Dear Colleagues

We write soliciting your time, space and talent to identify with us in
addressing issues concerning our efforts to re-establishing evidence-based
midwifery education and midwifery research in Cameroon.
The Institute of Science Technology Breastfeeding Research and Advocacy
Center Cameroon, has as a mission to coordinate efforts by organizations,
agencies, institutions, and individuals towards the development of
strategic plans, policies, and goals for breastfeeding and to see that
breastfeeding practices and attitudes are enforced in Cameroon and given
priority as an indispensable step to achieving goal four (4) of the
Millennium Development Goals.

ACTIVITIES
•BFRA   collects, collates and disseminate information on breastfeeding
science and guidelines.
•BFRA focuses on collaborative work with grassroots maternal and child
health and social service providers.
•Training of community health workers, or lay health promoters, who make a
personal commitment to improving the health of babies and infants.
•Creating mobile Antenatal Clinics which focus on goal-targeted ANC than
“traditional ANC”
•Assist organizations in developing programs that use the power of peer
support, incorporating trained community health workers into positions in
outreach, breastfeeding education and advocacy programs.
•BFRA seeks to mobilize diverse stakeholders to build for policies and
programs that improve breastfeeding practices in some of the most
distressed communities in the country.
•Offering of scholarships to orphans and girls to study midwifery and
nursing in a bid to expanding knowledge of reproductive health and
providing each household with a skilled birth attendant (Indicator 5.2 of
MDG 5)
We are also involved in the training of Traditional Birth Attendants and
the prevention of postpartum hemorrhage in home births.
Our institution works in partnership with the partnership for maternal, 
newborn and child health department of the World Health Organization
(http://www.who.int/pmnch/members/list/ist_bfra/en/index.html) and the
Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition Belgium (www.rhsupplies.org: member
numbe 0166).

Promotion of proper breastfeeding practices for the first six months of
life is the most cost-effective intervention for reducing childhood
morbidity and mortality. It has been estimated that exclusive
breastfeeding for the first six months of life could reduce infant
mortality rate by a remarkable 13%. However, the adherence to
breastfeeding recommendations in many developing countries is not
satisfactory. Studies using community-based breastfeeding counselors
(CBBCs) have repeatedly shown positive impact on breastfeeding initiation,
exclusivity and duration, particularly among low-income mothers.

Several initiatives to improve exclusive breastfeeding have been tried
with varying success. These include: the implementation of Baby Friendly
Hospital Initiative (BFHI) recommendations in maternity hospitals,
education of mothers on how to breastfeed successfully, paternal support
and use of peer counselors to support breastfeeding mothers. The purpose
of BFHI is to actively protect, promote, encourage and support
breastfeeding through education of health care workers in maternity and
neonatal services. However, using health workers to give early support for
exclusive breastfeeding in Italian women was reported as ineffective (Di
Napoli et al., 2004).  Program data from Ghana, Madagascar and Bolivia
used several methods which included skills training, harmonized messages
and peer group support and interaction to promote breastfeeding in the
community. The rates of timely initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive
breastfeeding (by 24-hour recall) increased over the three year period of
implementation of the program (Quinn et al., 2005). In Cameroon, mostly in
the rural communities where the majority of women deliver outside health
facilities, the BFHI strategy alone, being hospital based, would miss out
most mothers.
Peer counseling is an effective way of promoting exclusive breastfeeding
and it has also been reported to decrease the speed of weaning
The Institute of Science Technology Breastfeeding Research and Advocacy
Center wants to embark on “TRAINING OF COMMUNITY BASED COUNSELORS FOR
SUPPORT OF EXCLUSIVE BREASTFEEDING”

The goal of this project is to increase breastfeeding rates and duration
through the training of community women as peer counselors for promotion
of exclusive breastfeeding, observe their performance as well as their
acceptability by their community in rural districts in Donga Mantung
division of the North West Region of Cameroon.

The Institute of Science Technology Breastfeeding Research and Advocacy
Center, is looking for funding for this projects, midwife volunteers to
also teach in our school of nursing and midwifery, and any resource
materials that may aid in its accomplishment.

Best regards
Ngala Elvis Mbiydzenyuy MAPS, MWASP
Director Institute of Science Technology
Breastfeeding Research and Advocacy Center Bamenda
P.O Box 4088
Tel: 237 99 13 84 44
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