Berita Harian, please apologize to Human Milk 4 Human Babies - Malaysia

We are seeking your support to encourage the Berita Harian newspaper to apologise for the article “Tawar Susu Ibu di Internet” published on 14th October 2011.

This article, written by Nor Affizar Ibrahim and Nor Afzan Mohamad Yusof, has sadly portrayed the ages-old charitable action of milksharing between families in a negative light. In coming to this assumption, the journalists did not utilise research and resources easily at their disposal which would have shown them the value of human milk to babies’ and children’s development, despite who the milk is derived from.

Further research would have also have highlighted the purely charitable gesture of the donors of human milk – who do not request any funds for their gesture – which is what is claimed by this article.

In particular, we feel that this article has hurt the reputation of the Malaysian chapter of Human Milk 4 Human Babies (HM4HB), a non-profit platform on Facebook which provides a commercial-free online space for families seeking expressed breastmilk from families donating expressed breastmilk.

In addition, there are a number of factual errors in the article which need to be addressed, for the sake of professionalism in their journalism.

If the journalists in question had made an effort to truly research the history and process of milk-sharing, had interviewed donors and recipients of donor milk, and had interviewed the administrators of Human Milk 4 Human Babies Malaysia and read the Frequently Asked Questions provided in the HM4HB Malaysia page, the article would have then demonstrated a truly comprehensive coverage of milk-sharing and milk-sharing in accordance with Islamic principles.

We feel that this article has created unnecessary fear of milk-sharing, has grossly misrepresented the aims of the donors and recipients of expressed breastmilk as well as of HM4HB, and may have contributed to unwarranted discord within Malaysian community.

Please sign this petition and share with others in the community to ensure that babies and children in Malaysian will have free and vital access to human milk and to ensure that breastmilk is understood and maintained as the paramount method of nourishing babies and children in our community.