Our friend and colleague, Trudi Szallasi, was an online tutor with Health e-Learning from August 2005 until her untimely death from breast cancer in June 2008. Trudi was totally committed to helping mothers and babies to have a successful and happy breastfeeding relationship. She was a volunteer breastfeeding counselor with the Australian Breastfeeding Association, served as a Director on the National Board, and held the role of State president for 2 years. After qualifying as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) Trudi began a private practice, and ultimately became the President of the local branch of the Australian Lactation Consultant’s Association. In the year Trudi qualified as an IBCLC she gained the highest marks in the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners exam and was subsequently invited onto the IBLCE examination committee for the review of the following year’s exam.

She left behind three beautiful young children, a devoted husband and loving parents, brothers and their families, and countless friends.

Health e-Learning, by the awarding of this scholarship, is seeking to honour the memory of a truly remarkable and wonderful woman who made a great contribution to the mothers and babies in her care, the students of lactation who she taught, and the lactation world.

What the scholarship covers

Full fees for:

Selection Criteria

The applicant:

  • must have an intention to sit the IBLCE examination within the two years following the year the scholarship is awarded.
  • must meet all IBLCE stated prerequisites to sit the IBLCE examination within the two years following the year the scholarship was awarded. (Important: Please refer to the IBLCE website to view the exam pre-requisites. The scholarship does NOT cover the college-level courses that must be completed.)
  • must be prepared to pay the IBLCE examination fee when it becomes due.
  • will provide written agreement to IBLCE to release your examination results to Health e-Learning.
  • must have a computer that is connected to the internet and you have sufficient computer skills to participate in online learning.
  • must be sufficiently fluent in the English language to study these programs, and read research papers and textbooks.

The scholarship is open internationally. The scholarship will be awarded to the best-qualified applicant, with preference given to one who has or has had mother-to-mother/peer-to-peer breastfeeding counseling experience with a recognized volunteer peer counseling service (for example La Leche League, Australian Breastfeeding Association, National Childbirth Trust, etc)

Application

Applications open in mid-March and close at the end of May each year. The successful applicant will be notified in the second week of June.

Agreement

It is expected that the successful applicant will agree to:

  • Purchase, or have access to, one or more of the latest editions of the major comprehensive lactation texts.
  • Pay the IBLCE examination fee when it becomes due.
  • Make a firm commitment to spend at least 15 hours per BreastEd course and at least 5 hours for the Ethics course to study the course content and complete the activities and other courses prior to the Deadline for Exam Application in the year you sit.
  • Complete the practice exams in Lactation Exam Practice.
  • Participate in the online discussion forums that accompany each of the online courses and the Lactation Exam Practice.
  • Establish and maintain regular contact by email with your course facilitators.
  • Apply the knowledge learned as you work with mothers/parents and babies, discussing your clinical experiences with your clinical mentor and your course facilitators.

Huynh Thi Diem ThuyHuynh Thi Diem Thuy

I was born and raised in Cam Kim, a riverside village near the ancient town of Hoi An, Vietnam. I moved to the capital city, Hanoi, to study medicine at the Y University for 10 years and then returned to work at the Da Nang Hospital as a pediatrician. For over 20 years, alongside treating children, I have been actively involved in promoting and guiding breastfeeding practices, which has been one of my regular responsibilities.

Raising children exclusively through breastfeeding has been an incredible journey that my two children and I have experienced together. I always share my own experiences with my patients, and it brings me great joy when a mother successfully breastfeeds her child. Children who receive adequate breastfeeding tend to recover from illnesses much faster.

With this course, my aim is to acquire more knowledge and continue supporting families in effectively maintaining breastfeeding practices in Vietnam.

Agnes Nemes-ChowAgnes Nemes-Chow

Agnes, originally from Hungary, has lived in Singapore for 20 years. She and her husband have 8 children. Agnes has a degree in Economics but following the birth of her first baby, she decided to become a stay-at-home mother.
 
Her first 2 children were born in Australia where she received outstanding breastfeeding support. Moving back to Singapore, she was surprised by the strong push for formula feeding and the cultural practices that undermined breastfeeding. Her own challenges breastfeeding a premature baby and struggling with delayed, insufficient milk production have spurred her on to help mothers who face breastfeeding difficulties. 
 
