Instead of taking a day off, we are paying attention to the health and human rights challenges Indigenous people face in North America and globally.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Girls and Women
As the story of Gabby Petito’s murder dominated the news cycle a few weeks ago, many Indigenous activists pointed out that Native women are murdered at 10 times the national average. Their cases rarely receive any media attention at all and there is seldom any justice for the women or healing for their loved ones.

Learn more about the history of this crisis here.

Stop the Line 3 Pipeline!
Line 3 is proposed to carry some of the dirtiest oil produced from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin. The pipeline will inevitably leak, as all pipelines do — polluting water that is necessary to human and natural life. Additionally, “Line 3 would violate the treaty rights of the Anishinaabe peoples and nations in its path” and threaten the culturally and economically important wild rice watersheds that Line 3 would cross.

Name Changes!                                                                                                        Some positive news: The famed ski resort, formerly known as “Squaw Valley”, changed its name to Palisades Tahoe. Other places in North America, such as the recently renamed Anû Kathâ Îpa or Bald Eagle Peak, have also removed the derogatory term from their names.

Land Back!                                                                                                                       In what is known as Australia, the town of Jabiru was returned to the Mirarr people. Likewise, several national parks have been returned to Aboriginal peoples, including Daintree Rainforest. Blues Beach in Mendocino County, California was also returned to local tribes in September.

Many of these land returns have taken years for tribes and governments to plan and organize. Learn more about the land back movement here.

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“A new path of freedom, clarity, dignity and respect for all pregnant women, but above all for women. Today is one more step in the historic struggle for their equality, for their dignity and for the full exercise of their rights.

 

Never again will a woman or a person with gestational capacity have to be criminally prosecuted. Today the threat of imprisonment and the stigma that weighs on people who freely decide to terminate their pregnancies is banished.”

This comes at a time when the US Supreme Court has also made a ruling, but in the contrary direction: refusing to set aside a Texas law that not only criminalizes abortion after 6 weeks but puts a bounty on anyone helping a someone access abortion care. Other states have passed similarly restrictive laws.

We saw a parallel dichotomy at play earlier this year, when Argentina’s Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Bill came into effect, and on its heels, Honduras changed its Constitution to ban all abortions, going so far as to disallow all future legislative discussion of abortion.

Regardless of whether abortion is legal or penalized, Hesperian remains one of the most accessible sources of comprehensive, evidence-based information on abortion. Our Safe Abortion App (in English, Spanish and 8 other languages) is used in every country and territory in the world by people caring for themselves or others. We are working harder now to ensure that people in the US find out about the app, especially in states that are restricting abortions and in BIPOC communities where barriers to access are greater.

Next week we will join our global partners to commemorate September 28th, International Safe Abortion Day. Abortion is part of basic reproductive health care. Please join us by sharing the app with those who will find it helpful, and contact us at app@hesperian.org with ideas of how to get the word out.

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This year’s theme is “Midwives for Every Community” – and we couldn’t agree more! For many in the U.S., midwifery care is a luxury despite the critical care and services they deliver. From contraceptive counseling to caring for newborns, midwives care for the entire community. Midwives’ compassionate and personalized care, tailored to a person’s life experiences and circumstances, allow for the pregnant person to be at the center of a spectrum of prenatal to postpartum care. Care by midwives challenges the racism in our medical system that results in an African American mortality rate 3 to 4 times higher than that of whites, and double the number of infant deaths.

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Big wins in tech unionization. In a historic milestone for the tech industry, Glitch workers signed a collective bargaining agreement, as did Google and Mobilize. A survey of tech workers reveals that over 60% of millennials are interested in joining a union and about 50% of all workers are very or somewhat interested. The pandemic years have showcased just how important organizing and mobilizing are to protecting people’s health and wellbeing at work.

Minimum wage rose at the state level. Twenty states raised their minimum wages in response to worker organizing. But the federal minimum wage is still stuck at $7.25, unchanged for 12 years — the longest period in history! There is a long way to go to ensure a minimum wage that reflects the increased costs of our times. So Fight for $15!

Companies increased wages. McDonald’s, Chipotle, Target and other companies increased starting wages, some to above $15, and some have also increased benefits. While the suits say this is a response to a labor shortage, it is better understood as a response to the reality that people cannot live on poverty wages. Low-wage workers are finally beginning to reap the benefits of labor organizers’ years of hard work.

On this Labor Day, let’s remind ourselves: we can accomplish a lot when we work together. Our collective power can make the changes we envision for our present and our future. Especially when we allow young people to lead the way.

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Tackling wealth hoarding requires us to organize and advocate for more equitable legislation and a just economic system. While we work on that, one thing we can do individually is to avoid contributing our hard-earned dollars to Amazon.

We do not blame people for purchasing from Amazon, especially when you cannot afford higher prices or need something delivered quickly. However, try to buy directly from independent vendors instead of Amazon when you have the choice. Buying direct benefits the businesses that create the products you need. When you buy from Hesperian, your purchase helps keep our books up to date with the latest health information. Our free HealthWiki, trusted by millions of people around the world, is made available in more than 80 languages through your book purchases. When you turn to us instead of Amazon, you also assist us in translating our award-winning library of health guides into new languages so we can better serve rural communities, refugees, immigrants, and other vulnerable people that Bezos couldn’t care less about.

The post “No hot water, no toilets, no lights.” appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

The best way to lower the number of unintended pregnancies is to increase the availability and use of contraceptives. The same 2019 report discusses how providing clear information is a key part of the puzzle: not only is understanding contraceptive options necessary for each individual to make informed choices, widespread awareness of birth control methods helps generate the demand for accessible and higher quality services on a broader level. Increasingly, digital solutions exist to facilitate access to quality family planning information and services yet government, health providers, and advocacy groups are often not aware of them.

Over the past year, Hesperian has been collaborating with journalists in the DRC to share information about sexual and reproductive health and Hesperian’s apps in French. If you speak French, join us this Saturday, August 28th, for the first PF-MeetUp, an exchange organized by the Network of Journalists in Sexual and Reproductive Health from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Hesperian Health Guides. Expect 2 hours of engaged conversation around the promotion of digital tools facilitating family planning solutions in the DRC. Note that the event is midday in the DRC timezone so if you aren’t able to attend live—don’t worry, a recording of the webinar will be shared on our social media!

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For years, Hesperian has made health materials in Haitian Kreyol available as a way of expressing our solidarity with the Haitian people. During the 2010 earthquake, Hesperian created a 4-language Glossary of Health Terms for health workers cooperating across language barriers. These resources will be of use during this crisis by both Haitian health workers and any foreign health workers working in solidarity with them.

The e-blast this blog is based on includes some highlighted Hesperian resources in Haitian Kreyol.

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Facing these harsh realities of the climate crisis is a necessity, but it can leave us feeling helpless and vulnerable. Instead of giving in to those feelings, gain more control by getting involved with local environmental organizations holding governments and corporations accountable for their roles in creating the climate emergency. Our book, A Community Guide to Environmental Health is a good starting place to learn about ways to get organized. The Community Guide also includes practical information on how to purify water, build safe toilets, and build protective equipment which can be helpful during emergencies.

Additionally, by preparing yourself and your family if disaster strikes may also ease your anxieties around climate change. Hesperian has a variety of materials to help you and your loved ones navigate health issues that may arise. Where There Is No Doctor provides helpful information on how to take care of common injuries and illnesses. Having Where There Is No Animal Doctor may also be helpful if you have pets or farm animals.

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“As a community health education Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in Cambodia, my time is spent trying to spread health knowledge and skills to my community, and helping village volunteers or health center staff to improve their own health education sessions. When I first arrived in my village I used Where There is No Doctor and ended each day reading Helping Health Workers Learn in order to orient myself in my community.

When I first saw the Hesperian website I realized that both books were published by Hesperian.  I also discovered that Hesperian was writing Health Action for Women. The title immediately drew my attention since I had just taught a Girls’ Empowerment and Health class and also completed a Camp GLOW. The class is still the most rewarding and tiring project I’ve done so far. Everyday I met people that didn’t understand why this class mattered at all. When I saw that Hesperian was working toward this purpose I felt inspired to try new methods for getting everyone –boys, girls, men, and women, involved in women’s health and empowerment.

Since the book was not yet available, I sent an email to Hesperian hoping be part of the process and to get a sneak peek. A few weeks later I was reading the family planning chapter with my counterpart from a local NGO called the Women’s Resource Center. We planned a session on basic family planning, types of birth control, and how to choose birth control. What surprised me most during the session was that the women all understood the main message: family planning is about your choice and what you need. Often, it is difficult to get people to look beyond memorizing information, but these activities did just that. At one point in the session, we wanted to teach the women how to use condoms. One woman protested and asked, “Why would I need to learn this? I’m married and I already use an implant!” Before my counterpart could even speak the other women were telling her about how it could prevent STIs and how you can go back and teach the younger girls when they need to know.  Even though the women were still nervous about using condoms they understood why it was important to know all your options and help others make the right choice for them.

Family planning was actually one of the topics least talked about in the villages, but after using Health Action for Women, I saw how empowering it can be for women to understand that family planning is about choice and not just about having fewer children.”

A health volunteer educates about appropriate medicine usage using Hesperian resources

As a Peace Corps Volunteer, you probably used (or are using!) the book Where There Is No Doctor. Hesperian Health Guides, the nonprofit writer and publisher of this important health resource, wants to connect with you to pursue a vision of Health for All! Together, we can continue to make a difference in your host community.

Here are some ways you can be involved:

• Spread the Word: tell your community about how Hesperian books help community health
• Share your Story about using Hesperian books and resources
• Purchase books to be sent to your host community

The post One Peace Corps Volunteer’s Mission for Health appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Sadly, the world is still far from meeting treatment targets for children living with HIV. In 2020, the goal for HIV treatment coverage for children was 95%, but only 53% of children were receiving treatment by the end of 2019.

Hesperian’s ground-breaking resource, Helping Children Live with HIV, was carefully developed to help parents, family members and health workers support and care for this vulnerable group in home settings and through community-based health programs. This book offers a holistic approach by building on the existing knowledge of parents and caregivers and identifying and reinforcing local resources. It integrates health care, illness prevention, and psychosocial support for children and families coping with poverty, food insecurity, emotional trauma, and loss, as well as stigma and discrimination.

The post Ending HIV in children is way off target appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Brave and committed community health workers have been working on the front lines to get women the family planning services they need. In Mexico, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, five organizations have been using our Family Planning app to provide a combination of distanced and in-person contraceptive counseling. They’ve also been providing Hesperian with valuable feedback on how we can make the app even better.

As the pandemic continues, we continue to work hard to get the Family Planning app translated into new languages so that more people around the world can access the life-saving information they need. We are proud to announce the release of our Family Planning app in Amharic and Afaan Oromoo! The addition of these two languages will enable our partners in the Ethiopian Public Health Association and Ipas to pilot its use by Health Extension Workers with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health.

The post Celebrating the Contributions of Community Health Workers in Family Planning appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Latino Health Access, based in Santa Ana, California — one of the most COVID-impacted cities in Orange County— is a long-time Hesperian partner. We have learned a lot from their creative and community-centered approaches to improving health, and now from their experience in helping people get the vaccine. Their promotores (community health workers), have set up small vaccination stations in neighborhood spaces like grocery stores, laundromats, churches, and even alleys to make sure that community members are informed about and can access the vaccine. The promotores also host mobile vaccination clinics during the evenings. They accept walk-ins so that working people can get vaccinated after their shifts without having to make an appointment.

Many of the promotores are community members who began working for LHA after losing their jobs and witnessing the pandemic’s devastating effects on their neighborhoods. Their connections with the community are why they are uniquely positioned to develop innovative ways to do health outreach. For example, for the Memorial Day weekend, several promotores (and community volunteers) built a float on the back of a truck to drive around a community with one of the lowest vaccination rates. The float, named “The Vaccine is Our Hope,” was accompanied by promotores dressed as a virus and a vaccine — and a cumbia band! This creative intervention caught the attention of community members and got them to talk to the promotores about getting vaccinated much more effectively than a phone call.

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The OHS Initiative, built by 6 Bangladeshi workers’, womens’ and public health organizations, with support from Hesperian, MHSSN, and OHS programs at UCLA and UC Berkeley, has completed its first phase of operations, described here by Bangladeshi journalist Moyukh Mahtab. The report describes how the project first trained 88 “Master Trainers” who in turn have trained 6,450 workers and community members in 280 sessions on a wide range of OHS issues. Their work has led to the establishment of workplace gender committees, health and safety committees, and new unions.

When the COVID crisis hit, the OHS Initiative was well positioned to help, bringing relief efforts to hard-hit working-class neighborhoods in Dhaka, setting up 2 clinics, establishing a medical advice hotline, distributing information, food and medicine, countering gender-based violence, and training people in psychological First Aid techniques.

Hesperian is extremely proud of our work as part of the OHS Initiative. It is a profound and successful example of joining groups focused on gender, labor and public health to expand and strengthen the work of all. The Bangladesh OHS Initiative provides a concrete model for intersectional organizing around health issues that will be useful everywhere, including the United States.

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The political and social win in Argentina, which fully legalized abortion in December, reverberated across the region in both good and bad ways. From Ecuador legalizing abortion in cases of rape (a small, but powerful win for women’s health) to Honduras trying to make illegal in perpetuity any legislative discussion or vote to legalize abortion. The COVID crisis has laid bare the importance of access to sexual and reproductive health information and services and the real danger of letting religious or political agendas get in the way of protecting women’s health.

In a recent webinar with women’s health and rights activists who won legalization in Argentina, they shared with legislators the number of people receiving medical treatment for obstetric emergencies caused by unsafe abortions, and the number of them dying from complications. These numbers were staggeringly high, but so underreported outside of the health system that they were easy for legislators to dismiss. This was the tipping point as it should be for any government: Lack of abortion and post-abortion care results in injury and death.

As most sexual and reproductive health services went digital during the pandemic, Hesperian became an important component of digital support for people seeking abortions. Many of our partners throughout the Americas — and in the US as well — used our Safe Abortion App and our Family Planning App to share information with their clients. The surge of energy around digital resources also gave us the opportunity to partner with organizations such as Ipas, safe2choose, Find My Method and other regional and global partners to bring awareness to digital tools, including our apps.

As COVID-19 recedes, due to vaccine inequality much slower than we and our partners would desire, Hesperian’s sexual and reproductive health apps continue to be essential to ensuring everyone gets the information and services they need.

The post Wins and losses in reproductive health appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

If surviving the COVID-19 pandemic has made you question the US healthcare system, The Good Doctors is a great, uplifting book choice! An insightful account of the Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR), it tells the story of a group of 100 nurses, doctors and social workers formed to support civil rights activists during Mississippi’s Freedom Summer. This inspiring read describes an early experience of asserting that Black Lives Matter and health is a human right!

Recruiting the Heart, Training the Brain tells the story of Latino Health Access, a community-based organization in Santa Ana, California, and how their promotores have tackled health issues in the community through peer-to-peer outreach and education. More than just a guide to health organizing, this book demonstrates how a group of activists can build a dynamic force for health in their community. (You may have read about how Latino Health Access organized to vaccinate their community in this e-blast).

Similarly, Revolutionary Doctors is a great read to show how other healthcare models are possible. This bird’s-eye look at Venezuela’s National Program of Integral Community Medicine, a model where doctor-teachers move into the rural and poor urban areas to train and recruit doctors among peasants and workers, delves into the successes and challenges the program has faced.

