Preventing HIV in South African Babies

This month the Yezingane Network officially launched the Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) Campaign. This launch was aligned with the National Health Awareness Days of World Breastfeeding week (1-7 August), National Women's day (9 August) and Women's Month. In order for us to make this a success we invited everyone to join in the campaign to help save mothers and babies. This was done through social networks and by running interviews on media channels and is ongoing process.

Recently the YN Executive member Professor Ashraf Coovadia was invited for an interview at the show called Great
Expectations which is broadcasted on E-TV every Mondays and Tuesdays from 11h30 – 12h30. The discussion topic was specifically based on Breastfeeding. In his interview Prof. Coovadia encouraged all mothers to breastfeed their babies at least for a full six months as this was one way of bonding with their babies, and provided the optimum protective factors for their baby. Mothers were also reminded that mixing breast milk and formula was dangerous for their babies because it increased the risk of HIV transmission or causing other illnesses. To watch the full interview, you can log onto: http://on.fb.me/14HiJDv

‘Saving Babies’ was one of the two articles included in the SANAC News publication which outlined the objectives of the campaign, and encouraged civil society to participate in it in various ways. The objective of the campaign is to raise awareness of the PMTCT services to pregnant and lactating mothers, to promote healthy behaviors including safe breastfeeding practices and early and regular antenatal clinic visits. As we continue with the campaign, the Yezingane Network is in a process of printing out materials educating mothers about PMTCT and highlighting to mothers the significance of breastfeeding. These will be distributed to clinics, schools and taxi ranks within the 9 provinces of the country.

We would like to encourage you to also get involved and participate in this campaign by sharing our key messages,
hash-tags (#‎PMTCT) and @Yezingane Twitter handle on your social media platforms and to re-tweet,
and share Yezingane Network’s Tweets and Facebook posts with your networks.

Let us together as the children’s sector create a ‘buzz’ on social media about PMTCT for mothers and children and helpsave our babies!

Please feel free to enquire for further information about the campaign at the Yezingane Network Secretariat via email: yezingane@childrensrights.org.za

Thank you