In August, two specialists of the Human Milk Bank (BLH) of the Brazilian Institute of Women, Children and Adolescents Health Fernandes Figueira (IFF/Fiocruz) were in Luanda, the capital of Angola, with the goal of evaluating and installing the necessary equipment for the operation of the Human Milk Bank of Maternity Hospital Lucrécia Paim, which is about to be inaugurated in Luanda, to be the first one in the country.
The activities of installation and verification of the equipment destined to be used at the Human Milk Bank of the maternity hospital in Angola are included in the bilateral technical cooperation project for the deployment and implementation of a Human Milk Bank in Angola, which allows Brazil to provide technical support, management guidance and professional training, among other actions for the creation and autonomous operation of the Human Milk Bank in Luanda, therefore contributing to reduce child mortality in the African country.
The Quality Coordinator of the Human Milk Bank of IFF/Fiocruz, Jonas Borges da Silva, and the specialist in Clinical Engineering of the Institute, Leonardo Mendonça Alam, were in charge of installing the equipment of the Human Milk Bank of the Lucrécia Paim Maternity Hospital. During their visit to Luanda, they were received by the Brazilian ambassador in Angola, Paulino Franco de Carvalho Neto, in addition to the local technicians who will be in charge of operating, caring for and performing maintenance on the installed equipment.
Regarding the installation mission for the Human Milk Bank in Luanda, the coordinator of the Quality program for the Human Milk Banks Global Network, Jonas Borges da Silva, commented: “These are simple pieces of equipment, but they require training in order to be used properly. When used incorrectly by the personnel, they may alter the quality of the milk and even reduce the service time of the equipment itself. The importance of this mission was, therefore, not only in the installation itself, but also in training the persons who will be using and doing maintenance on this equipment”.
The bilateral cooperation work in this project of creation of the first unit of the Human Milk Bank in Angola also relied on the participation, from Brazil, of the coordinator of Breastfeeding Policies of the Government of the Federal District, Miriam Oliveira dos Santos, and of the Human Milk Bank nurse of the Regional Hospital of Planaltina, in Brasília, Fernanda Viana Pereira da Luz, who led the training of 25 health workers from Angola regarding the processing and quality control of breast milk, which allowed them to become skilled in their job, from the collection, proceeding on to the pasteurization, until the moment the milk is given to the babies; and in the future they, too, will be able to train other specialists of other maternity hospitals in Angola, so they can open their Human Milk Banks in their own units being aware of the care they must take when using the equipment and when processing the product, and checking its quality.
Through these international cooperation actions, the Human Milk Banks Global Network reaffirms its mission to promote good practices when it comes to Human Milk Banks and breastfeeding, to help reduce child morbidity and mortality throughout the world and promote the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations.