As we experience a summer even hotter than the last, Changing Planet, Changing Health delves into how climate change is affecting malaria, Lyme disease, asthma and other health threats, and proposes solutions for a healthy planet and economy. This is an excellent choice for any Gen-Z’er with eco-anxiety.

And if you are wondering whether to change your major to global public health when you finally! return to in-person classes in the fall, check out the personal stories of global health heroes and heroines in Comrades in Health and The Practice of International Health. The real-life testimonies gathered from all the world’s continents will transform your idea of what to do with your life.

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Please share these resources with your networks!

The post Hesperian’s COVID-19 Resources in Indian Languages appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Where to give: Please see this list of organizations and initiatives able to accept international donations. This list of national and local organizations supporting COVID-relief work across India is being updated based on live, local reporting.

Hesperian’s COVID-19 fact sheets in Indian Languages: Please see this list and share these resources with your networks!

Coronavirus fact sheet

• Urdu
• Bangla
• Hindi
• Telugu
• Sindhi
• Tamil
• Marathi 

Is your sickness COVID-19?

• Marathi

Staying well in the time of coronavirus

• Marathi

Caring for a sick person at home

• Marathi

Vaccines:

• Marathi

Thank you for your health solidarity.

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Gender-based violence takes different forms and is not limited to physical attacks. It includes communication of unwanted words, sounds or writing that suggests sex and can happen at home, on the street, or in the workplace. 

Gender-based violence is also experienced differently depending on a person’s identities. Women of color may experience violence that is also racialized. Women with disabilities are more likely to be abused and abused differently than non-disabled people. Trans people were the targets of more violence during 2020 than in any previous year. As Joey Mataele, a trans activist from Tonga, told Amnesty International: “COVID-19 may be a new killer – but hate has been killing us for decades.” 

To help eliminate gender-based violence in all its forms, Hesperian materials analyze the inequalities of power in which it is rooted in and equip people with the tools needed to protect themselves and others. Books like Where Women Have No Doctor and A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities include real-life examples of how to understand violence in different contexts and, even more important, how to organize against it.

The post How the ‘Shadow Pandemic’ has impacted women worldwide appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Anti-Asian racism has long existed in the US, and was intensified by the former President of the United States, many members of Congress, and much of the corporate media referring to COVID-19 as “the Chinese virus.” Although the outbreak of COVID-19 first occurred in China, calling the disease by this name plays into centuries-old stereotypes of Asian people as “foreigners.”

 The public health community for the most part opposed this racializing of the coronavirus, but not deeply enough. That is evident in the discussions of the pandemic responses and of the vaccines against COVID-19 that have been developed and released. News coverage is plentiful about pandemic responses in predominantly white or wealthy countries and effective policies are attributed to the choices made by their leaders. However, stories about the response in Asian countries, especially those that were particularly successful like Thailand and Vietnam, are scarce, and often present absurd or magical explanations of how they evaded huge outbreaks of COVID-19. Is US society so drenched in white supremacy and imperial arrogance that the thought of learning from Asian experience doesn’t even register?

 While there has been lots of public discussion of vaccines, and of the difficulty accessing them both in the US and world-wide, there has not been even a whisper in government or the media celebrating the COVID-19 vaccines developed in China and now being distributed around the world. The only discussion of them seems to be mourning that the US is losing the race of “vaccine diplomacy.”

Members of the Asian-American community, especially women, have for too long been ignored as they call attention to the discrimination and violence they experience in America. The pandemic exposes the profound disparities that impact their ongoing experience. We call on white members of our community and members of the public health community to listen closely, learn from non-Eurocentric experience, and embrace criticism. We must find ways to stop the spread and devastation of unconscious bias, racist discrimination, and white supremacy.

The post Standing in Solidarity with the Asian Community appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Some of Hesperian’s partners quickly realized that our reproductive health apps offer alternative ways to support women’s access to care in times when in-person services are unavailable or limited. One partner, Health Development and Performance (HDP) of Rwanda, translated our Family Planning and Safe Abortion apps into Kinyarwanda. Their experience and expertise transformed the apps into culturally and linguistically appropriate tools they use to train health providers on youth-friendly approaches to reproductive health for adolescents — a group almost completely cut off from access to reproductive health by the pandemic. 

Additionally, we are working with Ipas, Ethiopia to create the Amharic and Afaan Oromoo versions of the Family Planning app that will be introduced and tested by Ethiopian Health Extension Workers (HEWs) this spring. The Ministry of Health in Ethiopia will pilot the use of these Family Planning apps so their HEWs can extend the delivery of contraception counseling and services.

The post Working together to support women’s health during COVID-19 appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Commemorating this year’s International Women’s Day prompts sober reflection on how the 2020 pandemic crisis affected women all over the world, as health workers, as other essential workers, and as caretakers of family members. In many places, women were the first to lose paid work while also taking on even more unpaid work, such as teaching and caring for stay-at-home students. Violence in the home increased. Access to reproductive health care decreased. The fragility of even minimal access by women to good health and wellbeing was laid bare this year.

But amidst all the hardship, women creatively responded by constructing vibrant mutual aid networks, finding new ways of maintaining communication and organizing to keep people safe. Digital delivery of information and tele-health — long a potential tool to reach underserved communities — reached more people in more places. At Hesperian, we saw an uptick in use of our reproductive health apps and our free digital resources. As information and services were denied to women because of the pandemic, they stepped up to share our resources to help solve problems. More women became health promoters.  

As the pandemic ends and we make the slow transition back to “normal life,” we know that many of the tools that helped extend health access–like our apps and digital resources– will continue to create pathways to health literacy and action. And we know that the expanded grassroots participation in health promotion, especially around reproductive rights, will only increase in the face of new challenges.

The post International Women’s Day 2021, looking back and looking forward appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

The Community Guide to Environmental Health is used around the world and is available online for free in 6 languages and in print in 17 languages! It is also used in the US where this year’s hurricanes, fires, and heat waves have proven that climate change isn’t just an emergency waiting to happen — it’s a crisis here and now. Hopefully, the incoming Biden administration will follow through on its campaign promises to undo the more than 100 environmental rule reversals of the past 4 years, rejoin the Paris climate accord, and begin treating climate change as the emergency it is.

As Greta Thunberg of the Sunrise Movement said recently, “As long as we don’t treat the climate crisis like a crisis, we can have as many conferences as we want, but it will just be negotiations, empty words, loopholes and green wash”. Community organizers and health workers use our materials to support the immediate needs of people affected by climate disasters as well as to organize their communities against the threat climate change poses to our health and survival. As we work to transform environmental health in our communities, we also must keep up the pressure on the politicians. Again, as Greta put it: “I wish there was one politician or one party that was strong enough on these issues. Imagine how easy it would be if you could just support a politician.”

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“This is a universal crisis and, for some children, the impact will be lifelong” warns a recent UNICEF report on the impact of COVID-19 on the well-being of children globally. In addition to discussing how the pandemic has exacerbated poverty and decreased learning, the report highlights the danger that progress in the fight against HIV will be reversed. Even though new HIV infections in children have significantly decreased in the last ten years, the halting of prevention and treatment services could take us many steps backwards. To protect the lives of 4.2 million children, adolescents, and pregnant women living with HIV around the world, caregivers and families must have access to food, medicines and information during the pandemic and beyond.

Investing in public health services and programs is essential. It is equally important to give families accessible and actionable health information so they know how to support themselves when health services are out of reach. Helping Children Live with HIV is designed to empower families and communities affected by HIV in their efforts to support children’s well-being and healthy development in home settings. This resource is richly illustrated and filled with unique stories and practical advice that address the physical and emotional health needs of children living with HIV.

Now we need your help to spread the word:

1) Contact your elected representatives to let them know that we should not cut back support to people with HIV, especially their access to life-saving medicines, due to the pandemic and the economic crisis it has caused.

2) Share the graphic below on social media and with anyone you know who supports the right to health. Your voice and platform could help bring essential information about HIV/AIDS care to the families and communities that need it most. 

Thank you for everything you do to advance health justice!

The post Disrupting efforts in the fight against HIV is life-threatening appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

If  we have learned anything from the pandemic it is that existing health problems do not magically disappear in a global health crisis; they get worse. Unsafe abortions and pregancy-related deaths increase due to  restrictions and temporary bans on sexual and reproductive health care. Millions of workers suffer  hunger, illness or homelessness due to the economic impact of COVID-19, or are forced to work in conditions that ignore  their health and safety. The fires burning our homes and lungs in California show how  governments neglect of  climate change must change. These and a multitude of other health issues are interconnected and we cannot  wait until the pandemic is over to take action. Hesperian’s resources can help you mobilize your community and demand attention for our collective health.

Our Health Organizing Set is the perfect starter kit for taking action. 

A Community Guide to Environmental Health provides the knowledge, and inspiration to transform the crisis in environmental health anywhere in the world. The book’s activities and stories stimulate critical thinking and discussion for aspiring community leaders and experienced environmental activists alike. 

The Workers’ Guide to Health and Safety makes occupational safety and health information accessible to those most affected by workplace hazards—the workers themselves. From ergonomics, machine injuries, and chemical exposure to low wages, sexual harassment, abuse of migrant workers, and access to health care, this fully illustrated book draws on the experiences of factory workers and their communities to provide tools to organize for short- and long-term improvements. 

Health Actions for Women addresses the social factors that prevent women and girls from enjoying healthy lives. This guide offers proven strategies to help women and men facilitate community discussions and action, even in challenging settings where organizing for women’s health is difficult or dangerous. 

Buy these 3 books as the Health Organizing Set for savings of 20%. If you are facing a health topic not discussed here, you will likely find the information you are looking for in our HealthWiki. Type your health topic into the search box at the top of our website and get a list of free, online resources that will probably answer your questions. 

No health issue can be addressed overnight, but waiting until one health crisis is over to pay attention to another will only make both problems worse. Hesperian is here for you and your communities to jump-start action and create positive change.

The post Don’t wait until the pandemic ends appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

While we try to stay safe and protect against COVID-19, our pre-pandemic medical needs and new health concerns often require a doctor’s attention. In the past several months, telemedicine has become a common way of sharing medical information and advice through electronic communication tools such as video conferencing and chat services. What was once an alternative method of health care provision has become a preferred and effective option for individuals and health providers. 

Telemedicine has proven especially useful during the pandemic in addressing women’s health. COVID-19 has created many obstacles for women trying to access sexual and reproductive health services. Governments around the world have deprioritized women’s health by closing clinics and imposing travel restrictions without considering the impact of these measures on women, from contraception to cancer prevention and beyond. 

Providers are now sharing Hesperian’s women’s health apps for remote counseling in Latin America, Africa, the US, and elsewhere. Our apps on Family Planning, Safe Pregnancy & Birth, and Safe Abortion are free, multilingual, private, and work offline once downloaded. These tools can help women with varying levels of formal  education stay informed about their health and the care options available to them. Health providers also use the apps as a reference when providing guidance to women via phone, chat, or video calls.

While nothing can substitute for the warm, in-person advice of a caring health worker, telemedicine can be a useful resource when care is too difficult or dangerous to access. Hesperian’s materials give telemedicine providers access to a variety of patient care tools that are understandable, culturally appropriate, and medically sound. We wish it wasn’t so, but it looks like the pandemic is making the entire world a place Where There Is No Doctor. 

The post Telemedicine is not the future, it’s the present. appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

With this pandemic, where we live is a major factor influencing health and well-being. While housing density and urban poverty shape the impact of the COVID-19 crisis in cities, rural communities face their own set of unique challenges. These include long-standing neglect of rural hospitals and clinics and scarcity of adequate supplies and trained personnel. 

Hesperian historically and with dedication has focused on health in rural areas and people who literally live Where There Is No Doctor, the title of Hesperian’s best-known (and bestseller!) book that continues to be updated. Along with Where There Is No Dentist, these print books are especially prized where internet access is scarce and access to electricity is unreliable.

In rural communities where internet access is expanding and access to smartphones is increasing, Hesperian’s HealthWiki, designed to provide content in a flexible, wiki-based format and well suited for low or intermittent networks, is making a critical difference. Hesperian’s information is made to share, a finding confirmed by feedback describing how people  forward links, tell neighbors, organize community talks, or print and distribute the materials.

The multilingual COVID-19 resources in our HealthWiki can help anyone, anywhere stay informed. These info sheets share practical guidance for staying safe from the virus, address emotional health challenges arising from shelter in place orders, and guide care for someone recovering from COVID-19 at home.  Not only is the latter the best course of action when advanced hospital care isn’t needed, but helping people do this safely also builds on Hesperian’s tradition of aiding people to be in control of their own health at the family and the community level. Well-organized rural communities are keeping themselves safe: effectively communicating prevention tips tailored to local culture and conditions, creating masks and DIY sanitizing liquids, and developing physical distancing protocols.

Where rural health services are overrun with COVID-19 cases and staffing and protective gear shortages are common, people are worried, justifiably so, to seek healthcare for non-COVID-19 health concerns. Here too Hesperian’s HealthWiki is a source of solutions for home care (and emergency signs) for hundreds of health issues: treating common childhood illnesses, maintaining health during pregnancy, and supporting the work of rural midwives among them. Ways to protect and store community water, prevent dengue and malaria, and prepare for first aid in case of snake bites are especially suited to the challenges of rural life.

Because COVID-19 is a global crisis, rural communities are deeply affected alongside urban areas. We try to be part of the solution by sharing information that speaks directly to rural health needs and work continuously to make our materials available in many languages and accessible formats.

The post Resources for Rural Health appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Earlier this month, Papua New Guinea (PNG) reported its first COVID-19 death. One death may not seem newsworthy in countries with a much higher death toll, but an outbreak of coronavirus could have a catastrophic impact on an island of densely populated communities with very limited access to public health care. 

I pay attention to Papua New Guinea because my family lived there for several years. And as a Board Member of Hesperian Health Guides, I’m excited to announce that Hesperian’s Board of Directors will match all donations to Hesperian from now through August 15th, up to a total of $5,000. This means that your donation today will allow our staff and partners to expand the reach of Hesperian’s COVID-19 information to PNG and beyond!

PNG’s health minister Jelta Wong says, “Covid-19 is real and it is moving around our communities because we are simply being too complacent. The danger is that our people will think Covid-19 exists at the Port Moresby General Hospital and if we stay away from there we will be OK. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.” 

The health minister’s words emphasize a key truth about this pandemic: the ability to make informed choices saves lives.

That’s why we develop COVID-19 information that can be understood and used by people all over the world. As of today, we have 8 COVID-19 resources on our website and our first fact sheet is available in 31 languages! Those languages include Tok Pisin, the official language of Papua New Guinea and the most widely used in the country.

The great strides we’ve made in our COVID-19 work wouldn’t have been possible without your support. This pandemic isn’t going away anytime soon, and we’re asking all of you to stay with us as well. 

Your contributions and continued support will allow us to bring our COVID-19 information to even more people in the languages they speak. Now more than ever, being informed can help individuals and families gain some control over their health and well-being even when so many circumstances are beyond our control.

Thank you in advance for helping us meet this $5,000 match from Hesperian’s Board of Directors and getting real news about COVID-19 to people who desperately need it.

