Books for Health Education: India & South Asia

In the last fiscal year Hesperian has sent 94 free books (plus dozens of shorter booklets) to health workers and community leaders in India and neighboring countries who have requested them. From non-profit development workers to remote village health promoters, school teachers, and clergy, countless people worldwide rely on Hesperian books as essential tools for healing, health education, and organizing for change. Hesperian’s Gratis Fund acknowledges and responds to the reality that often, those who most need our materials are the least able to pay for them. The following feedback from Gratis Fund recipients proves the success of the program in strengthening the capacity of grassroots healthcare workers to improve the health of marginalized people around the world:

Dr. A. Mariaraj, the Centre for Action in Training, Education and Research in Tamilnadu, India “As we are deeply engaged ourselves in Community Health Programmes and Community Based Rehabilitation Programmes for the disabled children in the villages we find these two treasures of books (Helping Health Workers Learn and Disabled Village Children) extremely useful. We treat them as Bible for our Field Level Health Workers and Physiotherapists. We are happy to inform you that we are constantly in touch with these books...Of course, we grasp the methods found in the books and then localise the methods depending upon our reality. Our medical Doctors who visit once in a fortnight explain a few difficult chapters in simple words in vernacular so that the field level workers carry the message to the people at the grassroot level. We...have translated one or two chapters in our mother-tongue (Tamil) with a view to enabling our villagers to understand them.”

Promoting health and environmental preservation among tribal women, Gujarat, India The organization Amari Mandali works predominately with tribal women and children in deforested and polluted South Gujarat to build environmental awareness and respect for the natural world. Their activities fall into 3 areas: school environmental education programs (with 60 schools); village environmental education and communications; and women's health program. They write: "We mainly use Where There Is No Doctor when creating new health programs…We have also used HELPING HEALTH WORKERS LEARN when preparing our programs... We have always seen environmental and health issues as utterly intertwined and thus through our practical projects we hope to bring about measurable improvements in both areas. We are sure that your books will continue to be always at our right hand. Thank you for publishing these books which are helping us in our work…"

Training community health workers, Pakistan Dr. Parsram Pardesi of Sindh writes: “I, with confirmation, can say that Where There Is No Doctor and A Book for Midwives are most valuable and useful. They are more practical than even all medical education related books. It is essential to build capacity of willing volunteers at village level... I am using [these books] during training of female health workers, Traditional Birth Attendants, health staff’s skill improvements, school teacher training workshops about health education and male health volunteers at village level.”

HIV, Health and Your Community is the most in demand, followed by Where There is No Doctor, Where Women Have No Doctor, A Book for Midwives, and Where There is No Dentist. In addition, materials on sanitation and water, Sanitation and Cleanliness for a Healthy Environment and Water for Life, stand-alone booklets developed as part of our environmental health book project, also received strong distribution through the Gratis Fund.

The activities of the Gratis Fund have continued to be fueled by the dedication of volunteers—from its coordinator, Lee Gallery, to our volunteer book packers—with a minimal amount of staff support and oversight. Lee has been volunteering as the program coordinator every week for 7 years. Using her extensive experience as a community volunteer and former Peace Corps volunteer, she carefully evaluates each request to make sure that the people asking for the manuals will use them to benefit a larger community of people in need, tracks the books we send, and reads every letter of thanks before passing it on to other Hesperian staff to appreciate. The commitment of Lee and the other Hesperian volunteers assisting the Gratis Fund are a true inspiration and ensure that funds received for this program have significant impact. We are extremely grateful for the support from our donors which has enabled Hesperian to support these health workers and grassroots leaders better serve their communities.