Curamericas Global supports World Breastfeeding Week and the practice of Exclusive Breast-Feeding (EBF).  Curamericas promotes breastfeeding as the best option for infant feeding and educates mothers on its life-saving benefits.  Here are some of the projects we implemented to address best feeding practices and raise awareness about the wonder of breastfeeding.

Guatemala Project:

In Guatemala, we educate mothers in EBF and complementary feeding in Care Group settings.  These Care Groups amplify the reach of important health  messages, allowing us to reach all the households in a community. Feeding practices like EBF help to tackle child malnutrition by using and can be monitored by Volunteer Community Health Workers from within the community.  This project saw positive results in the use of EBF with a lower prevalence of underweight children less than 5 months old.

Liberia Project:

Ana teaches a class on breastfeeding to mothers in rural Guatemala

In Nimba County, poor infant and young child feeding practices are common with only 29.1% of infants receving EBF during their first 5 months. Curamericas educated communities on the importance of EBF and proper complementary feeding to reduce preventable child deaths  associated with diarrhea and other causes.

Sierra Leone Project:

In Sierra Leone, improper infant and child feeding practices are the leading causes of malnutrition, where only 32% of children were EBF for the first 6 months. In July Curamericas implemented a new project to address maternal and child mortality in the Bo District of Sierra Leone.  The project will utilize certified midwives to aid in essential newborn actions like immediate breastfeeding to provide colostrum and minimizing the risk of post-partum hemorrhage.

Health Officers will also assist with demonstrations in proper breastfeeding techniques within the communities.  The project’s Maternal and Newborn Care Specialist and Care Group Volunteers will encourage prompt and EBF for children less than 6 months.  The promotion of immediate and exclusive breastfeeding represents part of Curamericas Global’s Behavior Change Communication (BBC) messages, which we use to convey knowledge and address barriers. BBC messages will also include correct complementary feeding of children 6-23 months.

Curamericas hopes to continue to spread the word about the value in breastfeeding and how this simple and smart solution can save the lives of children around the world.

Share this Article