The post Your Support Travels Far appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Many of you are probably familiar with the term “armchair activist”. This label describes someone who might take strong stands on social media, but rarely does anything more, especially if it involves leaving the comfort of their home. When ‘clicktivism’ has no connection to the actions we need to take in the real world, it doesn’t do much more than help us pretend we’re “part of the solution.” However, in recent years, and especially in the last few months, we have witnessed the power of social media to unite all kinds of people in the fight for racial justice to protect Black lives. Advocacy online through hashtags, posts, and petitions has inspired tens of thousands of people to get out of the ether and into the streets. 

In the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ability of social media to allow us to keep a safe distance while speaking up for justice and human rights makes it a great organizing tool. The necessary thing to remember about social media, though, is that activism doesn’t end when you log off. 

Here are some ideas on how to bring your virtual actions into the material world to improve our collective health and well-being.

Help people near and far stay informed

Use your online platform to combat misinformation about COVID-19 and other health topics with facts! Hesperian’s easy-to-use health information in many languages is available for free on our website. Share information online or by printing out our multilingual COVID-19 fact sheets and distributing them in your community. When you are packing lunches for unsheltered people or dropping off food for a neighbor, include our fact sheets with the groceries and nourish people with actionable health information too.  

Mobilize your virtual communities

Take advantage of this opportunity to expand understandings of complex health and social justice issues. Organize video calls and twitter chats with your friends and virtual communities to raise the collective consciousness about the intersection of health, social justice, and human rights. Select a documentary or film for a movie night to address these topics and set up a call with your friends afterwards to share your thoughts and discuss how your thinking was challenged. Hesperian’s books can also provide information to help you have these important and transformative conversations. Check out our Health Guides for Education and Advocacy (all available in our HealthWiki) to get started. 

Raise your voice for structural change

We all have a stake in  speaking out about the changes we want to see in our society. The last several months have reinforced the importance of making health care accessible to all. Reach out to your local and congressional leaders to let them know you support Medicare for All, and that more of the health care as a privilege for those who can pay just won’t cut it. . 

There are lots of ways people have acted on their commitment to health and human rights, from joining demonstrations to volunteering at food banks to supporting the elderly. We would love to hear about how you are connecting your online advocacy to concrete actions. Sharing your efforts might inspire someone else to finish their post and then build a platform for change in their community. 

Let’s keep using our virtual voices to create social change!

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“Systemic racism is not just a concept perpetrated outside these walls; it is a crushing reality for people of color in their daily lived experiences here at the CDC” states a letter signed by 1,200 current employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The letter calls for the CDC to address racism and discrimination against Black employees at the agency. The inequalities experienced by Black employees at an institution that is supposed to serve all Americans reinforces the link between racism and public health disparities. When racism goes unaddressed within the CDC, how can we expect the CDC to respond to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black communities across the US? 

Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, a medical officer at the CDC for 14 years says, “We are squandering genius. We’re squandering insight. We’re squandering talent within CDC that could then lead CDC’s mission to address the health issues of the nation.” Note that Dr Jones can call out racism at the CDC because she no longer works there — CDC employees are prohibited from speaking to the press without authorization. When people from diverse backgrounds are denied seats at the decision-making table, solutions to health crises are bound to neglect the needs of people of color and others facing discrimination.

Racism in the health system is nothing new. Throughout US history, Black Americans have faced discrimination in a system pledged to protect them. Structural inequality and the daily stress of a society defined by white supremacy have led to worse health outcomes for Black people. The pandemic, killing Black people at a rate twice that of whites, makes this fact very clear. 

We will not improve public health enough to defeat the pandemic if we fail to address the racism in all of our institutions, especially those responsible for promoting health. We encourage you to learn about and undo the connections between racism and health, and to support initiatives that lessen the impact of COVID-19 on Black communities.

March For Health Justice!

As an organization with the mission to promote health and justice, we are doing our part to help protestors stay as safe as possible. We have posted a Health Protection and Security for Protest Marches fact sheet in English, Spanish, French, and Chinese to help people stay safe from COVID-19 while they are taking to the streets.

The post Racism at the CDC impacts all of us appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

The suppression of women’s rights to control their health and lives continues in the midst of the pandemic. Recent Supreme Court decisions take us one step forward at the beginning of the week and then two steps back at the end. Everywhere, women’s ability to care for themselves and their families is limited by travel restrictions and clinic closures. While we have no clear sense of the trajectory of the Covid-19 pandemic or when it will be over, we do know that women, and protecting their rights and health, will be essential to overcoming it.

Governments around the world must incorporate women’s health into their evolving responses to COVID-19. The pandemic demands increased investment in services, people, and programs to support women’s health and safety,as well as accessible information to mobilize women to take action for their health. Where Women Have No Doctor, combines self-help medical information with an understanding of the ways poverty, discrimination and cultural beliefs limit women’s health and access to care. In a time when traveling to a health facility can be a risk and a challenge, we want to ensure that women have the ability to make informed choices about their health at home.

The 2020 edition of Where Women Have No Doctor is back in stock at the Hesperian store, updated with accurate and relevant information on all aspects of women’s health! You’ll find newly added information on gender issues, pre-eclampsia, HIV/AIDS, malaria, vaccines, drugs for sexually transmitted infections, and safe abortion.

For too long women have been told that their “issues” will be dealt with “as soon as this bigger crisis is over,” whether that has been racial discrimination, an unjust war, economic problems, and now, a pandemic. But we know that healthy, mobilized women are central to solving those “other” problems too. Strengthen women’s health and people’s movements for change by adding one of our women’s health resources to your library and sharing it with your networks.

The post We’ll never beat the pandemic without supporting women’s health appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

If we are learning anything from the COVID-19 pandemic, the increase in racial violence, and the instability that results from a lack of positive leadership, it is that our world is more interconnected than ever before. Crises in health and justice in the US affect people all over the world, and vice versa. In a time when it couldn’t be more obvious that what is needed is the sharing of information, resources and strategies to protect health and lives, the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization (WHO) recklessly threatens our — and the world’s — health.

Instead of withdrawing from the WHO in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and losing access to giving and getting vital information on disease spread, containment strategies, vaccine development, etc., the United States should defend WHO and expand its ability to address this and future disease outbreaks.  Unfortunately, it will not be enough to simply return to the status quo post-November. For too many years, the US’s contributions to the WHO and global health have been severely inadequate, pushing a strategy of public-private partnerships which have promoted corporate interests to the detriment of people’s health.

Our current lawmakers and the new ones arriving will need to be pushed to not only support the WHO but advocate for improved global health. 750 scholars and experts in international public health, U.S. constitutional law, and international law and relations have penned a letter to Congress in opposition to U.S. withdrawal from WHO. Share this letter with your congressional representatives and on social media to reverse this mind-numbingly stupid decision of the Trump administration.

We all have a right to be healthy and safe. Health for all, NOW!

The post Defending the WHO appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased anxiety and stress for all of us. Lost income, crowded living spaces, violence, fear, uncertainty, and living with mental health problems can make these circumstances even more difficult to handle. Domestic violence has surged around the world as isolation at home forces more exposure to abusers. In the midst of the pandemic, how can we support people living in fear of violence in their homes while also helping those with built-up anger — mostly men — manage their emotions without putting others in danger? 

Hesperian has just released an info sheet, “COVID-19: Managing stress and anger” to help address mental and emotional health during the pandemic. This resource includes strategies to care for ourselves, our children, and others who might need help. The fact sheet includes information to help men understand that no one — not them, not their partners — should be blamed for the social and economic effects of COVID-19 and provides some tools for anger management. Regarding domestic abuse, the info sheet explains how to make an escape plan as well as how to help others who find themselves in difficult situations.

The stress and anxiety caused by the COVID-19 pandemic would be hard enough to deal with if it didn’t come on top of an already stress-inducing reality of racism and male violence. While we hope some of the techniques included in this resource can help you lower your stress and anxiety, we also want to honor and express our gratitude to everyone who has organized and demonstrated against white supremacy over the past weeks. The struggle for justice is the struggle of mental, physical and social health.

The post Managing Emotions During COVID-19 appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire world, but has not affected all of us equally. Social and economic factors determine who is most vulnerable to the virus and who’s health will suffer most. In their reporting about the impact of the pandemic, news outlets often leave out the effects of COVID-19 on people with disabilities. People with disabilities have been hit hard by the loss of essential health services. And once again, women with disabilities are confronting the highest barriers to health and well-being.

Globally, women with disabilities are less likely to be educated and employed than their male counterparts. They also have often neglected health needs that are only exacerbated in the time of COVID-19. Hesperian’s inclusive approach to women’s health has created resources specifically for women with disabilities. A Health Handbook for Women With Disabilities is a groundbreaking guide that shows how women with disabilities can overcome barriers to poor health and advocate for better health care. It was developed with and is used by health professionals, caregivers, and women’s health and disability groups around the world. 

UNAFEHB in Burkina Faso advocates for the rights of women with disabilities and to empower them to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country. They work with 35 community organizations to increase the visibility of women with disabilities. Hesperian is working with them and the Fondation le Tisserin (FLT) in Burkina Faso, who facilitated the translation into French of the A Health Handbook for Women With Disabilities. They will field review the draft French translation which will be corrected, designed, and then made freely available on our website.

The health needs of women with disabilities should always be a priority, especially during this pandemic. Hesperian’s collaboration with grassroots organizations helps make that a reality. 

Now through the end of June, we are offering 30% off A Health Handbook for Women With Disabilities with coupon code “DisabilityJustice30“.

The post We Make Inclusivity A Priority appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

The post New COVID-19 Info You Can Put To Use! appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

8 minutes and 46 seconds. That’s how quickly the police murdered a 46-year old African American man named George Floyd on May 25th, 2020. The horrifying reality is that we have seen these police killings happen time and time again, and time and time again nothing has been done to stop them. We can’t say this latest tragedy exposes the structural racism in our police and criminal justice system because it hasn’t been hidden, it has been festering in plain sight for way too long. 

Racism manifests in every aspect of our society, especially in health. Black Americans are dying from COVID-19 at almost three times the rate of white Americans. This is not due to genetics. The racist economy upon which the US was built has led to and depends on continuing the poverty and chronic health problems in black communities, making them more vulnerable to the virus. The Trump administration’s refusal to acknowledge or respond to the health needs of communities of color is abhorrent, and is intimately related to its tolerance for and encouragement of racist policing.

Hesperian expresses our solidarity with everyone protesting the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police and the systemic acceptance of police brutality. As an organization with the mission to promote health and justice, we are doing our part to help protestors stay as safe as possible. We have posted a Health Protection and Security for Protest Marches fact sheet to help people stay safe from COVID-19 while they are taking to the streets. Produced last week by colleagues in Ecuador, this resource provides information on how to avoid COVID during and after marches and protests. It includes guidance for interacting with police, who have high rates of COVID-19 infection.

When was the last time America was forced to deal with the racism at the core of our national being? Let’s take advantage of this moment to transform our country because #BlackLivesMatter. Together we can care for each other and defend our health and dignity, without fear.

The post Demonstrating for Dignity #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted all aspects of our lives and limited our access to health care globally. This has been especially harmful for women and girls seeking safe abortions. Lockdown measures prevent women from leaving their homes to access the safe abortion information and services essential to their health. Restrictive abortion laws only increase the difficulty of getting safe abortions. Deprioritizing women’s health like this will only lead to more unsafe abortions. This reality of COVID-19 highlights the urgency of sharing accessible, practical tools that support the health needs of women at home, everywhere in the world.

As part of the International Day of Action for Women’s Health, Hesperian Health Guides and safe2choose have stepped forward to lead the #Actions4SafeAbortions social media campaign from May 25th to May 28th to raise awareness about all the tech tools available to support safe abortion at home. We call on individuals, organizations, and innovators to share resources that increase access to safe abortions during the pandemic and beyond. This means you!

Hesperian and safe2choose have long championed the development of tech tools to  support safe abortion. 

Hesperian’s suite of reproductive health apps includes a  Safe Abortion App filled with  straightforward language and helpful illustrations to share information on safe methods, abortion pills, how to identify danger signs, and more. Individuals can stay safely at home while accessing information for free. Especially now with COVID-19, this multilingual app is  a valuable tool for health workers promoting safe abortion remotely through phone and video communications.

safe2choose is a platform that offers safe abortion information as well as counseling via live chat and email. Counseling services are available in a variety of languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Hindi, Punjabi, Swahili, Hebrew, Arabic and Wolof.

The #Actions4SafeAbortions campaign is designed to bring tools and e-resources  to more people that provide safe abortion information and services any time, any place, everywhere. 

Join this campaign!

1. Participate on Thursday, May 28th at 8am PST in the #Actions4SafeAbortions Virtual Solidarity Hour to share about your ideas and tools for increasing safe abortion access.
2. Follow the conversation on social media, tag and retweet/share all content with the #Actions4SafeAbortions hashtag.
3. Tweet about your organization’s tools to support safe abortions. Use this template as a guide and be sure to tag us:
   1. At (name of organization) , we support #Actions4SafeAbortions by …………
   2. For us #Actions4SafeAbortions means …………

Follow us on social media @safe2choose, @safeabortionapp

The post #Actions4SafeAbortions: Supporting Safe Abortions During COVID-19 appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

The coronavirus pandemic is making access to food even more difficult for people everywhere. The UN World Food Program estimates the number of people being pushed to the brink of starvation will double to 265 million. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, “We have the tools and the know-how to defeat hunger and malnutrition. What we need is political will and sustained commitment by leaders and nations.”

That’s what Food Not Bombs,  celebrating its anniversary on May 24, has been advocating for 40 years. Founded in Boston to show how the huge US military budget is a direct cause of poverty and hunger, Food Not Bombs chapters now challenge inequality and provide food for the marginalized in countries all around the globe. 

As the response to COVID-19 pushes people into unemployment and hunger, Food Not Bombs continues to distribute food and feed people down the street from Hesperian in Berkeley and across the bay in San Francisco. In nearby Santa Cruz, they have provided homeless people drinking water, wash stations and hot meals every day since March 14th when other indoor food programs closed. 

In Myanmar, when sewing sweatshops shut down leaving already impoverished garment workers without income, local Food Not Bombs activists began distributing supplies and serving meals in the surrounding communities. Two Russian Food Not Bombs volunteers were arrested outside Moscow’s Kursky train station for sharing food and protective gear with the homeless.

Food Not Bombs volunteers have been arrested dozens of times in the US and worldwide for the crime of feeding the hungry and challenging the system that impoverishes them. Hesperian and Food Not Bombs share the belief that the real crimes deserving punishment are driving farmers off their land, encouraging consumption of cheap processed foods that leads to  diabetes and obesity, and refusing to recognize access to food and nutrition as a human right. Happy 40th Birthday to Food Not Bombs! Let’s work to make its reason for existing disappear in the next 40!

The post Hunger, Food Not Bombs and COVID-19 appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

As the COVID-19 worldwide death toll breaks 250,000, it obscures the even larger number of lives claimed by another virus: HIV. Since the beginning of the year, over 500,000 people have died from HIV/AIDS.

One thing the two viruses have in common is that there is no cure for either. However, we do have the medicines to keep people with HIV healthy — HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, we must not neglect the needs of vulnerable populations, the children and families affected by HIV. As COVID-19 restricts access to health services everywhere, families living with HIV are put in an extremely difficult position. Supplies of lifesaving anti-retroviral medicines are interrupted. Budgets that met the needs of HIV+ families are decimated by the economic depression the epidemic is creating. Caregivers are desperately trying to support the physical and psychological needs of those affected by HIV while adhering to the rules of social distancing and keeping their loved ones safe.