Agnes’ passion is to support young mothers in all aspects of parenting, with a particular focus on breastfeeding. Besides helping mothers in her closer community, she has been volunteering as a breastfeeding counselor with the local Breastfeeding Mothers’ Support Group for 3 years. Her volunteer work has involved online support to mothers, leading mother-to-mother meetings, and facilitating breastfeeding workshops.
 
With the IBCLC qualification, Agnes hopes to give professional help to many mothers, including low-income families who find it hard to afford such services. She also hopes to influence healthcare providers and policymakers to promote exclusive breastfeeding and make Singapore more breastfeeding-friendly. 

Hazwani Fadhillah

Hazwani Fadhillah

Hazwani is a medical doctor, a wife, and a mother of 2 daughters. After experiencing difficulties in breastfeeding her firstborn, she decided to follow her heart helping mothers and babies. In Medan, where she lives, breastfeeding support services are still limited. Hazwani became a certified lactation counselor in 2018 and took another training in lactation and with the support of her family, she opened her own lactation clinic in her mother’s garage. To reach more families, she joined the Indonesia Breastfeeding Mothers Association (AIMI) and actively participates in AIMI’s activities, educating families about breastfeeding. Now she also works in a hospital in Medan as a Lactation Doctor, helping mothers to prepare for breastfeeding before birth and provides a lactation visit after birth.

While focusing on her work in lactation, she realised that becoming an IBCLC would allow her to make a bigger impact. The credential would make her more confident in giving support and help to families to reach their breastfeeding goals.

Health e-Learning is proud to have supported Dr. Hazwani Fadhillah to reach her goal and she has now successfully achieved certification as an IBCLC in 2022. Congratulations Hazwani!

Photo LS

 Luciana Stehlik 

Luciana graduated from the Foreign Language University and has a master's in Intercultural Studies. When she gave birth to her daughter, she realized the fact that she needed support in breastfeeding, even though she followed a prenatal breastfeeding class. After a difficult start in breastfeeding, a lot of research done on the breastfeeding literature, and the support of an IBCLC, Luciana decided that she also can become the helpful person the parents need to initiate breastfeeding. And this means a total switch in her career as she is currently a Project Manager within an international corporation.

Luciana started doing volunteer work for a call center, answering mother’s calls from Romania and abroad related to breastfeeding concerns, as well as volunteer practice in one of the most important maternity wards in Bucharest, Romania. Currently, she is preparing for the IBCLC exam in April 2021 and counseling parents in breastfeeding and child nutrition, especially through phone or an online support group. Luciana is passionate about statistics and she is dreaming to increase the breastfeeding rates in her country, along with all the colleagues in her field, through education of parents, and medical health providers.

Health e-Learning is proud to have supported Luciana to reach her goal and she has now successfully achieved certification as an IBCLC in 2021. Congratulations Luciana!

Aster Tang small  Aster Tang

Aster, a native of Singapore, has a background in science and a Masters in environmental policy. She has been volunteering as a breastfeeding counsellor both online and in-person through various organizations. She is passionate about helping families navigate the peripartum period, which is mentally, emotionally, and physically challenging for many. Aster is also a community interpreter, where she helps families with limited English proficiency navigate the health and social system. The rewarding experience of seeing parents gain confidence in breastfeeding spurred Aster to take it a step further and delve into clinical components of lactation support through the IBCLC certification.
 
Health e-Learning is proud to have supported Aster to reach her goal and she has now successfully achieved certification as an IBCLC in 2021. Congratulations Aster!

Nguyen DaoNguyen Nhat Vu Dao

Nguyen is a qualified Breastfeeding Counsellor of The Australian Breastfeeding Association. She received her Cert IV in Nursing from the Australian Catholic University in 2012. However, her passion is not only about nursing, but also helping other members in her Vietnamese community, especially those who find English a language barrier.

