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Civil Society Platform in Sierra Leone commemorates World Breastfeeding Week
The launching of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement in Sierra Leone in 2012 underscores the importance of nutrition in the first 1000 days. The formation of the Civil Society Platform (CSP) in Sierra Leone is part of the SUN initiative to promote nutrition actions and coordinate nutrition interventions among civil society organizations (CSOs) in Sierra Leone. As part of its support to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) in commemoration of World Breastfeeding Week (WBW), the CSP in Sierra Leone supported community sensitization activities, the national launch of WBW as well as interactive radio discussions.
September 13, 2013 - Last update: February 10, 2023
The launching of the SUN Movement in Sierra Leone in 2012 underscores the importance of nutrition in the first 1000 days. The formation of the Civil Society Platform (CSP) is part of the SUN initiative to promote nutrition actions and coordinate nutrition interventions among civil society organizations (CSOs) in Sierra Leone.
As part of its support to the MoHS in commemoration of World Breastfeeding Week (WBW), the CSP in Sierra Leone supported community sensitization activities, the national launch of WBW as well as interactive radio discussions.
The CSP worked in collaboration with Food and Nutrition Directorate of the MoHS and the chairladies of six major markets in the Western Area to raise awareness amongst women about the importance of breastfeeding. In line with this year’s theme: ‘Breastfeeding Support: Close To Mothers’ which underscores the importance of breastfeeding peer counseling, the CSP engaged market women on breastfeeding norms, perceived barriers and how to provide counselling support to peers.
The CSP members then traveled to the provincial city of Bo to participate in the national launching of WBW.
There was high level representation at the launch including government officials from MoHS and other line ministries, UN agencies, donors and representatives of mother support groups.The CSP also engaged in radio advocacy with Star Radio which has national coverage and a local radio station (Citizen Radio) that has more extensive audience in the Urban Western Area. The radio advocacy sessions were conducted in collaboration with the nutrition directorate in the MoHS. The discussions aimed to increase awareness on the importance of early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding and myths and misconceptions by responding to frequently asked questions. The interactive radio discussions allowed time for the public to provide their feedback and questions by phone and text message.