The needs of vulnerable populations, such as people and families with HIV, do not disappear when other health problems arise. In fact, they become more difficult to resolve. Our societies and health systems must respond to these increased needs with increased care, not with neglect. It is our human obligation to provide Health for All!

Hesperian creates materials that support health for individuals, families, and caregivers where conditions are not ideal. Our health guide, Helping Children Live with HIV, is full of practical advice and illustrated stories to help families and communities support children’s well-being and healthy development. The book’s holistic approach provides ways to heal a family’s experience of the physical and emotional trauma caused by the disease, by lack of resources, and by social stigma. It is a tool to fight neglect.  

As we all take action during this global crisis, we encourage you to advocate for those whose needs are not included in the focus on COVID-19. The health of children and families with HIV should not be further jeopardized by this pandemic. Spread the word about Helping Children Live with HIV so we can get this resource to families and communities in low-resource settings. Let’s look out for one another and stop the spread of neglect.

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Our impact is only as strong as our partnerships. Fortunately, our enthusiastic and dedicated network of translation partners help bring our health information to people we otherwise would not reach.

When we sent out our English COVID-19 Fact Sheet at the beginning of March, we were overwhelmed by the number of people who wrote back and expressed interest in translating the information into more languages. Some were already translation partners, but we also heard from new people who were eager to do their part to address this crisis. These translators have been instrumental in helping us produce our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Fact Sheet in 20 languages in a matter of weeks. This week’s newsletter raises the curtain on Hesperian’s translation process and shines a spotlight on one of our translation stars.

Meet our long-time partner, David Katusabe. David is a founding member of COBIHESA-Community Based Initiatives in Health, Water and Sanitation, a non-profit organization formed in 2002 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Since 2002, David has been leading his team to adapt Hesperian resources for local contexts, including translation into Kiswahili. Here is what David had to say when we asked him why he believes translating health information is important:

“Simply  to increase access to quality health information for millions of people all over the world who may not access it due to lack of competency in the dominant colonial languages of communication, research and knowledge development.  The right to health elaborated under different international conventions and agreements can hardly be achieved without  universal access to quality health information. Access to quality health information is essential for a  healthy lifestyle, to  reduce the risk of diseases, and, in many situations, it is the first line of protection  against many health problems.  The importance of  universal access to quality health information is  showcased in the current response to COVID 19 and a host of other  health problems  that affect developing countries, including HIV and AIDS, malnutrition, unsafe abortion etc.”

We are grateful to our entire network of translators for helping to ensure that language is not a barrier to being informed and making the right choices for our health! Please email us at hesperian@hesperian.org if you would like to translate our COVID-19 Fact Sheet into your language.

The post Thank You, Translators! appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Every year, the World Health Organization selects a specific theme to spread health awareness on World Health Day, April 7. Today, WHO is recognizing the selfless contributions of the nurses and midwives working day and night to protect people’s health during the COVID-19 pandemic. These committed health workers around the world are risking their health, often isolating themselves from their own families, to care for others.

Honoring the dedication and courage of nurses and midwives during this crisis will remain empty words if we don’t at the same time advocate for the working conditions that allow them to provide quality health care, and to do so safely. Sufficient personal protective equipment — masks, gloves, gowns, etc. — as well as adequate staffing levels and equipment are needed. In most cases, compensation and nurses’ own access to health coverage need to be improved. Nurses are the backbone of our health systems and it’s way past time their working conditions recognized that.

The post The Heroes of the COVID-19 Response appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

In addition to Hesperian’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) Fact Sheet, now available in 20 languages, we want to share these COVID-19 resources which also provide easy to use, trustworthy information. We will be updating this blog with more materials, so please send us ones that you find particularly useful at madhavi@hesperian.org.

1. 4/8/2020: Para información sobre coronavirus en idiomas de Guatemala.
2. 4/9/2020: Sister AID Liberia has created a dynamic COVID-19 Awareness video to share information about staying safe and empower women to promote health in their communities.
3. 4/29/20: Let’s help persons with disabilities during the current pandemic: Suggestions for advocates and for transport personnel.
4. 4/29/20: Ayudemos a las personas con discapacidad durante la actual pandemia: Sugerencias para activistas y operadores de transporte.
5. 4/29/20: Para prevenir y tratar el Coronavirus desde la “Comunidad”

The post More Trusted Sources of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

The COVID-19 crisis shows why access to water is paramount — people denied water are denied cleanliness, increasing their risk from diseases caused by the coronavirus and other germs. That’s why in honor of World Water Day, March 22nd, we advocate for access to water for our own survival and the preservation of our sanitation and healthcare systems. 

In Flint, Michigan and other municipalities in the US, activists have convinced cities to agree that water services will not be turned off during the coronavirus outbreak. Such initiatives to ensure access to clean water are happening globally as well.

People have a right to water because it is impossible to live without water. When water is privatized, and the “right to profit” from water is elevated over the human right to water, time and again we see access denied to people with less money, and further denied to minority ethnic or religious communities.

Just as the privatization of health care has weakened public health and made epidemics both more possible and more dangerous, the privatization of water does the same by depriving people of a basic necessity for life.

Hesperian has created resources to help people protect their right to clean water — our Water for Life booklet explains how to improve and protect water sources, make water safe for drinking, and organize water projects to improve community health. We expand on these topics in A Community Guide to Environmental Health, discussing strategies for water purification and watershed management.

We demand that people everywhere have the right to water security, promoting their ability to stay healthy during this disease outbreak and after the current crisis fades. 

The post The Right to Water Matters Now appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Life as we know it has been put on pause. Around the world, governments are trying to slow the spread of coronavirus by restricting travel, closing schools, canceling sporting and cultural events, and requiring businesses to send their workers home. All of us are affected by these measures to protect public health and safety. Although it makes us feel isolated and disconnected from each other, we can be proud of our efforts to stay indoors and create the social distance that will not only help us care for our own health, but the health of communities near and far.

Especially in a crisis, everyone shares the need for and the right to trustworthy, uncensored information. To help people battle uncertainty in these uncertain times, Hesperian released a Coronavirus (COVID-19) Fact Sheet specifically for people like you, individuals and organizations seeking credible resources. Thanks to the incredible skill and participation of many partners on short notice, it is available now in English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Urdu, Bangla, Filipino, Vietnamese, Bahasa Indonesia, Farsi, Sindhi, Telugu, and Hindi on our website. Fact sheets in Shona, Portuguese, Arabic, and Chichewa are on the way.

The post Connected by Coronavirus appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth every day, especially in low-resource settings where there is limited or no access to quality maternal health services and emergency care. Where other health professionals are scarce, midwives play an essential role in supporting maternal and child health. Midwives have the skill, patience, and accessibility to care for women during pregnancy and reduce the dangers of childbirth.

In 2013, Hesperian published A Book for Midwives, a vital resource for practicing midwives and midwives in training. This book covers the essentials of care before, during, and after birth. We are thrilled to announce that we have just released a 2020 Updated Edition!

The 2020 edition of A Book for Midwives includes new and updated information on topics such as  birth control methods, HIV, medical abortion, manual vacuum aspiration, mental health, hepatitis, HPV and cancer prevention, and pre-eclampsia — one of the most common causes of maternal death.

Pre-eclampsia is a serious health problem for pregnant women and their babies, usually diagnosed by high blood pressure. It affects up to 8 out of 100 pregnancies, increasing the risk for hemorrhage, a detached placenta, and seizures. It can cause the developing baby to grow poorly inside the womb or to be born prematurely. Worldwide, pre-eclampsia is one of the top five causes of maternal and infant illness and death. In the US, African American women suffer and die from pre-eclampsia at a rate 3 times greater than white women.

Recently, a very low-dose of aspirin, starting at about 12 weeks of pregnancy through birth, has been found to help prevent pre-eclampsia in women who are at risk. Widely available and affordable, it will prevent many deaths. We were quite excited to add it to our recent update of A Book for Midwives.

This is just one of many examples of how our 2020 Updated Edition of A Book for Midwives reflects the most urgent issues related to pregnancy and childbirth today, making it the perfect resource for midwives and midwifery training programs around the world.

The post New 2020 Edition of A Book for Midwives! appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

UPDATE: Our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Fact Sheet is now available in 18 languages! Here is the full list: Arabic, Bangla, Chinese, English, Farsi, Filipino, French, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Indonesian, Portuguese, Sindhi, Shona, Swahili, Telugu, Spanish, Urdu, and Vietnamese.

Para información sobre coronavirus en idiomas de Guatemala.

Coronavirus is all over the news and people are looking for how-to, actionable information on surviving the pandemic. But limiting advice and actions to improving individual or community hygiene is only washing our hands of the problem. To successfully defeat the looming epidemic, we have to change a health system that places profit over health. We have to recognize and address the political, social and economic factors –the social determinants of health — that govern how health or illness moves through our communities. 

Most of what to do immediately about Coronavirus (or COVID-19) is already known: Wash your hands; don’t touch your face so often; stay home if you are sick. Clean surfaces often that are touched by multiple people. Since the virus is mostly transmitted by respiration, cough or sneeze into your elbow, wear a mask if you are sick or around sick people, or stay about 6 feet away from people you speak with if you think the virus is active in your area. (See our COVID-19 Fact Sheet for more details.)

While individual action is important, it will not stop an epidemic, only collective action will. We have to start acting like the connections among us are not routes to transmit disease, but the channels through which we can defeat it. There are many actions and policies we can demand to lower the possibility that COVID-19 becomes epidemic in the United States:

1) Guaranteed income for people affected by the virus.

Most of us live paycheck to paycheck and cannot afford to stay home from work without pay. Quarantines are difficult enough for people without making them worse by causing financial disaster.

The federal government has refused to require employers to pay sick leave, and even states that do — California requires only 3 days a year – would not cover the time necessary for your quarantine, much less if your quarantine is because someone else in your household is sick. And how would people with the lowest wages survive, those in service or production jobs who cannot telecommute (as our health advisors so blithely suggest), if their employers shut down?  If schools are closed to prevent disease from spreading, how will adults stay home with children and not lose their jobs or income?

In places like the Bay Area, where housing costs take the lion’s share of monthly expenses, it may also be necessary to declare mortgage holidays and a moratorium on evictions. 

2) Free access to testing and treatment.

The cost of health care already stops people from getting timely testing and treatment for health problems. With coronavirus, our health system is a prescription for an epidemic. 

The CDC bungled producing testing kits for COVID-19, and hospitals still have a shortage. People who have been tested are being charged thousands of dollars. When asked about treatment costs, HHS Secretary Azar refused to say treatment would be affordable: “We can’t control that price because we need the private sector to invest.”

If the US continues on the health-care–for-profit path, it insures the epidemic will be more widespread and more severe. Free access to testing and treatment for coronavirus is essential, as it is for other health conditions. Demand access to care now and in November don’t vote for anyone who doesn’t support Medicare for All – they’re basically telling you that saving your life is too expensive. 

3) Prioritize reaching the most vulnerable communities

People of color and low-income communities have more exposure to disease and less access to health care facilities. We can’t perpetuate this injustice in our coronavirus response.

People already sick, especially those with breathing problems, have a higher chance of getting severely ill and dying from COVID-19. Environmental racism places factories and freeways disproportionately in poor communities of color, leading, for example, to 20% more asthma among African Americans. By prioritizing reaching communities marginalized by the medical system with necessary supplies, testing and treatment, we can slow the epidemic and begin to undo the deadly relationship of ill health, inequity and injustice. 

These are all achievable demands. To win them, we have to organize pressure on our local, state and national governments from our neighborhood organizations, unions, churches, professional groups, and within the political parties that are contending for our votes this election year. 

We can also organize locally to care for each other:

–Reorient your Neighborhood Watch or Earthquake Preparedness group to check up on your neighbors. Find out who is sick and who needs help.

–Expand the reach of Meals on Wheels and other such programs to feed those in quarantine.

–Volunteer and train others to be community health outreach workers to help answer questions and prepare your neighborhood for the coronavirus.

–Compensate “gig workers” who are the human backbone of food and supplies order and delivery apps for the time and disinfection supplies  they need to safely support people stuck at home in quarantine.

What really stands out in the face of an epidemic like coronavirus is our leaders’ antagonism to the concept of “the public good” — unless it’s profitable, it just shouldn’t exist. Our public health systems have been weakened by millions of dollars of budget cuts, an opposition to regulation of both pollution and greed, and the refusal to build or maintain common infrastructure. If we are going to survive coronavirus with a minimum of deaths, we need to replace our health-for-profit system with one that recognizes that health is a human right.

The post Coronavirus appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

The theme of International Women’s Day 2020 is An equal world is an enabled world. We won’t achieve gender equality until we overcome the forces limiting freedom and opportunities for all women, including those preventing women from taking charge of their own health. Hesperian  has always believed that improving women’s health must go beyond medicine to incorporate strategies for advocacy that further women’s rights. To make that real, we also prioritize inclusivity to account for the particular needs of women from diverse cultural backgrounds and individuals with disabilities. 

When we decided to create a resource dedicated to information on safe abortion, we developed the free, mobile Safe Abortion app. Unsafe Abortions still account for at least 1 in 12 maternal deaths globally, disproportionately affecting poor women in developing countries. By sharing understandable and applicable information on safe methods, our intention was to prevent women from falling victim to unsafe methods of terminating their pregnancies and the fear, illness, and threat to life that unsafe abortion entails. To reach more women, we made the app multilingual (English, Spanish, French, Yoruba, and Igbo), private, and accessible offline once downloaded. 

When just one woman or health worker has the app on her phone, an entire community of women can access information to make safe reproductive choices. 

Leading up to International Women’s Day, from March 1st to the 8th, we are partnering with safe2choose and Ipas, two committed organizations that champion the right to choose, to promote universal access to free and safe abortion. Each organization has created Twitter posts using #MarchForEqualChoice to look at historical and recent advancements made in the women’s rights movement and the impact it has had on safe abortion provision and access. We invite you to join this campaign too:

1. Join us on Friday 6th March for the  #MarchForEqualChoice Twitter Chat .
2. Follow the conversation on social media, tag and retweet/share all content with the  #MarchForEqualChoice hashtag.
3. Follow us on social media @safe2choose, @safeabortionapp and @ipasorg. 

Let’s make March a month for safe abortion advocacy as we #MarchForEqualChoice!

The post #MarchForEqualChoice Twitter Campaign appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

If you read our blogs regularly, chances are you are familiar with Hesperian’s renowned health manual, Where There Is No Doctor. Hesperian published the first edition in 1977 and updated editions are used daily by health workers, clinicians, midwives, community leaders, and ordinary people around the world. We pack Where There Is No Doctor with the latest information on medicines and more, and the book is bursting at the seams with all the changes in health we have included over the last few decades. To account for the health concerns and conditions affecting us today, we are well on the way toward creating the New Where There Is No Doctor.

The New Where There Is No Doctor is not your conventional book. In fact, it is not a “book” at all! Comprehensive chapters on a range of topics from Diabetes to Malaria are available for free in Hesperian’s HealthWiki. Whether you are a layperson or a health professional, actionable and accurate health information is just one search away. Because books are still an invaluable medium of information, especially in rural communities with unreliable internet access, Hesperian still updates and prints all our books. And to ensure that New Where There Is No Doctor content reaches all, we have created topical booklets providing easy access to this high-demand health information. 

