The Ranaweera family’s By Sarah Schwager
THE Australian Breastfeeding Association Cranbourne Group has helped out a mother who just gave birth to quads.
The Cranbourne Group, together with the Langwarrin, Chelsea and Warrnambool Groups and the Mornington Peninsula Region, last Friday donated $500 in gift vouchers to the Ranaweera family in celebration of World Breastfeeding Week.
The Dandenong couple Niroshan and Veronica Ranaweera, who also have a six-year-old daughter, Vinuri, had only just moved to Australia from Sri Lanka and were already struggling financially.
Breastfeeding counsellor Janette Timmermans said the groups raised the money through sausage sizzle fundraisers.
“The mother is having to breastfeed four babies. It is hard enough with one,” she said.
The baby boys, Kevin, Dylan, Ryan and Brian, were born on 25 May.
The theme for World Breastfeeding Week 2006 is Code Watch: 25 years of protecting breast-feeding.
Ms Timmermans said the Australian Breastfeeding Association was an invaluable service, with its 24-hour hotline taking 260,000 calls each year – the same number of babies born – and is ‘womaned’ by unpaid volunteer counsellors.
August is also Breastfeeding Awareness Month.
The groups’ next Breastfeeding Education Class is on Wednesday, 23 August at 7.30pm at the Frankston Library Community Room.
For bookings and information contact Janette on 9776 7549.
The Australian Breastfeeding Association’s seven-day helpline can be contacted on 9885 0653.
