Nurturing The Future – Challenges to Breastfeeding in the 21st Century

149

SECTION III

OTHER ACTIVITIES

W A B A G L O B A L F O R U M II

150

WABA GLOBAL FORUM II • 23-27 September 2002 • Arusha, Tanzania

1. EXHIBITION

The following organisations displayed their posters andmaterials in the exhibition area amidst workshoprooms:1. TFNC – Positioned nicely outside the display room,

TFNC displayed education and communicationmaterials, tee shirts, posters and a cassava-choppingmachine for making mother’s life easier whenpreparing this traditional Tanzanian staple.

2. BPNI, India, presented a poster that highlightedtheir achievements in breastfeeding work in India.

3. A representative from the UNITED KINGDOMpresented a poster with pictures showing familiesof various nationalities breastfeeding. This was asuccinct and very effective poster. The photo of asupportive father reading the newspaper whilemother was breastfeeding, was particularly popular.

4. ILCA presented a very informative poster abouttheir examinations and services.

5. HEALTH LINK, UK, put out information bookletsand leaflets that shared information about theirexciting new organisation.

6. FATHER SUPPORT GROUP. The poster reviewgroup thinks this should win the prize for the best,most effective poster! We have been struggling toinvolve men for such a long time and now we havethem here and were really struck by the invitingdisplay.

7. PERU representatives put up an educational flipchart that can be used as a teaching tool forpregnancy, breastfeeding and infant feeding.

8. INFACT CANADA displayed a series of postersillustrating what breastfeeding can do for a child:improve brain development and reduce risk ofcancer, respiratory diseases, and dental problems.This poster shows that mothers dreams for theirchildren's health and well being can be achievedwith breastfeeding with bold eye catching images.

9. A poster on a BREASTFEEDING COURSE inLondon, UK. MOZAMBIQUE representativesdisplayed a poster showing the reality in emergencysituations of breastfeeding, infant feeding anddonations.

10. SUDAN representatives showed a poster with thevery catchy phrase: “Cry to Smile.” The posterreview group thinks this should be the motto orlogo for next World Breastfeeding Week.

11. LLL Guatemala put up a poster illustrating theimpact mother to mother support on exclusivebreastfeeding practices in two peri-urbancommunities in Guatemala.

12. BOLIVIA participants shared a poster in which thebreastfeeding mother looks very happy and bottle-feeding mother looks unhappy and full of worries.

13. NICARAGUA participants showed a flip chart thatdisplays the process from prenatal time throughinfant feeding. CIMS put up a display that elegantlyshowed the way to move to Mother Friendly ChildBirthing Practice.

14. THAILAND participants displayed a stack ofmagazines for mothers and babies free fromcommercial pressure.

Nurturing The Future – Challenges to Breastfeeding in the 21st Century

151

15. SAVE THE CHILDREN put up facts and figuresabout newborns.

16. MACRO showed demographic and health statisticsfacts and figures aboutdifferent states in the US.

17. LLL GUATEMALA put up a lot of information,education and communication materials.

18. AGB Germany: 20 years of experience working onnational and international level.

19 BANGLADESH representative showed a livelyposter highlighting 10 Years of Protection, Supportand Promotion of Breastfeeding by BangladeshBreastfeeding Foundation.

20. QUEBEC CANADA presented a very good posterin French that provides research about mothersfrom pregnancy test to 24 months after birth.

21. The National Breastfeeding Committee,DENMARK, put up an informative and very unusualposter on developing strategies for breastfeedingsick children.

22. A representative from INDONESIA put up a postercontaining information about training for volunteerand peer counselors. They included educationalsupport for breastfeeding.

23. TAIWAN representatives put up a large colorfulphotograph of 50 pairs of mothers and breastfeedingchildren together at a celebration of the WorldBreastfeeding Week.

24. SRI LANKA representative strung a beautiful clothpainting showing a holistic approach to motherhoodand the truths about breast vs. bottle.

25. ARUGAAN, Philippines, showed a creative way ofmaking posters that uses minimal space, and usesrecyclable material. It shows a day care centre,which supports working mothers with babies andyoung children. They also put up a poster about aBreastfeeding Clinic.

