Photo from “Elisabeth Millay/BreastfeedLA and API Breastfeeding Task Force”
The murders in March of eight individuals in Atlanta, including six Asian and Asian American women, weighs heavily on Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities (BFFC). We are communities committed to equity and a family-friendly environment. These attacks come amidst a disturbing nationwide rise in violence and discrimination directed toward members of the Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander community. To our Asian and Asian American families, we stand with you, and we mourn with you. We reaffirm our responsibility to fight racism and uphold our commitment to making central equity.
BFFC would like to highlight the work being done in Durham, North Carolina, and Los Angeles, California. As part of their efforts to create a landscape of breastfeeding support, Breastfeed Durham (Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities of Durham) and Breastfeed L.A. have created equity committees to allow individuals of the same identity to be in community with one another.
Breastfeed Durham is currently in search of breastfeeding parents who would like to serve in the role of community advocates to assemble an Asian-Pacific Islander Task Force in Durham. We believe that equity work with meaning and impact begins with a personal learning journey. They currently have committees working on LGBTQ Plus Human Milk Feeding, Black Breastfeeding, Pro-Lactancia Hispana Committee.
While prejudice affects everyone, the ways in which we are affected, and thus the work that we have to do to address prejudice and oppression is different. Equity Committees allow us to meet to do our different work. Some of the products that have come out of these groups include position statements and community resource lists. These Committees can be used to share stories and strategies toward solidarity and liberation, as we collectively work toward creating a world with thriving families and communities. We want to build Health Equity into the Foundation of our work by actively addressing the systems of oppression that prevent health equity. We are striving for racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, geographic, academic/professional equity in order to achieve healthy communities for families. Stakeholders include community members with different backgrounds, social experiences, religious affiliations, ages, gender identities, personalities, physical needs, political beliefs, opinions, sexual orientations, heritages, and life experiences, (including families that did not meet their planned breastfeeding goals).
We believe that this work should be led by parents with lived experience. Please help Breastfeed Durham connect. For more information on the Asian-Pacific Islander Breastfeeding Task Force in Durham North Carolina please email Breastfeed Durham <durham@breastfeedingcommunities.org>. For more information on Breastfeed L.A.’s Asian Pacific Islander Breastfeeding Task Force email Cindy Young at <cyoung@breastfeedla.org>.
Click Here to View Breastfeed Durham’s Asian-Pacific Islander Breastfeeding Resources Library