Hesperian partners as young as 16 have taken our booklets to communities where they have helped to transform people’s health. Regardless of where you live, New Where There Is No Doctor makes taking action for better health and well-being easier than ever!

The post Where There Is No Doctor For A New Decade appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Even though we’ve made a lot of progress on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, 1.8 million children are still currently living with HIV worldwide. These children desperately need their caregivers – parents, teachers, neighbors – to support not just their physical needs, but their mental and emotional health as well. Hesperian’s newest book, Helping Children Live with HIV, takes a holistic approach to HIV care by integrating illness prevention and treatment with psychosocial support for families coping with poverty, discrimination, trauma, and loss.

Babies and young children with HIV are uniquely vulnerable because they are completely reliant on their caregivers for all of their needs . . And yet, their families typically face many challenges. Our book offers caregivers and community health workers practical, motivating, and easy to use information to solve common problems and prevent many others.  People caring for children with HIV have written to us praising the usability of the book. A representative from ChildFund, an organization in Kenya helping children in poverty, wrote to us saying:

“I am very happy with the illustrations as they bring real experiences and practical methods of caring for children living with AIDS. I believe that the book will not only be used by the Community Health Workers and other health providers, but will form a core curriculum support material in schools.”

The feedback we are receiving from the actual users of Helping Children Live with HIV, is powerful validation that the book is already making its mark and the needed information will be shared again and again.  

Getting this resource into the hands of families and communities affected by HIV in low-resource settings is critical. We encourage you to bring copies of our book if you are visiting countries that have high rates of HIV, tell organizations and individuals supporting children with HIV about it, or contribute to Hesperian so we can make more copies available free of cost.

Now until the end of February, enjoy 30% of Helping Children Live with HIV with promo code “HIV30”.

The post Helping Children Live with HIV appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Reproductive justice affects us all. When women have the right to control their own health and life choices, entire societies benefit. To ensure that women around the world are able to control their bodies and are respected no matter their choices, we need men and other community members to take a stand.

That’s exactly what Hesperian’s Liberian partner Miatta Darwolor was able to achieve when she held an event, mobilizing hundreds of people to advocate for reproductive justice and women’s rights. Miatta, the Executive Director of Sister Aid Liberia, printed banners featuring Hesperian’s 3 Reproductive Health apps: Family Planning, Safe Pregnancy & Birth, and Safe Abortion. She used her social networks to encourage everyone from youth to grandmothers to download the apps and demand access to reproductive health information and services.

Because access to abortion information and services is highly restricted in Liberia, Miatta’s efforts to share the Safe Abortion app with as many people as possible are crucial. According to the medical journal, Lancet, nearly half of the 56 million annual abortions performed around the world posed some threat to the health and safety of the woman. Moreover, the vast majority of unsafe abortions – 97 percent — were performed in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Hesperian’s Safe Abortion app can prevent thousands of deaths and disability from unsafe abortion. 

The app offers reliable and understandable information about safe methods of abortion, making it a lifesaving resource in places where even talking about abortion is taboo. 

Advocates like Miatta help bring our reproductive health apps to people that may have otherwise not been aware of Hesperian’s free digital tools. No matter where you are in the world, you can help spread the word about our essential safe abortion and reproductive health information!

To support #reproductivejustice and #safeabortion, please share the graphic above with your social networks and include a link to our Safe Abortion app: bit.ly/safeabortionapp

The post A Global Movement for Reproductive Justice appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

For thousands of years, long before there were doctors or hospitals, midwives have been helping women stay healthy, bringing babies into the world, and caring for families.  A safe birth is an essential support to the lifelong health of mothers and babies. 95% of infant and maternal mortalites in low-resource settings are preventable; accessible and actionable pregnancy and birth information can be lifesaving. Hesperian provides those materials, used and championed by midwives, community health workers, and pregnant women around the world.

Our comprehensive Safe Pregnancy & Birth App contains information that helps mothers stay healthy before, during, and after birth. Step-by-step explanations on responding to danger signs make this a valuable tool for birth assistants and labor doulas. To ensure widespread access to this information, our app is free, easy to use, accessible offline, and available in English and Spanish.

Midwives play an essential role in guaranteeing maternal and child health around the world.  A Book for Midwives can serve as a training manual for students or a reference for experienced midwives. Clearly written and illustrated, this information can reduce the dangers of childbirth in rural villages and urban clinics alike.

The Childbirth Picture Book is another concise yet comprehensive resource for educating teens, pregnant couples and caregivers. The drawings and descriptions explain every step of the reproductive process and answer common questions. Available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Urdu, this book is a great teaching tool for individuals in the U.S. and beyond. 

Reliable and practical information about safe pregnancy and birth can help ensure a healthy beginning for mothers and babies. We encourage you to share Hesperian’s health materials with pregnant women, midwives, doulas, and anyone else investing in improving maternal and child health!

The post Safe Births and Beginnings appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

In many parts of the world, speaking openly about topics such as sex, pregnancy, and family planning is very difficult. When people feel uncomfortable asking questions about contraception, even if they desperately need and want the information, it can make the job of a health counselor seem impossible. Hesperian’s Family Planning App is designed to encourage and support counseling conversations led by health workers, community leaders, and peer promoters.

The “Counseling Examples” help counselors reflect on how they should engage with people of different ages and experiences. This section puts people in real life counseling situations that encourage them to address their own biases, become better listeners, and empower individuals and couples to make family planning decisions.

When people can choose the contraceptive method that best suits their preferences and needs, they will have greater control over their reproductive health and life choices. The Family Planning app contains a “Method-Choosing tool” that explains the pros and cons of various methods, and includes comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions about birth control.

We made our app free, accessible offline, and available in multiple languages (English, Spanish, French, and Swahili, with more to come). Now everyone can have the tools to choose their best method of birth control. Download the Family Planning App in Google Play or the App Store today. Share our app with your networks to help bring family planning information to individuals and families around the world!

The post Introducing Hesperian’s Family Planning App! appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Hesperian’s year has been all about opening new channels to health. As 2019 comes to a close, we reflect on how we have expanded beyond books as vehicles for sharing health information and what we hope to achieve in the new year.

Our mobile apps and HealthWiki have delivered  lifesaving information more rapidly to a larger audience than we ever imagined possible. Hesperian’s safe abortion mobile app, launched in February, already helps users in 137 countries! This free, multilingual tool, often used in conjunction with our Family Planning and Safe Birth and Delivery apps, is empowering people everywhere to take ownership of their health.

We continue to develop accessible print materials on a range of health topics. Our latest health guide Helping Children Live with HIV, supports caregivers and community health workers addressing both the physical and psychosocial needs of children with HIV. Written for families and communities, this book is full of helpful stories and strategies to inspire group action. And we just finished the transformative work necessary to make this freely available online as well.

Hesperian’s classic Where There Is No Doctor is still our best-known book, and people searching for it online now also find related and expanded chapters generated by our  New Where There Is No Doctor project, available for free on our HealthWiki. These chapters have also been translated, some into more than a dozen languages, and others produced as printed booklets for community health worker and individual use.

None of this would be possible without our partners, donors, customers, and supporters around the world. We thank you for your continued support and encourage you to stay connected to participate in the even more audacious outreach in store for 2020.

The post The old, the new, and everything in between appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Santa was worried about Rudolph. “He’s got a fever and no energy. I don’t see how he’ll be able to guide my sleigh tonight. And Dasher, Dancer, and Blitzen are complaining of headaches and sore throats. Where am I going to find a veterinarian at the North Pole? And even if there was a vet, I’m the only one making house calls tonight!” 

Santa felt a tug on his beard, and looked down to see an elf handing him a book. “Here’s a copy of Where There Is No Animal Doctor/ Handbook of Animal Health. It’s available in English, Spanish, French, Lao, Chinese and Burmese — but not yet in Finnish or Sami (Lapland’s indigenous language). Farmers and herders have used this book for years to keep their animals healthy and ensure their livelihoods.”

A few hours later. Santa ecstatically told his elf: “Every reindeer is beginning to feel better! That Handbook of Animal Health is a lifesaver!” 

The elf replied: “Glad it helped. But they’d all be a lot healthier if you improved their diet and made the stable a more weatherproof place to live. And stop subcontracting to Amazon — they treat their elves and reindeer really badly!”

Find lots of great gift ideas at www.hesperian.org, and get a 30% discount now through the end of January with the code Holiday 30.

The post Handbook of Animal Health | 30% off Holiday Discount appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Too many choices, not enough meaning! This thought occurs to many of us as we hunt for the perfect gifts for family members and friends during the holiday season. The endless identical gift catalogs in our inboxes and mailboxes just clutter our minds and recycling bins and are one reason we so often leave holiday shopping to the last minute. Whether you are on top of your shopping or feeling the pressure, Hesperian is here to help with recommendations and a 30% discount on all our

A guide to bookish gifts that promote health justice

Save with a set:

Hesperian’s themed book sets provide a comprehensive overview of a health topic. The holiday discount gives you an extra 30% off on top of our regular 20% savings deal. Explore our sets for General Health, Women’s Health, Travelers, and more.

For the activists in your life:

Staying healthy is not just about caring for oneself, but coming together to address social inequalities that destroy our environment and make us sick. Here are some books that inspire organization and social change: Workers’ Guide to Health and Safety, Health Actions for Women, and A Community Guide to Environmental Health.

A Sample of Hesperian:

If people in your life are interested in health but have never used a Hesperian book, introduce them to our materials with a booklet!  Booklets are an ideal gift for people working in specific health areas, such as Diabetes or Sanitation.

We hope this selection of Hesperian books helps you check holiday shopping off your to-do list so you can get around to making the coming year one of Health for All! Enjoy a holiday offer of 30% off all Hesperian print books now through January 2020. Enter the code “Holiday 30” at checkout to save!

The post Last Minute Gift Ideas and A Holiday Sale! appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Hesperian would like to introduce you to one of our youngest and most inspiring partners, Namfon Phonsouny. Namfon is a high school student who used her social networking skills to make women’s health information more accessible in Laos.

Namfon shared Hesperian’s Lao language booklets, translated by Health Leadership International, an organization that works on health care and capacity building for the Lao Ministry of Health, with her peers at school. And she convinced them to share the booklets with their parents, non-profit organizations, and other health advocates in Laos. These booklets eventually made their way to The United Nations Population Fund. The UNPFA-Laos reached out to Hesperian to find out how they could use the booklets in a program designed to educate Lao girls and young women aged 10-19.

Because Namfon was already making great progress in sharing these booklets, we connected her to UNFPA Laos. Yes, a high school student collaborating with a UN organization!

Namfon boldly accepted the task of facilitating distribution of Hesperian’s booklets, working with UNFPA-Laos to bring these booklets from the capital of Vientiane into rural Lao villages. Her efforts will result in thousands of girls learning about reproductive health, menstruation, birth control, nutrition, diabetes, cancer and other women’s health topics – in their own language. This project has been a wonderful way for Namfon to experience community-based health care and the values of Hesperian first-hand. She has decided to pursue an education in medicine to eventually become a doctor. Hesperian is thrilled to discover another partner who will help us achieve our common goal of getting health information to as many people as possible, in as many languages as possible.

The post Teen shares information about reproductive health in Laos appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Find Hesperian at these APHA sessions and events: 

Sunday, November 3
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm @ PCC Hall: AB | Session 4214.3
Section: Public Health Social Work | Poster on Global Health: “Holistic Approaches to Support Children with HIV in Low Resource Communities” with Todd Jailer

Monday, November 4
10:30 am to 12:00 pm at PCC Hall: 111B | Session 3178
Section: Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) | Roundtable: “Family Planning Mobile App: Interactive Counseling Tool for Frontline Health Workers” with Sarah Shannon

Monday, November 4
3:00 to 4:30 pm at PCC Hall Mix and Mingle Lounge
Meet-up at Mix and Mingle Lounge with Sarah Shannon and Todd Jailer

Monday, November 4
7:30pm, location TBD
People’s Health Movement Gathering

Tuesday, November 5
10:00am at PCC Hall Headquarters 
Immigration Demonstration from Pennsylvania Convention Center (Cherry & 11th) to Philadelphia ICE Headquarters (114 N 8th) with APHA “Troublemakers” Group

Tuesday, November 5
1:00 to 2:20 pm at PCC Hall: 118C | Session 4239
Section: Community Health Workers | Roundtable: “Supporting Whole-Child Approaches to Help Children with HIV” with Todd Jailer

Tuesday, November 5
1:00 to 2:30 pm at PCC Hall: 112A | Session 4279
Section: Sexual and Reproductive Health | Oral Presentation: “Multilingual Safe Abortion Mobile App to Defend Women’s Health” with Sarah Shannon

Tuesday, November 5
3:00 to 4:30 pm at PCC Hall Mix and Mingle Lounge
Meet-up at Mix and Mingle Lounge with Sarah Shannon and Todd Jailer

Tuesday, November 5
5:00 to 6:30pm at PCC: 123 | Session 4409
Section: International Health | Presentation: “Collaborative and Iterative Process Supports Adaptation, Scalability and Sustainability of Reproductive Health Apps” with Todd Jailer

Tuesday, November 5
6:30 to 8:00 pm at PCC Hall | Session 445
Section: International Health | International Health Section Reception and Awards with Sarah Shannon and Todd Jailer

Wednesday, November 6
10:30 am to 12:00 pm at PCC: 123 | Session 5089
Section: International Health | “Practical Community-Based Actions: Promoting People’s Health, Protecting Planetary Health and Fostering Climate Change Mitigation” with Sarah Shannon

We hope to see you there!

The post See you in Philadelphia at the APHA! appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Many of us have been tongue-tied when trying to discuss loss and grief with the young ones in our lives. We might have trouble comprehending these concepts ourselves or fear that speaking to children about these harsh realities will spoil their innocence. For children affected by HIV, death and grief can envelope them before their families even have a chance to say a word.

Children affected by HIV are confronted by feelings of loss before they know how to define the word. Losing parents, siblings, friends, and sometimes a home can leave them devoid of all hope. For HIV-infected children, the experience of illness and never-ending medical care can make them feel like their identity is slipping away with everything else. Because parents and caregivers are often dealing with many of the same problems, it is understandably difficult for them to provide the kind of support that children need to overcome life’s challenges. Families and communities affected by HIV require support and guidance to be able to talk to children about illness and loss, especially when they themselves are going through the grieving process. 

Here’s the good news: Hesperian Health Guides’ new book, Helping Children Live With HIV, includes a variety of ideas for communicating with children — both in words and in actions — to help them deal with loss and the feelings that accompany it. The material is organized by age group, to cater to children’s needs in every phase of their lives.

In 2019, people with HIV can not only survive, but lead long and healthy lives. Medicines are more effective and accessible. Fewer people are dying than before and more people understand the cause of the infection. Children with HIV do especially well on treatment, and given good physical and emotional support, can continue to thrive while having HIV.

In almost every community, we are learning how to support children who are hurting because of illness, death, displacement, or violence. Hesperian strongly suggests that families look for a support group to connect with and learn from others dealing with the same challenges. Access to practical, adaptable information, and a support network gives families the best chance to help children heal from their traumas and grow up to be strong enough to face what comes.

