Breast-feeding Site Added To Namibia MoHSS Web Site --------------------------------------------------- Hello AFRO-NETters, The Food and Nutrition unit of the Namibia Ministry of Health and So- cial Services (MoHSS) recently received WHO support to contract a lo- cal Web site developer to create a very comprehensive site addressing breast-feeding in Namibia. The site's content was developed by MoHSS staff, and includes a wide variety of information on the Baby and Mother Friendly Facility Ini- tiative in Namibia, Government policies and strategies for promoting breast-feeding and maternal and baby health, facts and figures relat- ing to breast-feeding, and a resource guide for health workers that details reasons for and ways to promote breast-feeding. Clearly this is a site ahead of its time because relatively few Na- mibians have Internet access and, (I suspect) if they do, they are unlikely to think of logging on to the Internet to check out informa- tion regarding breast-feeding. Most health workers do not have Inter- net access at their work place, so they are unlikely to visit the site to hone their skills by reviewing the resource guide (which, in any case, they should have in a booklet version in a language other than English, in their facility.). Nevertheless, the site should prove to be a valuable resource of in- formation about the BMFI for Namibians and others, could provide ideas or examples that health workers elsewhere who are at work de- veloping similar materials could draw on so as not to reinvent the wheel, and will serve as a single place at the MoHSS to visit for breast feeding information that otherwise would likely be difficult or impossible to track down on various computers or in file cabinets or on book shelves. Currently the site does not provide the capacity to download the various documents that are presented for browsing. If there is inter- est among visitors for such a feature, send a message to "foodnut", the site's inspiration by clicking on any of the e-mail links. You can pay a visit to the Namibia breast feeding site directly at: http://www.healthnet.org.na/bfeed But, while you are at it, you can pay the Namibia MoHSS Web Site: http://www.healthnet.org.na/mhssindex1.htm a visit, browse some other features, then click on the breast-feeding link on the home page. Jeremy B. Clark Information Systems Advisor (acting Webmaster) Namibia MoHSS Windhoek, Namibia mailto:jbclark@healthnet.org.na -- To send a message to AFRO-NETS, write to: afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org in the body of the message type: subscribe afro-nets OR unsubscribe afro-nets To contact a person, send a message to: owner-afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org Information and archives: http://www.afronets.org