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We are very sorry
to inform you that our colleague and friend, Nancy-Jo Peck,
died on Friday, 23rd February - peacefully, and at home. We
hope that Nancy-Jo and her husband Bob Peck, and their daughters
Sarah and Amy, can be in your hearts and thoughts in the days
and weeks to come.
As you know, Nancy-Jo
had been battling against her illness for over four years. As
one IBFANer put it, she was so brave in her struggle for social
justice, yet we knew that she was also battling the enemy within,
and with just as much strength and courage. But we do feel that
it was her work and all the support of her friends and colleagues
which helped her fight this war on both fronts. Ali remembers
in 1997, during the European meeting in Malta, how Nancy-Jo
said that her illness was like a little black beast, but that
because of her work and all the solidarity and friendship of
the people in the network, that little beast was relegated to
a far corner of her life. So thank you to all of you who have
sent her the many messages of love and support, especially over
the few last months.
We had hoped that
Nancy-Jo would be coming back to the office again, as she had
each time after her four maJor operations and seven treatments.
She would walk in and just take up where she had left off, with
the immense strength and courage we all admired. Her computer
and all her papers are still here, untouched, and it is going
to be so sad for us to enter her office now.
Way back in 1979,
Nancy-Jo was one of the three founding so-called GIFA Girls,
together with Annelies Allain and Judith Philipona. Over the
years she worked on almost every possible issue there was to
work on in the Geneva office, she got to know almost everybody
within the IBFAN network, exercised her brilliant critical view
on most documents, and knew the intricacies and ins and outs
of the numerous issues dealt with in the office - and beyond.
Nancy-Jo developed the "Useful Abstracts" into the
better known and well respected Breastfeeding
Briefs (translated into 5 languages), became their editor
and scientific advisor; she worked specifically on coordinating
IBFAN's technical inputs for the Codex Alimentarius standards;
she helped to integrate breastfeeding issues from IBFAN groups
into the reports of the Committee on the Rights of the Child
(CRC); she followed World Trade Organisation issues and, in
recent years, became involved in the Code of Ethics for International
Trade in Food. Moreover, she participated actively in most of
the maJor UN conferences of the 90s, monitored the scientific
literature, particularly concerning HIV and infant feeding and
reproductive health, worked also on the Medical Textbook Project,
and participated actively in the Nestlé
Boycott... Nancy-Jo was a wonderful teamworker, trainer,
constructive critic, and a very lovely person indeed...
However sad we are,
we are also very happy to announce the future creation of the
Nancy-Jo Peck Fund which will be set up so that her work
can go on... (Information concerning this will follow in due
time).
GIFA will be holding
a memorial gathering, a celebration of Nancy-Jo's life and work,
the weekend before the World Health Assembly in May. Even if
you will not be attending the WHA in person, perhaps you could
send a token of friendship and respect for an extraordinary
person, on behalf of the IBFAN family.
GIFA address, Avenue
de la Paix 11,
1202 Geneva, Switzerland.
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