26. IBFAN AFRICA displayed candles, educationmaterials for mothers, watches for timing thebreastfeeding and small size T-shirts. They put upa huge eye-catching banner in the back of the room.They also displayed a poster pertaining to HIV: itshowed the comparison of number of deaths ofchildren from HIV and deaths of children from notbreastfeeding – the latter number is significantlylarger than the former. The poster review groupthinks this is a great advocacy tool for promotionof breastfeeding with policy makers.

27. University Research Corporation hung a series ofposters and pamphlets that show the quality designof counseling material, family planning materialsand job aids in Guatemala. The materials displayedwere clear and very useful.

28. A CHETNA representative, India, hung a posteron the innovative educational approaches for thepromotion of breastfeeding at community level.

29. AGB, Germany, put up a poster called 20 Years ofAGB: Working at national and international levelsthat included a very striking photograph of anursing African child, interesting news paperclippings, and charts illustrating their work.

152

WABA GLOBAL FORUM II • 23-27 September 2002 • Arusha, Tanzania

2. Media ShowcaseAfter a busy day of meetings and plenaries, participantshad the option to see the day’s films at the “MediaShowcase event” during the evenings. This hourprovided an opportunity for participants to share theirexcellent work on breastfeeding advocacy throughvideo and television.

Screenings included the following• a LINKAGES video project entitled, Nutrition: the

Missing Piece which showed how the EssentialNutrition Actions were introduced in Madagascar;

• a video in Arabic from Lebanon highlighting TVspots;

• a film produced by CARE in USA, showing fivecase studies of alternatives developed to confrontthe challenges of breastfeeding in the workplace;

• Person Number One by Adik Levin in Estoniawhich answers questions about sick infants in theNICU;

• a video about the People’s Health Assembly,summarising and presenting highlights from themeeting in Bangladesh in 2000;

• How to Milk by Hand, How to Feed from Cup,which provides short instructions to these importantactions;

• two videos on birthing practices from MaryKroeger; and

• a video from IBFAN Bolivia.

WABA displayed and distributed copies of a paper,Breastfeeding and Human rights, by a law studentAmanda Hoffemyer, Healthy Documents by LakshmiMenon, and Risks, Rights and Regulation:communicating about risks and infant feeding by PennyVan Esterik and many other recent publications. Allof the publications and products served as inspirationalreminders of the many ways to bring breastfeeding intoproducts and artwork and also served as incomegeneration. Dedicated volunteers managed the sale anddisplay counters very efficiently.

Highlights:• A young volunteer from IBFAN Mexico sold

handmade anatomically correct dolls that werebreastfeeding mothers and supportive fathers.

• Anne Marie-Kern, from Austria, sold her variedcollection of cards with breastfeeding imagesduring the closing plenary.

• BPNI, India, sold tee shirts with the direct messageof “Protecting, Promoting, and SupportingBreastfeeding.”

4. Media ActvitiesA room was reserved for media persons with facilitiessuch as computers, internet connections and telephonelines with local and international phone connections.About 12 to 15 media persons, with national andinternational press accreditations covered the dailyevents. A hotel suite was reserved for press interviewsand recordings. Two press conferences were held, oneat the beginning of the Forum and the other after theclosing ceremony.

3. Sales and DistributionThe Forum provided an opportunity for groups to selltheir publications, tee shirts, and products that relatedto breastfeeding. Many groups from all over the worldsold publications in more than five languages, givingan opportunity for participants to take home materialsproduced by other organisations, such as publications,tee shirts, breastfeeding dolls and neckties, etc.

Nurturing The Future – Challenges to Breastfeeding in the 21st Century

153

5. Night Sessions

Launch of Madagascar's 'Self-Learning'BFHI Training ModulesDay 1, 23 September 2002, 8.30 - 10.00pmDr. Agnes B. Guyon, LINKAGES Regional Advisorpresented the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative strategyadopted in Madagascar. This strategy is based on self-evaluation (the BFH are doing their own self-evaluation twice a year) and on self-learning modules(each hospital organise monthly meeting to reviewtraining modules, and to do more practices. There arefour self-learning modules: Advocacy, Practices, IEC,and Problems of breast-feeding). These five moduleswere recently translated into English by a joint effort(WHO-AFRO and LINKAGES). These modules werepresented and explained, and five hard copies andtwenty CD ROMs were distributed, to variousparticipants, including WHO-AFRO UNICEF/ESARO, UNICEF/NY, LINKAGES/Zambia,LINKAGES/Ghana, and LINKAGES/DC. Thesemodules have to be adapted to each country. Thisstrategy is an attempt to make the Baby FriendlyHospital more self-sufficient to maintain adequatequality.

