Role of Christian Social Workers in Supporting Displaced Mothers’ Breastfeeding Rights

Christian social workers possess huge untapped potentials for tackling problems associated with internal displacement in Nigeria, especially through initiatives designed to improve the wellbeing of women and children. The objective of the study was to investigate their role in upholding the rights of displaced nursing mothers and infants to the adoption of exclusive breastfeeding practice. The study adopted a thematic analysis approach. It reviewed the Bible and various databases, journals, and search engines such as Google Scholar for evidence. Emerging patterns of relevant key points were selected as themes which were then critically discussed. Findings show that Christian social workers could intervene through education and awareness campaigns, counseling and support, nutrition and growth monitoring, advocacy and empowerment initiatives. Others include emergency preparedness, community mobilization, and addressing social stigma. Thus, involving Christian social workers in the management of internally displaced persons will be a way to strengthen the collaboration of government with faith-based organizations in an effort to ameliorate the sufferings of displaced nursing mothers, their infants, and young children through improved service delivery. It will also address the mostly avoidable and unfair injustices experienced by such socially disadvantaged groups.