Introduction
World Breastfeeding
Week...
The idea of World
Breastfeeding Week (WBW) came from a global
unifying breastfeeding promotion strategy
initiated by the World Alliance for
Breastfeeding Action (WABA). In order
to facilitate and strengthen social mobilisation
for breastfeeding, a day dedicated to
breastfeeding was suggested to be marked in the
calendar of international events. The idea of a
day's celebration was later turned into a
week.
World Breastfeeding Week
(WBW) was first
celebrated in 1992 to commemorate the Innocenti
Declaration. The official date
of WBW is 1-7 August. Several places celebrate
breastfeeding at other times such as during the first week
of October. The tenth month of the year is
chosen because it is in the first week of life
(after nine months of gestation) that a baby
starts to breastfeed. Most
European countries as well as Canada and
Brazil have
already adopted this date. It has some other
advantages including being able to access
schools which are closed for the summer, and
fewer people are away on vacation at this time,
so more people will be available for more
celebration activities. Now WBW
celebration involves over 120 countries and
is endorsed by the United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization
(WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations (FAO).
Overall
coordination of WBW is done at the WABA Secretariat in
Penang, Malaysia, which includes the selection
of the theme and slogan, identifying resource
persons for a specific theme and the preparation
and dissemination of WBW materials such as the calendar
announcement, posters, action folders and
banners. These advocacy materials serve to
stimulate action among local groups,
governments, UN and other organizations for
their own WBW activities in their area/country.
For more
information about WBW, please visit http://www.worldbreastfeedingweek.org/
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