfeeding mother in this country donated breast milk
we would never have enough to feed all the orphans who need it.

I read the article Lynn referred to about shipping milk to Africa and would
like to comment on some issues-  quotes from the article in brackets:

"Wet nursing, when a woman comes in and nurses other people's babies, is
more culturally acceptable in African cultures, she said."

Wet nursing is a positively dangerous practice  given the HIV infection rate
and the fact that the majority of people do not know their HIV status. (
Apart from the danger of passing on many other diseases that are rife in
Africa)

"It smacks a little of racism"

I can assure you that when babies are dying no one is stopping to ask about
whether the milk came from a white Western woman or a local African woman.
Breastmilk is breastmilk no matter what the source.
We are dealing with a crisis of monumental proportions, there is no room for
racism here.

"Carter said plenty of African women can donate their breast milk. She said
she thinks that instead of spending money trying to keep breast milk frozen
and ship it across an ocean, Americans should send money to support African
milk banks."

New Milk Banks in Africa would be wonderful, the reality is all the money in
the world could not buy the amount of breastmilk that is needed for millions
of orphaned babies.

What we are doing is helping a very few of these babies, the tip of the
iceberg, they are the fortunate ones.  If you could see these sick babies
who arrive at our home, very ill, the one I am thinking of particularly had
TB, was HIV positive was covered in eczema and was skin and bone. It was
like a miracle before our eyes once he has put on the breastmilk and
treatment, the eczema cleared his diarrhoea stopped and he started to gain
weight. Today he is a happy, healthy 4 year old who is on HAART treatment
and has been adopted by a loving family. He was on breast milk for 18 months
and it made a enormous difference to his life. And so I could go on....
Our latest a baby was abandoned at 10 mths, when she arrived she was well
dressed and well cared for, sadly she is HIV pos.
My heart goes out to her mother, how hard it must have been to abandon a
child she obviously loved and cared for, possibly because she has too ill to
care for her anymore.
Many thousands in this country who are HIV pos, still do not have access to
Anti Retroviral Treatment and are dying from AIDS as a result.

Jill Youse and others have cared enough to do something to help, the benefit
of the raised awareness of breastfeeding and milk banking internationally
and locally is substantial.
I understand the sentiment that to spend money shipping milk out to Africa
is not a good use of resources. But then I look into the eyes of one of
these precious babies who deserve the very best chance in life and I find my
heart rules my head and I cannot say don't send us any more milk. The
reality is it will save lives.
Please I beg of you, be gracious and walk a mile with us in our shoes before
you cast the first stone.

As far as the International Breastmilk Project is concerned:
 "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change
the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead.

Penny Reimers
RN.RM. B.Tech( Nursing) IBCLC
Coordinator iThemba Lethu Breast Milk Bank
.

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