Hesperian Health Guides and Peace Corps have made official what for over 40 years has been an unofficial, but very fruitful partnership, by signing a Memorandum of Understanding at Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington DC on November 24th.
During the hour-long event, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers including Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet shared their stories of using Hesperian titles like Where There Is No Doctor during their time in the Peace Corps.
“I’ll never forget the day when I came home from school, and found my host mother weeping,” said Director Hessler-Radelet, who served in Samoa, “because she had found out that she was pregnant again with her 9th child. I went straight to my copy of Where There Is No Doctor, and I read the sections on pre-natal care, safe labor and delivery, postnatal care, and nutrition. It was on the basis of the book that she agreed to go with me and deliver her baby at a health center. Within moments of giving birth, she went into postpartum hemorrhage, and she would have died if she hadn’t been in the presence of a trained provider. It was that book that taught me that I needed to help her to get to a health center- and her life was absolutely saved by that action.”
Many others shared stories illustrating what Hesperian’s Executive Director Sarah Shannon called a “logical and natural partnership,” saying: “It’s clear that Hesperian and Peace Corps share a vision and a mission and we have much to offer each other. Hesperian Health Guides is proud to be able to support Peace Corps Volunteers through the use of our health information and materials on many different topics, in many different formats, in many different languages.”
The Memorandum of Understanding facilitates not only the expanded use of Hesperian resources by Peace Corps Volunteers, but will also support field testing and review of materials in development by Peace Corps Volunteers working with existing community-based groups in their host communities.
“Not only are we using the materials,” shared Director Hessler-Radelet “But we’re going to help refine them in the field, and help to translate them into new languages. So I’m really excited that not only are we beneficiaries of these products, we are also going to be actively engaged in making sure that they are improved and disseminated.”
Thanks to everyone who was able to attend the MOU signing and the networking reception that followed hosted by the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Washington.
Do you have a story about using Hesperian materials while serving in the Peace Corps? Email [email protected].