Discussion Group on Ross Laboratorysponsorship of AAP breastfeeding bookBeth Styer facilitated an animated discussion on theAmerican Academy of Pediatrics acceptingsponsorship from Ross Abbot Laboratory for theproduction of their publication.

Soulful and Passionate ArgentineTangoDr. Stina Almroth organised this fun session ofelementary Argentine Tango. About 15 ardent dancersturned up at this session and danced away the night,not before getting into tangles with their partners. Thissession ended with the participants feeling their wayin synchronised movement which reflects the spirit ofthe Global Forum.

6. Healing HandsTherapeutic massage wasoffered by ARUGAANparticipants from thePhilippines. With so manyevents happening,exhausted participantsfound relief in HealingHands. The massagefacilitates the exchange ofenergies that soothes frayednerves, relaxes tensemuscles, and rejuvenatingthem to keep going.

154

WABA GLOBAL FORUM II • 23-27 September 2002 • Arusha, Tanzania

7. Market comes to the Forum!A colorful marketplace appeared each morning on thelawns of the Mt. Meru Novotel. It provided somedistraction from days full of meetings. Local vendorsand artists set up stalls, displaying their wares for sale,which ranged from soya powder (a huge bannerproclaimed it to be “Power Food”) to colourfulnecklaces, and other Masai creation of unimaginablebeauty. These vendors came alive from their slumber,as the Forum participants returned from theirworkshops and plenaries, persuading them to buy theirwares which they claimed were the cheapest, mostbeautiful beaded slippers, woodcarvings, intricatenecklaces and earrings, etc. The participants, on theirpart were happy to wander around the stalls and tobuy souvenirs for friends and family and office matesback home. The market place brought much beauty,

life and vitality of Tanzania directly at the conferencevenue – you could not avoid it as you had to leap overa colourfully printed cloth hung for display, on yourway to a workshop room. It was a much appreciateddiversion during break time and saved people time and/or a trip in town to shop for souvenirs.

Highlights:• One young Masai youth, named Supen, sold copies

of a documentary he made about Masai life andtraditional medicine, along with baskets, beadedMasai jewelry made by his mother and sister, andwoolen red and blue plaid blankets.

• The Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre (TFNC)set up a table selling Kangas (brightly printed fabricused as sarong), posters and publications. They alsodistributed brochures about their work.

8. Cultural Events• Breastfeeding to the tune of Poopy: Poopy of

Madagascar sang pop songs to promotebreastfeeding

• Latino Night: The Latino participants organised afun night of music and dance at Hotel Impala.

Nurturing The Future – Challenges to Breastfeeding in the 21st Century

155

• African Night:The local hostsorganised a fabulousdinner of variousAfrican cuisine withdance and musicperformance by theArutheda dance group.• Farewell Dinnercum World CulturalNight. WABA hosted a

farewell dinner on the last day with participants puttingup cultural shows.

9. SafariMany participants took the opportunity to explore theplains of the African land, especially some of the most

renowned national parks in the world, the cradle ofhumankind. To welcome delegates of the WABA GlobalForum II to Tanzania, the Authority for TanzaniaNational Parks (TANAPA) waived the park entrancefees for Serengeti, Tarangire and Manyara nationalparks, which would otherwise cost participants US$25per entry for each of the park. One of the most popularplaces was the volcanic Ngorongoro Crater, frequentlyreferred to as “Africa’s Garden of Eden”. Alsocontained within the Ngorongoro Conservation Areais the geologically important and historicallycontroversial Olduvai Gorge, where Louis and MaryLeakey discovered various fossil remains of early man.The park with its lush vegetation in 102 square milesprovide a secure home for 30,000 animals.

156

WABA GLOBAL FORUM II • 23-27 September 2002 • Arusha, Tanzania

Soaring HighLiew Mun Tip, Koay Vi Vien andRosha Forman of the WABASecretariat went a step further –vertically – to scale Mt. Meru,Tanzania’s second highest peakat 4500 feet, reflecting the spiritof the Global Forum 2 – to soarhigh!