Infant Feeding in Emergencies: what is your Experience?

Interested in what happens to infants during an emergency?Wondering what came out of the Croatia Conference on Infant Feeding in Emergencies in October '98? If so, you will be interested to hear that a project has emerged from the Croatia Conference to produce practical training material on the subject of infant feeding in emergencies.

The aim is to inform field managers and field workers about organisational and practical measures they can take to support mothers' or carers' optimal infant feeding practices and to increase their capacity to take appropriate action. Support for the project comes from Linkages (USA), WHO, UNICEF, and IBFAN.

As part of this project attempt to collect an "inventory" of different agencies' and individuals' experience with infant feeding in emergencies. In other words, let us know what your experience has been: what has worked, what has not worked and any other ideas or comments you have on the subject. Also let us know if you wish to take part in the review process.

Send comments asap to Kathy Carter, Mary Lungaho or to Felicity Savage King, Division of Child Health and Development, World Health Organisation, 10, Avenue Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27. Switzerland.

Does your agency have an explicit policy on Infant feeding in emergencies? If not this document will be of interest to you. This new publication formulates an appropriate and widely accepted policy and strategy statement on infant feeding in emergencies for humanitarian agencies. The document was the result of several meetings in the UK. Participants included individuals and representatives from a wide range of agencies concerned to promote positive and appropriate infant feeding practices in emergencies. The document contains original material, which tries to address some of the problems and knowledge gaps around this area. Some examples include; a fact sheet (ready for distribution in emergency contexts), a triage approach to decision making (includes a flow chart of feeding options), a piece on monitoring and evaluation (including indicators which can be used in determining progress/impact of an intervention).

The document was produced by and can be ordered from the ENN; cost IR£3.00 per copy, discounts available for bulk orders. Limited copies available.