In brief 8212; Mumbai

Promotion of breast-feedingThe Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India BPNI will launch a series of programmes on August 1 to promote ...

Promotion of breast-feeding

The Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India BPNI will launch a series of programmes on August 1 to promote breastfeeding among mothers. The programme is being organised on the occasion of World Breastfeeding Week beginning August 1.

Dr Vasant Khatav, consultant pediatrician and president of the state branch of BPNI, said breastfeeding is important because it prevents various infections and diseases that the child is highly susceptible to during the first two years of his/her life. On the other hand, babies who do not get breastmilk are 14 times more likely to die of some diseases and two to five times more likely to get some infection, he pointed out. Dr R K Anand, head of paedriatics, Jaslok Hospital, added that awareness could be imparted to girls at school and college by making it part of the educational curriculum.

Breastfeeding can also prevent breast and ovarian cancer in mothers, Dr Anand said. Meanwhile, the first breast milk bank of Navi Mumbai will beinaugurated at the Vashi Municipal Hospital during Breastfeeding Week. The milk bank will store milk donated by new mothers who have excess milk or whose children die at birth and feed it to needy children or orphans who cannot get their mother8217;s milk. The camps and lectures would be conducted at the five nodal Maternity and Child Hospitals, besides the Vashi centre.

Malhar 8217;99 goes to the movies

o MALHAR 8217;99, the St Xavier8217;s inter-collegiate festival has been organised on the theme Mad about the Movies8217;. This time, Malhar intends to be more interactive with five movie-related workshops. A panel of film experts, including Maithili Rao and John Mathew Mathan, will discuss film making and Indian and international cinema. In one of the workshops, participants can shoot their own film, while in The Toonman Show, basic and political cartooning will be discussed. There will be two exhibitions: The Killing Fields, which will outline the history of war and The Shop Around the Corner, a literaryexhibition where authors will be invited to speak.Malhar 99 will also play host to stalls of NGOs like Greenpeace and Naujawan-E-Hind. For further details, log in to Malhar at the official website malharfest.org, which has been created by students of the in-house computer department.