The post A Guide Through Grief appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Working at Hesperian, we are privileged to meet amazing people who are defining the future of this country with their positive actions. They are activists, young and old, who tirelessly organize and mobilize. Who provide food and shelter for the hungry and homeless. Who fight for decent wages and working conditions for all workers. Who protect our waters, our forests and our mountains. Who bring compassion and understanding to the unrooted spaces of violence where it is most needed. Who create social and technological solutions to poverty that recognize the centrality of human interaction.

Like our former-staff member Dorothy Tegeler, who co-founded the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP) to provide legal aid to people wrongfully denied asylum in the United States, working in tandem with other groups like Kids in Need of Defense and Immigration Advocates Network and others to respond to the family separation crisis at the border.

Like our late board member, Davida Coady, who, after devoting her life’s work to international health, saw a need in her community and created Options Recovery Services to respond with compassion and support to the growing number of people with drug and alcohol dependency.

Like Ai-jen Poo, Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and the incredible team of activists who launched the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights to extend labor protections to people who work in homes. They are fighting for laws on both federal and state levels and recently won rights for domestic workers in PA!

Like the 4-state coalition mobilizing for a full ban on fracking in the Delaware River Basin (affecting New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware) to protect the drinking water source for millions in the Northeast. The coalition includes Food & Water Watch, Clean Water Action NJ, Delaware Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Like Laurie Roberts of the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund, which provides truly comprehensive reproductive health support for people who don’t want to get pregnant (with free emergency contraception and community-based sex-ed), people who want to interrupt a pregnancy, people who need help with infant care (diapers! strollers), and just launched a program to provide free menstruation supplies.

And the list goes on and on…

This is the country we honor and celebrate. A place that uplifts, that recognizes diversity, that works for social good and justice.

This is who we follow, whose voices we amplify, whom we partner with to create a library of print resources, a digital platform of health content, free apps, and so much more.

Do good, and let us know how we can help your work!
Happy 4th of July!

The post This is Our America appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Hesperian staff, like many of our partners and colleagues who are health professionals or health activists, are both saddened and angered by the most recent attacks on women’s rights to basic health in the U.S.

Hesperian has always recognized how essential women’s health issues are to the health of every member of every community. So women’s rights and dignity are central to everything Hesperian develops and publishes.

In this critical moment, when the obviousness of that is made to sound like a radical position, we are sharing our resources ever more widely to support, demystify, organize, help, and equip all people, groups, and movements with information for action on women’s health.

App: Safe Abortion

Our free and multilingual Safe Abortion app offers clear and reliable information about different types of abortion, what to expect with each type, and answers to common questions so that every person can make decisions that are right for them.

• You can preview the app here.
  
• Download now on GooglePlay or iTunes.
• Share directly on Facebook and Twitter.

Healthwiki: Prevent Deaths from Unsafe Abortion, Health Actions for Women

A woman shouldn’t die because she doesn’t want to be pregnant. This chapter, part of Health Actions for Women, an activity-packed resource to organize to promote women’s health, offers tools for groups to address women’s lack of birth control, tackle other causes of unintended pregnancy, reflect on why some women choose abortions, and ensure abortions are safe.

• Read in Hesperian’s free Healthwiki, in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Khmer.
• Buy Health Actions for Women to use or share.
• Share directly on Facebook and Twitter.

Healthwiki: Helping a Woman after a Pregnancy Ends Early in A Book for Midwives

Pregnancy ends by choice (abortion) or from other causes (miscarriage). Women need access to compassionate care after pregnancy ends and this chapter offers guidance.

• Read in Hesperian’s free Healthwiki in English and Spanish.
• Buy A Book for Midwives to use or share.
• Share directly on Facebook and Twitter.

Healthwiki: Emergency Family Planning (ECP, emergency contraceptive pills), part of the NEW Where There is No Doctor

Prevent pregnancy by using emergency contraception within 5 days of having unprotected sex. This chapter offers information on how to use the morning-after pill, as well as regular birth control pills, for emergency contraception.

• Read in Hesperian’s free Healthwiki, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Kiswahili, Kreyol, Khmer, Bangla, and Lao.
• Share directly on Facebook and Twitter.

App: Family Planning

Our free and multilingual Family Planning  app helps you get informed about all your options on contraceptive options, find out the best method for you with the “Method Chooser,” and learn to help others who need this information.

• Preview the app here
  
• Download now on GooglePlay. Contact us for Apple (iOS)
• Share directly on Facebook and Twitter.

Books: Comprehensive women’s health information

There is so much misinformation about women’s bodies. Hesperian’s women’s health library offers easy-to-understand information on women’s health, written for both the person and the provider supporting them. Get these books & share them with others who might need them.

• Buy Where Women Have No Doctor
• Buy A Book for Midwives
• Buy A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities
• Buy Health Actions for Women

Action: Donate to send books to women’s groups and health clinics in the US

Stretch across state borders to lend a hand to a person or group supporting women’s health access. Donate to the Gratis Project to send free women’s health resources to people who most need them in states where women’s health access is under attack.

• Support now!
• Share on Facebook and Twitter.

Action: Request FREE books on women’s reproductive health

Is your group working with people in the US in urgent need of our women’s health resources?

• Fill out this form to apply for free books!
• Share directly on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks to your help and support, we can save lives by putting clear and concise health information in the hands of women in need right here in the US. We encourage you to spread the word about Hesperian’s new program, and stay tuned for more updates to what we’re doing to help women everywhere!

The post Protecting Women’s Health: Information & Actions appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

For example: Despite access to a proven safe vaccine, global measles cases rose by 30% between 2016 and 2017. In the U.S. alone, there has been a 25 year record in reported measles cases: 704 in this year alone. WHO estimates that vaccines save between 2 and 3 million lives each year. But “vaccine hesitancy” – being unwilling or refusing to vaccinate – is still a major barrier for public health workers around the world.

One would think that the positive effects of vaccines – the end of smallpox, prevention of tetanus and other formerly widespread problems – would be convincing enough. And vaccines are still making news: 2019 may be a historic year for Pakistan, a country well on the way to completely eradicating polio, thanks to energetic pro-vaccination campaigning. Newer vaccines, like those for HPV and Ebola, have world-changing potential.

So why do some parents choose not to vaccinate their children? Clearly they love their children and are acting with the best of intentions. They may have incomplete information. They may fear a connection between autism and vaccination – a widespread claim but one without scientific evidence to support it. More understandably, they may distrust programs administered by their anti-democratic or corrupt governments. And distrust of the large drug companies that produce vaccines is not delusional, but a logical response to the behavior of the pharmaceutical industry.

While we wholeheartedly support vaccination as one of the most basic investments that we can make in the health of our families and communities, let’s stop vilifying the anti-vaxxers. Until we are able to inoculate against corporate greed and governmental corruption, there will always be some misdirected resistance.

The post New Chapter on Our HealthWiki: Vaccinations appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

With deep sadness we share the news that Dr. Amit Sengupta, a pillar for public health advocacy in India and close colleague of Hesperian Health Guides through his leadership in the People’s Health Movement, died in a swimming accident in Goa, India on Wednesday November 28 at the age of 60. A memorial will be held in Delhi on December 9.

Amit was a founding member of the People’s Health Movement (PHM) in 2000. He was the Associate Global Coordinator of PHM and coordinated the editorial group of the Global Health Watch and the WHO Watch. He was Co-Convenor of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), the Indian chapter of PHM, and served on PHM’s Global Steering Council. He played a key role in the recently concluded People’s Health Assembly in Dhaka, where more than 1400 people from 73 countries came together to share their struggles and plan for coordinated global action for health and social justice.

Professor of Health System Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Studies in Mumbai, T. Sundararaman said of Amit, “He gave voice to and amplified people’s struggles for healthcare from all over the place on the international arena – giving them the platform and making sure their voices are fed into the network.”

Trained as a medical doctor, Amit dedicated his life to the struggle for universal access to health, and worked on issues related to public health, pharmaceuticals policy and intellectual property rights. He led several research projects in the area of public health and medicines policy, and was associated with several civil society platforms and networks, including the All India People’s Science Network.  

Amit wrote regularly for journals and newspapers across India and the world.  Much of his work focused on the impact of globalization and privatization. He wrote about the underlying causes of the struggle for healthcare. In 2015, he cautioned against India relying on the private sector for healthcare and this year he warned about institutional corruption in Universal Health Coverage.

Having worked closely with Amit for nearly 10 years while we served together on the PHM Global Steering Council, I came to deeply appreciate his enormous political, organizational and leadership capacity, and enjoyed his honesty and wry humor.

He leaves a wonderful legacy to the many people around the world who knew him. Inspired by his steadfast commitment to a just and equitable world, we will carry forward Amit’s mission of strengthening the public health movement towards health for all.

The post Dr. Amit Sengupta, a Leader for Public Health, Passed Away at the Age of 60 appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Diabetes is on the rise everywhere, especially in low- and middle-income countries where needed health care and medicines are much harder to access, and reliable information is hard to find. Diabetes is a manageable disease, but without these resources it can result in serious conditions including kidney failure, stroke, heart disease, vision loss and neuropathy.

Medication is often an important part of treating diabetes, and regular visits to a doctor and optometrist can catch complications early on. But people can do much on their own to improve their health and prevent problems. Eating healthy, exercising often, reducing stress, and not smoking can be viable ways to better manage diabetes, with or without adequate access to medical care.

Where there are few doctors or unreliable access to diabetes medications, it motivates people to understand exactly how such lifestyle behaviors help avoid or manage diabetes. And even so, it takes creativity to eat right and exercise enough when good food is expensive or the streets are not safe. That’s why the work of health educators is so important — by sharing prevention strategies, self-care advice and management skills that match real life conditions, they make a critical difference.

To help health educators, people living with diabetes, and caregivers or families of people with diabetes, Hesperian’s information is now available as a 52-page booklet. Diabetes: Beyond the Basics provides information on the causes, signs and symptoms of diabetes, and how to best manage it. It addresses the social factors of the disease, suggests strategies for community engagement, explains common medicines, and includes thoughtful discussion questions to facilitate both health educator and self-help groups. Bulk discount prices are available for purchases of ten or more copies.

The post Spread knowledge this World Diabetes Day appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Hesperian is participating in these APHA sessions and events:

Sunday, November 11
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm @ San Diego Convention Center (SDCC) Exhibit Hall, Booth 1216 | Reception: Global Health Watch 5 / People’s Health Movement — refreshments provided

Monday, November 12
10:30 am – 12:00 pm @ SDCC, Room 28B | Panel: “Practical, Actionable Tools to Organize Against Sexual Harassment in Global Export Factories” with Miriam Lara-Mejia

1:00 pm – 2:30 pm @ SDCC, Room 9 | Panel “Using Practical, Actionable Tools to Address Workplace Sexual Harassment in Global Export Factories” with Miriam Lara-Mejia

4:00 pm – 5:30 pm @ SDCC Exhibit Hall, Booth 1216 | Reception: Celebrate Hesperian’s New Spanish Language Titles: Guía práctica para promover la salud de las mujeres and De la compasión a la acción: Prácticas comunitarias de Latino Health Access — refreshments provided

Tuesday, November 13
10:30 am – 12:00 pm @ SDCC, Room 28C | “Engaging Communities in Latin America to Improve Women’s Health” with Miriam Lara-Mejia

1:00 pm – 2:30 pm @ SDCC, Room 26A | “Defending Women’s Rights in the Context of the Global Gag Rule” moderated by Sarah Shannon

1:00 pm – 2:30 pm @ SDCC, Room 30B | “Bangladesh Accord: Case Study of How to Improve Working Conditions in Global Supply Chains” with Garrett Brown

1:00 pm – 2:30 pm @ Hilton Bayfront, Room Aqua 314 | “Safe Abortion Mobile App Helps Defend Women’s Reproductive Rights in Context of Global Gag Rule” with Lori Berenson

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm @ SDCC, Room 9 | “Social Movements Resisting Privatization of Health Services” with Leigh Haynes

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm @ Hilton Bayfront, Indigo Ballroom E | “Actionable Tools to Expand the Capacity of CHWs to Respond to Diabetes in Immigrant Populations” with Lori Berenson

4:00 pm – 4:45 pm @ SDCC, Hall A/C | APHA Industry Expert Theater: “Creating Knowledge for Action” with Miriam Lara-Mejia

5:00 pm – 6:30 pm @ SDCC, Room11B | “No More Rana Plazas! OHS Training for Bangladeshi Workers” with Garrett Brown

Wednesday, November 14
8:30 am – 10:00 am @ SDCC, Room 23A | “Outcome Mapping to Measure the Impacts of Public Health Education Interventions” with Sarah Shannon

We hope to see you there!

The post See you in San Diego at APHA appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Este año, pondremos un vaso de agua y una flor de cempasúchil en nuestra ofrenda en honor a las siguientes personas:

Davida Coady – EEUU

Guerrera incansable por la salud, Davida impartió su enfoque y esfuerzos en zonas de guerra, campos de refugiados, barrios marginales urbanos y aldeas remotas en más de 30 países. Sus logros duraderos también incluyen el establecimiento de clínicas para inmigrantes y trabajadores agrícolas y programas de recuperación del alcoholismo en los Estados Unidos, además de que fue ella quien nos inspiró a desarrollar tantos de nuestros materiales. Hasta sus 80 años de vida vivió por el lema: El mayor bien para el mayor número de personas.

Los que buscaban una mejor vida del otro lado de la frontera

De las 147 personas que fallecieron cruzando la frontera hacia los Estados Unidos el año pasado, solo 25 fueron identificadas y repatriadas para que sus familiares les lloren. Sin saber sus vidas o ni siquiera sus nombres, sabemos de la increíble necesidad que impulsa a las personas a hacer un viaje tan peligroso. Recordamos no solo a aquellas personas que han perdido la vida cruzando la frontera entre México y EEUU, pero los muchos que han perdido la vida en las otras fronteras que han tenido que cruzar y en el arduo camino que andaron.

La Dra. Fee fue una destacada historiadora de salud pública, cuyas trayectorias personales y profesionales la condujeron a siempre destacar las dinámicas de poder que existen e influencian la salud pública. Luchó incansablemente a favor de la justicia social y fue una de las fundadoras de la asamblea “Espí­ritu de 1848” dentro de la Asociación Americana por la Salud Pública (APHA, por sus siglas en inglés), una red de activistas que luchan por eliminar las desigualdades sociales que afectan la salud.

Como fundadora de la organización Red de Mujeres Ixiles en Guatemala, Juana tenía la fortuna de ser quien le daba la bienvenida a las nuevas vidas. En su papel de comadrona, su enfoque siempre fue apoyar a su comunidad y fomentar los derechos básicos de las mujeres indígenas. Por ella y por tantas comadronas no solo dando un importante servicio pero abogando por la dignidad y los derechos de las mujeres, es que en Hesperian desarrollamos tantos materiales sobre el embarazo y el partoen español e inglés (¡y muchos idiomas más!).

The post Celebremos a las personas que hicieron tanto en vida appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

More and more communities are being ravaged by the impacts of a warming world and the strain on basic resources like clean water and clean air which should be guaranteed to all. But in poor communities around the world, the lack of basic water and sanitation results in more water-borne infections and illness. That is why ensuring access to affordable sanitation is an essential public health and development goal.

In Mozambique, Feliciano dos Santos and his colleagues in Estamos have faced these challenges by training and empowering people to rise from poverty, to organize collectively for clean water and safe, composting toilets, and to make development sustainable by promoting equality.

