WBW Theme and the USA Celebration
By Robin Rziha and Jane Tuttle
From: NEW BEGINNINGS, Vol. 22 No. 4, July-August 2005, p. 162
Breastfeeding and Family Foods: Loving and Healthy is the theme for the 2005 World Breastfeeding
Week. The theme is decided upon by The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA). World Breastfeeding
Week (WBW) is an effort to generate public awareness and support for breastfeeding and the officially
designated week is August 1-7.
WBW is a celebration of the signing of the Declaration on the Protection, Promotion, and Support of
Breastfeeding at the WHO/UNICEF meeting. The Innocenti Declaration was produced and adopted by participants
at the WHO/UNICEF policymakers' meeting on "Breastfeeding in the 1990s: A Global Initiative,"
co-sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (AID) and the Swedish International
Development Authority (SIDA), held at the Spedale degli Innocenti, Florence, Italy, from July 30 to August
1, 1990. Signing the Declaration on behalf of the United States Department of Health and Human Services was
Audrey H. Nora, MD, MPH, then the Assistant Surgeon General of the US Public Health Service.
In the United States, the LLLI Divisions have taken responsibility for the Celebration. La Leche League
members in the USA often celebrate the week with a fundraising event. These events can serve at least two
purposes: publicity and fundraising. Asking others to financially support LLLI allows you to clearly express
how LLLI supports you as a breastfeeding mother and why LLLI is important to you.
The LLLI Catalogue features a number of whole food cookbooks that relate to Breastfeeding and Family
Foods: Loving and Healthy. One idea is to find some recipes in these books and have a potluck meal
featuring recipes from the cookbooks as part of the WBW celebration. You can also suggest to your local
newspaper that a review of LLLI cookbooks during WBW would be a timely article. However you celebrate,
remember the theme in your planning. Human milk is the best first food for all babies: it is loving and
healthy!
More information on fundraising for WBW can be found at www.lllusa.org/lllusa/fundraising.html.
Last updated Wednesday, October 25, 2006 by njb.
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:30:57 UTC 2007.
