By Helen Ayamba, camlinknews
Ms. Pinddelwa Mwa, Nestlé Business Head in South Africa ended a three-day work visit to Cameroon on the 28th August 2015 after holding working sessions with four top level directors at the ministry of public health and stake holders of maternal and infant feeding in Yaoundé. She was accompanied by four country collaborators in Ghana and Cameroon. The visit was aimed at highlighting the vision of Nestlé in Africa. Ms. Pindelwa told Cameroon authorities that, decision makers are stretching infant feeding issues too long instead of looking at the real problems facing mothers. She recommended meaningful dialogue through listening to understand the various problems facing mothers before taking well informed decisions. She emphasized the fact that stakeholders do not look at the issue of malnutrition of mothers enough. She invited them to be passionate and look at issues directly.
According to her, Nestlé approves of the fact that exclusive breastmilk is the best for babies in the first six months, though it is known that not all mothers can breastfeed in situations of emergency. Mothers need to be educated on their health and how to feed their babies adequately. Breastmilk develops the brain for recognition. The challenges of breastfeeding are high, but the flag must be kept flying in all regions of the world and especially Africa.
Ms Pindelwa, who is South African has worked with Nestle for 21 years and does not talk politics because this may infringe on the rights of the mother and child. She does not want children’s rights to be violated by political actions as she sechoed that, Nestlé is not in competition with breastmilk as she told the story of Henri Nestle who founded the companyas a social utility. The work of the company is to enhance breastfeeding and their role is to compliment breastfeeding where there are challenges in feeding the baby adequately through the breast.
She explained that working mothers should be educated on how to express their baby’s milk and a carer can serve the breast milk to the baby when she is at work and not at home. Breastfeeding rooms are encouraged at work place. She recommended that national languages be used for educating mothers on planning breastfeeding action. Social media technology is already available at very low cost and this can be exploited for reaching mothers where they live.
As Africans, she strongly believes that we have to protect our mothers and support them in various ways during breastfeeding periods. Youths should also be educated because they are leaders to be in the future. She observed that, Youths of today have wonderful initiatives and involving them will assist in bringing change in our communities. We should involve farmers also as beneficiaries of our work and get them to discuss breastfeeding in their local group meetings, where local languages are used extensively.
This will encourage them to understand that producing and transfusion of their crops locally gives room for better wellbeing and improvement of the health of families. At the ministry of public health, the top level authorities pledged to continue to work with company staff on social mobilisation for better understanding of the products they buy. This is important because information sharing is vital and important. It is clear that government cannot work and bring change alone and that is why civil society organisations are involved through collaboration. The CSOs can operate mobile clinics as an initiative for reaching mothers in the market place where they spend most of their time. Ms. Pinddelwa Mwa ended her three-day dialogue and visit to Cameroon on the 28th August 2015 after holding working sessions with key stake holders of maternal and infant feeding in Cameroon. Hestle approves of the fact that exclusive breastmilk is the best for babies in the first six months. Mothers need to be educated on how to feed their babies adequately. Breastmilk develops the brain for quick recognition of their parents. The challenges are many but the flag needs to be kept flying high in all regions of the world.
Ms Pindelwa has worked with Nestle for 21 years anad avoids politics and does not want children’s right to be violated by political actions. She said, Nestle is not in competition with breastmilk as she told the story of Henri Nestle who founded the company. The work of the company is to enhance breastfeeding and staff role is to compliment breastfeeding where there are challenges in feeding the baby adequately.
She explained that working mothers should be educated on how to express their baby’s milk and the baby carer can give the breastmilk left behind by the mother when she is at work. Breastfeeding rooms are encouraged at work places. .She recommended that local languages be used for educating mothers as well as social media technology opportunities already available at very low cost.
As Africans, we have to protect and support our mothers in various ways. Youths should be trained because they are going to be leaders of tomorrow. Youths of today have wonderful creative initiatives and involving them will assist in bringing change in their communities. We should involve farmers as target beneficiaries of our work and get them to discuss breastfeeding issues in their local traditional meetings, where local languages are used extensively.
This will encourage them to understand that producing and transfusion of foods from their farms locally improve their wellbeing and health of families. At the ministry of public health, the top level authorities pledged to continue to work with Nestle to bring change. This is important because information sharing is vital and important for development of communities. It is clear that governments cannot work and bring change alone. For this reason civil society organisations are involved through collaboration agrements. The CSOs can operate mobile clinics as a means of reaching mothers in the market where most of them spend their time doing petit trading. Pindelwa visited Cameroon at the time Nestlé Administration General, Bruno Olierhoek was transferred to Pakistan, after his three –year stay in the country.
Ms Pindelwa, who is South African has worked with Nestle for 21 years and does not talk politics because this may infringe on the rights of the mother and child. She does not want children’s rights to be violated by political actions as she sechoed that, Nestlé is not in competition with breastmilk as she told the story of Henri Nestle who founded the companyas a social utility. The work of the company is to enhance breastfeeding and their role is to compliment breastfeeding where there are challenges in feeding the baby adequately through the breast.
She explained that working mothers should be educated on how to express their baby’s milk and a carer can serve the breast milk to the baby when she is at work and not at home. Breastfeeding rooms are encouraged at work place. She recommended that national languages be used for educating mothers on planning breastfeeding action. Social media technology is already available at very low cost and this can be exploited for reaching mothers where they live.
As Africans, she strongly believes that we have to protect our mothers and support them in various ways during breastfeeding periods. Youths should also be educated because they are leaders to be in the future. She observed that, Youths of today have wonderful initiatives and involving them will assist in bringing change in our communities. We should involve farmers also as beneficiaries of our work and get them to discuss breastfeeding in their local group meetings, where local languages are used extensively.
This will encourage them to understand that producing and transfusion of their crops locally gives room for better wellbeing and improvement of the health of families. At the ministry of public health, the top level authorities pledged to continue to work with company staff on social mobilisation for better understanding of the products they buy. This is important because information sharing is vital and important. It is clear that government cannot work and bring change alone and that is why civil society organisations are involved through collaboration. The CSOs can operate mobile clinics as an initiative for reaching mothers in the market place where they spend most of their time. Ms. Pinddelwa Mwa ended her three-day dialogue and visit to Cameroon on the 28th August 2015 after holding working sessions with key stake holders of maternal and infant feeding in Cameroon. Hestle approves of the fact that exclusive breastmilk is the best for babies in the first six months. Mothers need to be educated on how to feed their babies adequately. Breastmilk develops the brain for quick recognition of their parents. The challenges are many but the flag needs to be kept flying high in all regions of the world.
Ms Pindelwa has worked with Nestle for 21 years anad avoids politics and does not want children’s right to be violated by political actions. She said, Nestle is not in competition with breastmilk as she told the story of Henri Nestle who founded the company. The work of the company is to enhance breastfeeding and staff role is to compliment breastfeeding where there are challenges in feeding the baby adequately.
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