Through music, peer-to-peer groups, innovative technologies, and more, Santos and Estamos bring sustainable sanitation to the furthest corners of Mozambique, working directly with villagers to promote community sanitation, sustainable agriculture, reforestation, and innovative HIV/AIDS initiatives.

Join Hesperian for hors d’oeuvres and to hear Feliciano speak this Monday, September 10th, at 5:30pm. He will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the book he translated into Portuguese, A Community Guide to Environmental Health, now in 5 languages. And we will celebrate Santos receiving the Climate Trailblazer award at this year’s Global Climate Action Summit.

For more details and to RSVP, please visit the event page.

The post Water, sanitation, and environmental action in Mozambique appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Hesperian piloted an initial Latin America based print run of 200 copies of Guía práctica para promover la salud de las mujeres in Guatemala. That way, a large number of copies became immediately available in a country where there are many exciting grassroots initiatives and where Hesperian enjoys close and long-term ties. On August 2, 2018 Hesperian co-sponsored a book launch event in Guatemala City with about 100 attendees.

Featured speakers included Lucrecia Hernández Mack, a visionary who made valiant attempts to reform Guatemala’s troubled public health sector during her recent 1-year tenure as Minister of Health and Elsa Rabanales, a young and dynamic organizer with the rural indigenous women’s network Actoras de Cambio based in Guatemala’s indigenous highlands region. Other indigenous women’s groups, health-focused and youth groups, university students and faculty, and UN organization representatives were present and the attendees stayed for the Q&A and discussion section of the dynamic event. Articles before and after the event appeared in the local press, read them in Spanish here:

• Guía para la salud de mujeres de diferentes culturas
• Comunidades movilizadas promoviendo la salud de mujeres y niñas

This exciting launch of the new Spanish translation of Health Actions for Women was successful thanks to the collective effort of many individuals and organizations. Hesperian looks forward to another collaboration with The Public Health Institute and GOJoven International to celebrate the book’s release this Thursday August 23rd in Oakland, CA. There are a few tickets left for this Thursday’s free event — get yours here!

The post Mobilizing for women’s health appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

“No one is allowed inside the ICE detention facilities without very high-up clearance. It took U.S. Senator Cory Booker (NJ) to get inside and ask questions to get any information. He told us there are nurses, but no pediatricians for the 500-1000 children held in detention.

I am volunteering at the clinic here at the Respite Center. Firsthand accounts of immigrants whom have been released and come to the Respite Center say that conditions in the detention center are deplorable.

Women are not allowed to bathe their babies for days on end (the maximum I’ve heard was 10 days). As a result, skin infections are rampant and nutrition is terrible: one bottle of water, an apple, and a bag of chips per day.

The guards have been separating people who are considered sick. They are put in rooms known as ‘cold boxes.’ Detainees are told this is ‘to kill the germs’.”

What Ashtyn told us is confirmed by others:

“I saw children malnourished, with respiratory infections and fevers. None of them received any antibiotics to treat bacterial infections,” said Dr. Aaron Bodansky, a Senior Resident in Pediatrics at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. “Others had severe diaper rashes as it appears many hadn’t had their diapers changed for a long time.”

Bodansky represents more than a hundred Texas pediatricians who are demanding that doctors be allowed to examine the children to catch problems before they become life-threatening and “avoid, for instance, respiratory infections that turn into pneumonia or meningitis.”

A woman who had been deported back to Guatemala told us:

“The treatment is awful and can turn brutal if people rebel. The temperature is like an ice house, it’s unbearable. In the cells, if there are a lot of people, they have to take turns standing up, there’s not enough room for everyone to sit.

Each cell has one toilet and one sink. They refuse to let you wash with that water. A woman tried so they punished her by taking her mylar ‘space blanket’ that night.

Some people had been there for months because they wanted to get a hearing. Most of them were malnourished.”

The more information on border conditions is revealed, the more outrage there is. This weekend, over 700 demonstrations involving hundreds of thousands of people called for an end to family separation and to the criminalization of seeking asylum. Sadly, demanding respect for even the most basic human rights of migrants has become necessary too.

Ashtyn finished our conversation saying:

“The Respite Center is working on getting the local medical school to provide 7 days a week coverage. But people are more concerned about the next step — getting medical care for the immigrants being bused to dozens of ‘destination cities’ around the country. This is the task for volunteer medical professionals: to provide free, confidential care for immigrants abused and traumatized by ICE who have been dispersed to the four corners of the US.”

Funds to support the work of the Respite Center of the Rio Grande Valley can be donated online.

Hesperian is sending free Spanish and English language materials to people working with immigrants. Support this initiative by donating to our Gratis Book Program.

The post ICE harms immigrants’ health appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Ursula detention center in McAllen, Texas is the largest Customs and Border Protection detention center for undocumented migrants in the United States. The facility is a converted warehouse, able to house 1,000 children and adults. As of June 17th, 1,129 people were being held at Ursula in large, chain-link cages. 

A pre-med student volunteering with immigrants released from Ursula writes:

We are in dire need of persons with any degree of medical training to administer immediate aid. I have been trying to triage patient needs as best I can. My biggest concerns are immediate address of dehydration (which can induce fever, headache, stomach pain, and impede healing), wounds which have not been assessed and treated for weeks during travel, and communicable disease (so far, lots of viral infections such as flu, chicken pox, and even measles).

We have many pregnant women arriving here. Some as far along as 8 months. I’m trying to quarantine the measles.

I treated a four-year-old holding her 6-month-old baby sister, both for fever and cough. There was no one with them.

On a personal note, the devastation here is more than I could have ever understood without physically being here. I am a Texas native and not even the rest of the city is aware of what is happening in these detention centers and with border patrol, let alone the country.

                                            Central processing station, Ursula detention center, McAllen, TX

Hesperian has always stood for health, rights, and dignity of all people and especially people who are marginalized, including migrants and refugees. What we hear from the border and see on the news makes us sick.

The unauthorized and illegal taking of thousands of children on the border is both infuriating and heart-wrenching, and we join the efforts of myriad organizations to demand the reunification of immigrant families, the establishment of legal and dignified processes for people seeking asylum and the recognition of the basic human rights — including the right to health — of those confronting the most artificial of all divisions: political borders.

Detained children lying on matresses within a caged area at Ursula detention center, McAllen, TX.

Do you speak languages other than English?

Various organizations, like the Texas Civil Rights Project, are seeking volunteers that can help with translation and interpretation in Spanish, but also in Mam, K’iche’ and Q’echi’. And our health information is available freely on our HealthWiki in Spanish and 17 other languages. Please use it.

Do you know the law?
The United States Bar Association has a list of organizations looking for volunteers with legal experience.

Do you know about health?
The National Nurses United union is looking for volunteers to offer services to detained children. Hesperian’s health information about first aid, caring for children with disabilities, and the emotional and social development of children could be useful resources for your health work.

The Humanitarian Respite Center of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley provides services to immigrants, including those released from detention. As the quote at the beginning of this note mentions, they need medical volunteers and supplies.

Do you want to make a gift?
One of the organizations directly serving families that have been separated is RAICES. You can also make one donation through Act Blue, and they will divide it equally among the 14 most involved organizations.

Do you live in the United States?
Mobilize! Call your representatives in the Senate. Tell your relatives and acquaintances what’s happening and how to help. Share this information on your social networks.
And above all, vote for candidates that are in favor of the health and rights of all children.

The post Border detentions: Institutionalized abuse appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Ashok Bhurtyal, a community health worker in Nepal, shares his experiences using Where There Is No Doctor and describes the impact it had on his life.

My encounter with Where There Is No Doctor dates back to my early childhood when my father introduced the book as one of the most ground-breaking works ever done in the field of health or medicine. He used to treat our minor medical problems through the home remedies suggested in the book. It worked! No one in my neighbourhood or the hospital staff (including acclaimed pediatricians, Nepali as well as international) believed that I would survive my early childhood illnesses compounded by very severe malnutrition. Luckily I got the opportunity to live, and today many of my neighbours look at me as if some miracle did happen.

Local villagers with community health workers in Nepal

After two and half decades, I caught Jaundice (infectious hepatitis). I was a second year student, earning my Bachelor’s in Public Health at the Institute of Medicine (IoM) in Nepal. I was was walking in Nuwakot to help public school secondary students, when I felt I was getting very sick. I continued the walk until I could not bear it any longer and fell off with frequent bouts of vomiting. Somehow, I managed to come back to Kathmandu.

Back at the IoM hostel, my friends suggested I go to the Teaching Hospital and get my bilurubin levels tested to confirm jaundice. I went for testing, but the hospital staff lost my blood sample. Furious, I never went back to any hospital. My friends (some of whom were already practicing medicine) suggested strict diet control, especially for salt and oily foods. They advised that I quit eating salt altogether! The next seven days, I stayed in my home and lived only on boiled pumpkin.

I wanted to see what was written in Where There Is No Doctor about jaundice. I still had the very same book which my father used to show us in our childhood. The old and torn book mentioned that you can have small amount of salt, low fat, and even boiled eggs or boiled meat when suffering from jaundice. I was excited, and started back on normal foods, though I was cautious not to put extra pressure on my liver. I recovered! After some weeks I made a recovery check by drinking some beer.

Women’s health workshop in Nepal, hosted by RHEST, a Hesperian field-testing and translations partner.

In 2005, I led a group of medical students volunteering to support public school children and local health workers in the Mali village development community in Dolakha.This was the same village where we went for community diagnosis in 2003, and I felt an obligation that we have to give back to the people. We brought Where There Is No Doctor and trained the students and health workers how to treat medical problems at home or in their health posts.

Nepali women participate in a field-testing group for “Health Actions for Women”, facilitated by RHEST.

I also got a copy of the Nepali edition of Where Women Have No Doctor from the public library. I gave it to my mother, who was suffering from post-menopausal health problems. The book taught her several actions to improve her health that she adopted. Again, it worked!

The post Hesperian books helped me throughout my life appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Longtime Hesperian board member, advocate, and public health hero Davida Coady took her last breath on May 3rd. On Hesperian’s board for 27 years, Davida actively built connections with social justice movements, myriad grassroots health organizations in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti, Bangladesh, India, Uganda, Ethiopia, and the Philippines, as well as with high-level staff at the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the UNDP. In 1993 she rescued Hesperian and led its rebuilding in the ensuing years. Among her many contributions she inspired Hesperian to expand its work into creating accessible, encouraging, and practical information on women’s health.

Davida led an astounding life, pursuing health and justice on every continent, providing direct service to refugees and people in struggle, and achieved more in one lifetime than seems humanly possible. Her life is beautifully memorialized in this obituary in the New York Times.

Davida with her husband, Tom

Trained as a pediatrician at Columbia University when that medical school limited women to 10% of the class, Davida’s life in public health spanned several generations. She worked on internationally coordinated campaigns, such as the eradication of smallpox and the establishment of nutritional guidelines in humanitarian emergencies, as well as the daily emergencies of poverty. In California, she helped establish the network of United Farm Worker clinics, the Venice Family Clinic — the largest free clinic in the USA, and was Medical Director for the Berkeley Free Clinic until her diagnosis of cancer.

While working at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, Davida realized that many of the problems she saw in children were caused by the drug and alcohol dependency of their parents. She began focusing on providing recovery services and housing for people in poverty, most of whom lacked access to any health services at all.

Image taken from the cover of The Greatest Good.

In her final months, Davida finished her memoir The Greatest Good, now available from Hesperian, that details her life in the service of health justice, achieving “the greatest good for the greatest number of people”.

Davida Coady also founded the San Carlos Foundation and Options Recovery Services, a drug and alcohol recovery program open to everyone, regardless of ability to pay.

Davida acted globally, locally, and personally to touch so many lives. Remember her work by carrying it on. To make a memorial donation to Hesperian in Davida’s honor, please do so here.

An ecumenical memorial service and reception will be held on June 7, 2018 at 11 am at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, Berkeley, California.

The post Remembering Dr. Davida Coady appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Una semana después de celebrar su cumpleaños número 80, Davida y su esposo Tom Gorham, decidieron no continuar el tratamiento contra el cáncer. Davida falleció pacíficamente en el hospicio de Bruns House en Alamo, donde Tom estuvo de vigilia junto a amistades de la pareja.

Davida fundó Options Recovery Services, un innovador centro de tratamiento de adicciones que ha ayudado a más de 10.000 personas a obtener la sobriedad. Tom se convirtió en uno de los primeros clientes del programa después de más de una década de adicción, y ahora es el director ejecutivo.

Al vincular la atención médica práctica con la salud pública, Davida fue de las primeras personas en responder a las crisis humanitarias en Biafra, Bangladesh, Camboya, India y Centroamérica, al igual que dentro de los Estados Unidos. En un resumen de sus memorias publicadas recientemente descubrimos que: “De regreso a los Estados Unidos, Davida construyó la Clínica Familiar de Venecia, California, la clínica gratuita más grande del país; ayudó a César Chávez a establecer un nuevo sistema de salud para trabajadores agrícolas; y marchó junto a Dan Berrigan, Pete Seeger y Martin Sheen” en contra de la Escuela de las Américas.

Davida y su esposo Tom

Antes de ingresar al hospicio, Davida fue atendida en el Centro Médico Sutter Alta Bates Summit, en Oakland. Entre sus visitantes estaba Martin Sheen y su esposa Janet. Desde que el actor y activista fue referido a la Dra. Coady para recibir vacunas antes de viajar a África hace casi cuatro décadas, ambos han colaborado en una amplia gama de esfuerzos de protesta y solidaridad. Sheen terminó sirviendo como presidente honorario de Options y vicepresidente de la Fundación San Carlos, la cual Davida comenzó con el objeto de ayudar a las personas que viven en la pobreza extrema.

En su visita en abril, Sheen le leyó a Davida partes de la memoria que ella escribió, The Greatest Good (disponible en inglés). El libro narra una vida de aventuras llena de logros, desilusiones y una amistad duradera. Sus amigos no se sorprenderán por el enfoque obstinado, la sorprendente generosidad, el juicio incisivo y el humor autodestructivo que se exhiben en sus páginas.

Nacida Davida Elizabeth Taylor en el Hospital Alta Bates el 15 de abril de 1938, Davida fue nombrada por sus padres, David Taylor, un minero del carbón que emigró de Escocia, y Elizabeth Perry, quien creció en el Distrito de la Misión de San Francisco. Hija única, Davida creció en una casa de tres cuartos en Berkeley. La familia asistía a la Iglesia Comunitaria Northbrae, donde el pastor citó el consejo de John Stuart Mill de buscar “el mayor bien para la mayor cantidad de personas”. Davida dijo que esas palabras “se quedaron conmigo… y guiaron toda mi vida adulta”.

De la tapa de The Greatest Good

Davida encontró que las clases universitarias en el Colegio del Pacífico eran más fáciles para ella que la escuela secundaria que había cursado en Berkeley High School. Inspirada por dos médicos que durante el verano dirigían un campamento para tratar la diabetes en el cual Davida trabajó como consejera, ella cambió su carrera de música a pre-medicina. En su último año universitario, Davida hizo su primer viaje fuera de California, un viaje en autobús de campo traviesa para entrevistarse en la facultad de medicina de la Universidad de Columbia en Nueva York. Ella fue admitida, pero al principio batalló y tuvo que repetir el primer año de la carrera. Se graduó en 1965 y fue destacada en la edición del 2016 de la revista de exalumnos por su “carrera dedicada al cuidado de niños desfavorecidos, personas refugiadas, personas con adicciones y otras con problemas de vida”.

