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 Breastfeed Durham, a community committed to equity and a family-friendly environment for everyone in Durham. 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 affinity spaces for all breastfeeding families in Durham.
Breastfeed Durham believes that equity work with meaning and impact begins with a personal learning journey. As part of our efforts to create a landscape of breastfeeding support, Breastfeed Durham has created equity coalition to allow individuals of the same identity to be in community with one another.
We are currently in search of breastfeeding parents who would like to serve in the role of community advocates to assemble Asian-Pacific Islander Coalition Durham. We currently have coalition working on LGBTQ Plus Human Milk Feeding, Black Breastfeeding, Pro-Lactancia Hispana Coalition.
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 Coalition 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 Coalition 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 Durham’s 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 us connect. For more information on the Asian-Pacific Islander Breastfeeding Task Force please email Breastfeed Durham <durham@breastfeedingcommunities.org>.
Click Here to View our Asian-Pacific Islander Breastfeeding Resources Library
Join the Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Lactation Support Coalition Meeting!