Books for Health Education: Ghana & West Africa

Summary

This project sends free copies of Where There Is No Doctor and other Hesperian popular education materials to health workers and community leaders working to improve health in poor communities.

What is the issue, problem, or challenge?

In Ghana and other parts of West Africa, people suffer and die from preventable and curable health conditions and in many cases, access to information on simple, low-cost solutions is totally unavailable. Hesperian’s publications provide local health workers, educators, and community leaders with the knowledge they need to have an impact on the root causes of poor health. Each month we receive requests for 50-55 publications from Ghana and for another 15-20 from nearby countries.

How will this project solve this problem?

Hesperian develops and distributes health guides for people who live far from medical services or are too poor to pay for them. We evaluate free book requests to ensure they will benefit the broad community. Volunteers pack the books to save costs.

Potential Long Term Impact

Using simply-written and heavily illustrated books and booklets, ordinary people (even those with little formal education) can learn to diagnose and treat common health problems and work together to address the underlying causes of poor health.

Project Message

Topics like family planning, eating for good heath, understanding our bodies, general health and AIDS have been beneficial for me and the villagers as a whole.
- Kwaku Assah, Community Leader, Ghana

Additional Documentation

This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).

Resources