"Yoh, yoh," UNICEF's Henrietta Howard cried out in her native Kpelle language, issuing a traditional message to grab an audience's attention. On cue, more than 200 women -- many holding their infants - attending the launch of World Breastfeeding Week in Liberia yesterday in this rural village, quieted down and replied, "Yoh, yoh!"
For the next 90 minutes, speakers ranging from ZorZor's paramount chief to UNICEF Liberia's representative, musicians, students, government officials, dancers, mothers, and actors from community theatre groups all presented a clear message: exclusively breastfeed for the first six months of a newborn's life and then continue to breastfeed while providing nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods for two years or longer.
"Exclusive breastfeeding is the number one preventive intervention for child survival, with the potential to save at least an additional 1.3 million lives per year," said UNICEF Liberia Representative Angela Kearney. "Continued breastfeeding with appropriate complementary feeding, which is the theme of this year's World Breastfeeding Week, could save nearly 600,000 children. This reflects the potential to save at least 5,000 more child lives each and every day.
UNICEF wants every child to have a healthy start and we must work together to build a healthy society."
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