Viallaite: a little step… but a huge impact, or how to improve nutrition and reduce infant mortality

15.12.18

Viallaite, an association active in Cameroon, joins the MMM network. Its objective is to encourage breastfeeding and healthy nutrition, to guarantee good health for both mother and baby.

Cameroon’s situation is emblematic of those in many other developing countries. A lack of information and also misinformation, now leads to too few mothers breastfeeding their babies (26% according to UNICEF), or mothers stopping too soon. Furthermore, too few know how to feed their children correctly to maintain good health.

Influenced by western culture and believing they are doing the best for their babies, mothers have largely adopted formula milk. Unfortunately, this belief, as well as negatively affecting their household budget, leads to child malnutrition. These substitute milk products are often too diluted, mixed with non-drinking water or used with badly sterilised bottles and teats. The illnesses which follow can be dramatic, sad because they could have been so easily avoided with simple advice from the time of pregnancy and the first few hours after the baby’s birth.

These families need urgent help to keep their babies in good health by this completely natural use of mother’s milk. Viallaite is taking this on.

“ViAllaite”, or “la vie via l’Allaitement maternel” (life through mothers’ milk)

Plaquette Viallaite pour encourager l'allaitement au Cameroun

Viallaite’s objective is to help mothers up to the time of weaning. The association works with counselors, who raise awareness, and who inform and support mothers in maternity units and medical centres.

These counselors are locally trained by the association, with the help of local pediatricians. They work both in small dispensaries as well as larger units, to inform and train the personnel. They also act more directly by helping mothers who have just given birth, and by holding free consultations on vaccination days or follow-up appointments for pregnant women.

In two years, three counselors have advised 30,000 mothers.

Make Mothers Matter is delighted that Viallaite has joined the group of associations within the MMM network working in the field of maternal and child health. Viallaite is a wonderful example of “good practice” and the proof that even with limited means, a well-run project and a good dose of determination can produce spectacular results.

For more information, visit the Viallaite website.

 

Most read articles

In this together: Share the Care, Transform Tomorrow

02.07.22

UN New York, HLPF - Join us on July 11th for a discussion on how #SharingTheCare at every level - family, community, governments and private sector - is vital for

Lire plus

Making the case for Gender Equal Parenting: Vital for Early Childhood Development and a transformative tomorrow

04.10.22

At MMM, we believe that sharing the invisible work of caring and educating children more equitably is a quadruple win: essential for early child development (ECD), beneficial for both men

Lire plus

Leave no single mother Behind: solutions from across the world

05.02.23

UN New York, CSocD61 - The virtual event we are organizing as part of the 2023 UN Commission on Social Development will draw attention to the specificity of the situation

Lire plus
See all the articlesof the category

Other News from the MMM Network

Women at the peace table: international Conference

14.04.23

Make Mothers Matter, together with the city of Ypres, and its grass roots partners Mothers for Peace, Mama Kivu and the Vrouwenraad, is organizing an international peace Conference Women at the Peace Table, whi

Read more

20 million Afghan women and girls must not be allowed to ‘die slowly’

04.03.23

Like thousands of others, Razia Arefi, who had been working as a field director for our associate member Mothers for Peace in Afghanistan, fled the country in August 2021 after the Taliban takeover and became a

Read more

Solutions from across the world for single mothers – CSocD61 event recap

19.02.23

UN New York - Our virtual #CSocD61 event, which took place on the margins of the 61st UN Commission on Social Development, brought together expert speakers from varied backgrounds to discuss the situation of si

Read more

Leave no single mother Behind: solutions from across the world

05.02.23

UN New York, CSocD61 - The virtual event we are organizing as part of the 2023 UN Commission on Social Development will draw attention to the specificity of the situation of single parents, in particular single

Read more

Lessons learnt from the #MenLikeMe campaign

26.09.22

Our grass roots member in Canada Mothers Matter Centre launched their campaign in response to the drastic increase in Gender-Based Violence (GBV) experienced across Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March

Read more

Rozaria Memorial Trust nominated for UNESCO Education Prize

05.07.22

Make Mothers Matter has always believed in the crucial role of civil society in addressing key issues such as women and girls’ education. It is for this reason that we are supporting and giving voice to one o

Read more