While working with Gaza Infant Nutrition Alliance (GINA), Nada identified three gaps which
no existing humanitarian framework addressed: infection control, referral pathways for
gender-based violence, and specialist lactation support for complex cases. LactaBridge is
her response: a policy platform aiming to stop skilled people from taking what they have
learned with them when they leave a crisis zone, so the lessons from Gaza do not have to
be relearned the next time. GINA has already supported 5,271 mothers and reached a
48.5% exclusive breastfeeding rate through telelactation. One case has stayed with her: a
two-month-old boy, born by emergency caesarean during a displacement, whose mother
had stopped breastfeeding a month earlier, convinced her milk was gone. With daily support
and skin-to-skin contact, her supply returned, his nutrition stabilised, and he left Gaza alive.
As Nada puts it, mothers like her don’t stop breastfeeding because they choose to, but
because no one is there to tell them they still can.
