2003

Orientation of doctors and nurses in Bangalore. BPNI trainer Dr. Mallikarjuna H.B. conducted a workshop at the Dept. of Paediatrics of the M.S. Ramaiah Hospital in Bangalore on 11th October 2003. The 71 participants included doctors and nurses.

Enriching Training Skills Workshop on breastfeeding and complementary feeding was held at Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital and University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi from March 31 to April 6 2003. 16 participants from Delhi, Srinagar, Gorakhpur, Ranchi, Agartala, Imphal, Nagpur, Bangalore, Gulbarga, Tirupati, and Patiala attended the workshop, which was conducted by BPNI trainers Dr. M.M.A. Faridi and Dr. K.P. Kushwaha. Dr. Arun Gupta was Course Director. The objective of the meeting was to prepare Course Directors for training courses to be conducted in various states.

Established a Training Cell and a Task Force on ‘Skills Training’: To strengthen the BPNI network and training resources on IYCF for state and districts training a training cell in Gorakhpur has been established in April 2004. Dr. K.P. Kushwaha is the coordinator.

Development of 3-in-1 course
The WHO and UNICEF have provided three training courses related to infant and young child feeding; and all these are completed in 11 days, Breastfeeding Counselling - A Training Course (5 days), HIV and Infant Feeding Counselling – A Training Course (3 days) and Complementary Feeding Counselling: A Training Course (3 days).
The courses on ‘Complementary Feeding’ and ‘HIV and Infant feeding’ require that participants must complete the 5-day ‘Breastfeeding Counselling’ course as a prerequisite. The WHO/UNICEF’s Global Strategy and UN’s Guidelines on HIV and Infant Feeding identify the need for combining these 3 courses. Governments in the region also felt that it is too time consuming and impractical to call health workers three times.