Having a linguistics background, she decided to study Master of Translation and Interpreting and got her degree in 2015. The lack of breastfeeding and parenting information support in the Vietnamese community has urged her to research, translate and write related articles into Vietnamese. She has been counselling and helping thousands of Vietnamese mothers and families with breastfeeding issues, as well as weaning and parenting issues.

Nguyen is now working as an Interpreter and Translator while teaching Interpreting at Diploma level.

Health e-Learning is proud to have supported Nguyen to reach her goal and she has now successfully achieved certification as an IBCLC in 2021. Congratulations Nguyen!

Dr. Faten M Tamim

Dr. Faten M Tamim (Amman, Jordan)

Faten M Tamim is a consultant in Maternal and Child Nutrition, got her PhD in 2017. She is a specialist in Maternal and Child Health and got her MSc in 2008. She has 20 years experience at Ministry of Health as midwife, supervisor, mentor, educator and breastfeeding trainer. She founded the first private breastfeeding clinic in Jordan in 2014, as she realized the huge gap in exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months after birth.

In 2016, she founded The Breastfeeding Support Association to raise awareness among the whole community among the Jordanian society and to be the first formal umbrella that deal with the private health care system as Ministry of Health is dealing with the governmental health care system. With the other members of the association, she works on providing breastfeeding training among the health professionals to help in supporting mothers who give birth in private hospitals.

Health e-Learning proudly supported Faten's goal by helping her study during 2017/18 and she successfully achieve certification as an IBCLC in 2018. Congratulations Faten!

Fionnuala Cooney

Fionnuala Cooney (Dublin, Ireland)

Fionnuala is married with two teenage sons. She is a medical doctor and currently works as a consultant in Public Health Medicine within the Health Service Executive in Dublin, Ireland.

Ireland has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world and Fionnuala regards this as a serious public health problem. Fionnuala has been involved in breastfeeding-related research and has been contributing to both policy and clinical support for breastfeeding in Ireland. She is an active member of the BFHI National Breastfeeding Committee and she has also been participating at the local level with both Cuidiú and La Leche League, the two main NGOs involved in volunteer peer breastfeeding counselling services in Ireland.

Fionnuala believes that qualifying as an IBCLC will increase her sphere of influence at the national level in the areas of policy and clinical practice. Her aim is to work with the breastfeeding community to re-establish breastfeeding as the societal norm in Ireland.

Health e-Learning is proud to have supported Fionnuala to reach her goal and she has now successfully achieved certification as an IBCLC in 2019. Congratulations Fionnuala!

Chelsie Robertson

Chelsie Robertson (South Auckland, New Zealand)

Chelsie lives in South Auckland, New Zealand, with her husband and 3 young sons’ ages 5, 3 and 1.  She has previously been involved with Breastfeeding New Zealand and LLL in a peer counsellor capacity as a mother to mother support person.  This sparked Chelsie’s passion for growing her lactation community in New Zealand. Currently she works as a self-employed primary care midwife, in partnership with women and families, facilitating normal birthing and postnatal care.

Upon successful completion of the IBCLC exam, Chelsie hopes to explore the possibilities of milk banking and milk sharing in New Zealand, focus on being a voice, and advocate for the breastfeeding women around New Zealand.

Health e-Learning proudly supported Chelsie's goal by helping her study during 2014/15 and she successfully achieve certification as an IBCLC in 2015. Congratulations Chelsie!

Chelsie Robertson

Denise Rangel-Holbrook (San Antonio, Texas, USA)

Denise lives in San Antonio, Texas with her two kids and husband. She has a strong history working in women's health and a passion for health education. In 2011, after experiencing both the joys and difficulties of breastfeeding, she decided to pursue a path towards becoming an IBCLC. She was accredited as a La Leche League Leader in 2012 and has since helped many mothers on their breastfeeding journey. In 2014 she helped found the Birth and Breastfeeding Alliance, a non-profit organization that provides free health education and support to San Antonio families.

Once qualified as an IBCLC, Denise plans to continue her passion of improving health education and accessibility in her community and looks forward to supporting mothers and babies in her new role.

Health e-Learning proudly supported Denise's goal by helping her study during 2015/17 and she successfully achieve certification as an IBCLC in 2017. Congratulations Denise!