Davida se inició como pediatra, pero las especialidades en medicina no eran el enfoque en los países en desarrollo. “Si eres médico”, escribió, “tienes que hacer todo tipo de medicina”. Ella decía que su habilidad como cirujana venía de las clases de costura que tomó a una edad temprana. Un semestre en África y después en Haití y Guatemala intensificaron su compromiso hacia la salud internacional, y la convencieron a obtener una maestría en salud pública de Harvard en 1969.

Mientras cuidaba a las víctimas de la Guerra Civil nigeriana en Biafra, Davida conoció a una estudiante de medicina llamada Patricia Dike. Con las tropas nigerianas acercándose, Davida le prometió a Patricia que si salían con vida, la llevaría a los EE. UU. y le pagaría su estudios. Davida cumplió su palabra y Patricia ahora de desempeña como pediatra en Houston. Ella visitó a Davida dos veces en los meses previos a su muerte.

Después de un par de años en Bangladesh y la India, Davida conoció a un sacerdote católico irlandés llamado Patrick Coady. Él dejó el sacerdocio y se casaron en la iglesia de la infancia de Davida. Pero tanto ella como Patrick bebían mucho y su matrimonio no duró. Después de su divorcio, Davida regresó a la India y trabajó con la Madre Teresa, quien la invitó a convertirse en su directora médica y en monja. Davida consideró ambas opciones, pero decidió que su futuro a largo plazo estaba en otra parte.

En los años 80, Davida se involucró en los esfuerzos para resistir los regímenes represivos en Centroamérica. Entre sus aliados estaba el padre Bill O’Donnell, pastor de la iglesia católica St. Joseph the Worker en Berkeley. El padre O’Donnell fue arrestado unas 250 veces por su activismo de protesta, y Davida unas 50 veces.

Rev. Bill O’Donnell, Davida Coady, M.D., Pete Seeger, Martin Sheen, Dan Berrigan, S.J., John Dear, S.J. protestando en la Escuela de las Américas. Photo: Cortesía de familia de Coady.

En 1981, Davida encontró un libro llamado Donde no hay doctor, una guía de salud sencilla y clara que cualquier persona podría usar: un enfoque a la medicina comunitaria que correspondía con el suyo. Compró docenas de copias para distribuir entre los trabajadores humanitarios y se unió a la junta directiva de la editorial, conocida ahora como Hesperian-Guías de salud.

A lo largo de su vida, Davida luchó contra el alcoholismo, pero en octubre de 1989, mientras estaba en una visita de solidaridad en los Territorios Palestinos, dejó de beber. La sobriedad y la lucha contra el alcoholismo marcaron su vida desde ese momento.

A mediados de los 90, Davida trabajó como pediatra de sala de emergencias en el Children’s Hospital de Oakland. Ella trató a muchas niñas y niños maltratados y notó que “todos los casos de maltrato físico infantil involucran alcohol o drogas.” Así que decidió enfocarse en el tratamiento de la adicción, una idea que salió cuando celebraba su cumpleaños con amigos en 1994. Al día siguiente, ella y un amigo se presentaron en el tribunal de Berkeley y hablaron con uno de los jueces sobre ayudar a referir personas de la cárcel a programas de tratamiento. En poco tiempo, Davida estaba trabajando como consejera de drogas y alcohol para la oficina de Salud Mental de Berkeley. Ese fue el comienzo de lo que se convertiría en Options Recovery Services.

El programa Options amplió su trabajo para incluir el sistema penitenciario de California en el 2006, y a través de los años este programa ha capacitado a cientos de presos para ser consejeros de tratamiento de adicciones certificados por el estado. Para cuando Thomas P. Gorham se presentó en Options, el excamionero llevaba 11 años sin hogar y había acumulado casi 300 arrestos y 47 estadías en la cárcel de Santa Rita. Cuando Davida y Tom se conocieron, una cosa llevó a la otra y en junio del 2002, Carol Brosnahan, la jueza de la Corte Superior del Condado de Alameda que había sentenciado a Tom a varias estancias en la cárcel, organizó un evento muy diferente: El matrimonio de Tom y Davida, presidido por el padre O’Donnell.

En sus memorias, Davida recuerda un momento tierno cuando recibía quimioterapia. Ella se despertó y vio a Tom a su lado y recuerda haber pensado: “Dios, la vida se ha vuelto tan buena”. Al concluir el capítulo titulado “Por qué lo hice todo”, Davida menciona la biografía de Aengus Finucane, un sacerdote irlandés con el que trabajó en África y Asia, que acababa de leer:

“Traté de vivir como Aengus nos dice: ’Haz todo lo que puedas, tan bien como puedas, para todos los que puedas, durante todo el tiempo que puedas’.”

(Este obituario fue publicado por Bill Mitchell en inglés y traducido por Balmore Cruz. Redactado para claridad.)

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95% of the world’s population is breathing unsafe air. According to a new report from the Health Effects Institute, people in developing countries are hit especially hard, with a one-two punch of polluted air outside and inside their homes. This Sunday, April 22nd, is Earth Day — a chance to take action to protect the environment and our health. You, or the organization you work for, can scale the enthusiasm of Earth Day by putting Hesperian’s A Community Guide to Environmental Health to use every day.

This book shows how to make small changes that generate big impacts. Sections on identifying air pollutants with low-cost techniques like a bucket brigade show how anyone can use simple equipment to find out what’s in the air they breathe, and then use that information to change the behavior of governments and polluting companies. This book includes simple, clearly written information on improving indoor ventilation, building stoves that don’t fill homes with smoke, and much more.

As the US Environmental Protection Agency rolls back standards on vehicle emissions, coal-burning power plants, and industrial air pollution, you can use A Community Guide to Environmental Health to prevent, monitor, and protect yourself and your community from the health problems caused by air pollution (and many other topics!).

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We’re going to SOPHE 2018, and hope to see you there! Editor Paula Worby, DrPH, MPH will present on Hesperian’s use of Outcome Mapping to evaluate the qualitative impact of health information and health education initiatives. Anyone interested in measuring hard to capture and multifactorial outcomes such as community empowerment won’t want to miss this session: Outcome Mapping: a Tool to Measure the Impact of community health education interventions, Concurrent Session B, Room: Delaware A/B, Wednesday, April 4: 4:15 – 5:45pm.

Paula will also present: Chemical safety information motivates and empowers low-wage immigrant women workers to take action to protect their health, Concurrent Session D, Room: Marion, Thursday, April 5: 1:00PM- 2:30PM. If you are interested in the intersection of occupational health and gender, this session is for you. Learn about Hesperian’s experience developing health materials for low-wage factory workers and how organizations in the US and globally are using these resources to build sustainable, local, worker-centered programs.

We are happy to offer special pricing on purchases made by SOPHE attendees. We will not be selling books at the conference, so be sure to visit our online bookstore or give us a call at (510) 845-4507. Have your department administrator or bookstore fulfillment department mention SOPHE for exclusive discounts! Individuals can save 20% with coupon code SOPHE2018.

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The Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services removed the bulk of its information on breast cancer from the government website. The Office on Women’s Health main page on breast cancer disappeared, along with fact sheets and information covering symptoms, treatment, risk factors, and public no- or low-cost cancer screening programs. The removal of this lifesaving information was neither announced nor explained, and the content has not been re-posted elsewhere.

While Hesperian cannot provide breast cancer screenings (how to access screenings was part of the information deleted), we can offer easy to understand information on this all too common cancer that affects 1 of every 8 women in the US, killing over 40,000 women each year.

In Where Women Have No Doctor, you can learn how to do a self-exam for breast cancer, as well as learn the warning signs for breast cancer. And in Health Actions for Women, you can learn how to organize advocacy campaigns to make sure that our governments and health services provide women with the health care we need. 

Another great resource is Breast Cancer Action, a fantastic advocacy organization working on preventing breast cancer, best known for their “Think Before You Pink” campaign.

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“The changing needs of the 21st Century mean nurses have an even greater role to play in the future. New and innovative types of services are needed — more community and home-based, more holistic and people-centred, with increased focus on prevention…”

This is the vision of Nursing Now, a new campaign launched to elevate the role of nurses and midwives to bring us closer to achieving the goal of universal health care by the year 2020.

The designers of this campaign call for global health systems to place greater value on nurses and midwives, the strong ties they have to their communities, and their unique ability to provide effective care. Nursing Now calls for more opportunities for nurses and midwives to receive education and training to strengthen their skills and capacity for care. Hesperian resources, such as A Book for Midwives, are a great, effective way for organizations to build out their training and continuing education programs for nurses and midwives in a culturally appropriate, respectful, and cost-effective way.

For years, practitioners have found just what they’re looking for in Hesperian materials. Amona Bukola, a nurse/midwife in Nigeria, says:

“[A Book for Midwives] has been very educative, practically oriented, resourceful, illustrative, captivating and indispensable to any professional health practitioner.”

Empower the nurses and midwives in your organizations with respectful, quality education by sharing A Book for Midwives and other midwifery resources from Hesperian and partner organizations, like the training sets developed by the American College of Nurse-Midwives — Home Based Life Saving Skills and Life-Saving Skills Manual for Midwives.

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Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugee women are suffering in crowded camps, with poor water and sanitation, trying to care for themselves and their children. Because rape is a weapon of the Myanmar military, thousands of Rohingya women are pregnant and in desperate need of reproductive care and other women’s health services. But in the refugee camps, women’s healthcare is minimal or nonexistent. For International Women’s Day, we’re asking aid organizations, health workers, volunteers, and everyone else supporting Rohingya women to use Hesperian books in your work. Where Women Have no Doctor and all of Hesperian’s other women’s health titles are on sale for the month of March with coupon code IWD18.

Refugee camp in Bangladesh for Rohingya refugees.

Where Women Have no Doctor contains lifesaving information to help understand, treat, and prevent health problems that affect women. In times of crisis, this book can empower women, program staff, refugee case workers, and others to support women struggling with mental and physical health issues. There are so many ways this book can be put to work in humanitarian settings. 

One interesting story comes from a midwife providing women’s health care during war: “I used Where Women Have no Doctor to train translators in Afghanistan and Iran. They were mostly young, unmarried men, knowing nothing about women’s health issues. It improved their vocabulary/knowledge and helped them become less shy when talking about these topics.”

Your organization can take advantage of this sale to purchase Where Women Have No Doctor to help meet the health needs of Rohingya women. Learn more about Hesperian’s work to support Rohingya women here.

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Worldwide, 80% of blindness and poor vision could be prevented or corrected. Many people with early stages of vision problems don’t seek care because they don’t recognize the symptoms, lack insurance, or have other more immediate concerns. Community health workers are uniquely placed to provide education around eye health, prevent problems from developing, and quickly treat common eye problems.

Problems with the Eyes and Seeing, a new Hesperian module just released on our HealthWiki, will help community health workers and others involved in primary care to identify eye and vision problems in a timely way, refer patients to higher levels of care, respond to eye injuries, and promote preventative eye health. Problems with the Eyes and Seeing was field-tested in The Gambia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Belize, and India. Field-test participants commented on how easy to use the material is and how important to community health worker training eye health should be.

A trainer from Hillside Hillside Health Care International in Belize wrote:

“Problems with the Eyes and Seeing identified eye conditions we had not even thought about, and provided more information than we expected. We are glad CHWs will get this training because eye health is often overlooked in both urban and rural communities. It is very informative, relatively easy to understand, culturally appropriate and user-friendly.”

The Problems with the Eyes and Seeing module is available for free on Hesperian’s HealthWiki. If you are interested in purchasing printed booklets for your work, helping with distribution or further translations, please contact us at hesperian@hesperian.org.

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Information about cancer — what causes it, how to prevent and treat it — saves lives. We can actually prevent up to 50% of all cancers (WHO), but prevention information is often too hard to understand for people, either using difficult vocabulary, out of context for their access to healthcare or living standards, or assuming they have choices that are foreign to their reality. Hesperian’s cancer module responds to this gap in prevention information by explaining terminology, treatments and types of cancer in a way that’s easy to understand and act upon, and it’s in 5 languages!

Why do 70% of global deaths from cancer happen in poor countries? Hesperian’s materials on cancer provide an analysis of why more cancer risks occur among people in poverty and what community health workers can do to prevent cancer. This great resource can be used for training about protection from carcinogens and pollutants, cancer identification, and treatment methods. People already facing cancer will learn information that helps them successfully engage with health systems.

The theme of World Cancer Day 2018 is to explore how each of us can do something to reduce cancer’s impact. Use this module to spread knowledge about cancer and encourage and promote prevention. It is already in 5 languages — English, Spanish, Kreyol, Swahili, and Bangla.

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As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana, I used Where There Is No Doctor as the main text for training primary health care workers. Having the students on hand with their copy of Doctor was the impetus for real change in health care in the village.

The information on antibiotics convinced one of my students, a “medicine seller,” to require his patients to buy and take a full course of a drug rather than the usual handful of pills for what ailed someone. Moving through the diagnostic hierarchies in the book allowed my students to be logical in their approach to evaluating illness and subsequent treatment.

ORS (Oral Rehydration Drink), the “vinegar” solution for ear infections, and even the “corn-silk tea” for swollen legs were invaluable, low-cost methods which made self-help health care accessible to those people we saw in the deep bush. Where There Is No Doctor helped change the minds and attitudes of my students about health in general and the change that one person could effect on their own. I am sure a lot of lives were saved and many people empowered as a result of that text.”

— Talbert Bentley, RPCV Ghana, 1988-91

Hesperian Health Guides, a non-profit organization based in Berkeley, California, has focused for decades on improving community health in countries where Peace Corps serves, and is now expanding their efforts to aid refugees and immigrants in the US.

Hesperian originated in the 1970s in a village in the mountains of Mexico, where a group of volunteers working with villagers created a simple manual for communities with limited access to health care, providing medical information that is both accessible and culturally sensitive. Donde no hay doctor was published in 1973, followed by the English edition, Where There is No Doctor, in 1977. It is now available in over 80 languages and is used in more than 100 countries around the world. 

This guide is cited by the World Health Organization as the most widely read primary care health information manual in the world. 

Along with Doctor, Hesperian has developed, published and translated dozens of health manuals on a variety of topics, including Where Women Have No Doctor, Where There is No Dentist, and Helping Health Workers Learn.

Since the early ‘80s, Peace Corps Volunteers have used Hesperian resources in their work with communities to improve women’s health and education, lead workshops, and help others diagnose and treat health problems. After their service ends, some RPCVs stay connected to their work by collaborating with Hesperian to translate these guides into the languages of their countries of service. 

Matt Heberger, a member of the Northern California Peace Corps Association, has convened other local RPCVs who served in Mali to support the translation of Where There Is No Doctor into Mali Bambara and West African French, both slated to be published in 2018 – a five-year labor of love to give back to their country of service.

RPCVs also continue their support by sending Hesperian books to their host communities through Hesperian’s Gratis Book program. The Gratis Book program sends over 1,000 free books a year to health workers and community leaders abroad who couldn’t otherwise afford the cost. Recently, Hesperian has extended this model to support organizations that work with immigrants and refugees in the US. 

A growing fear of deportation is preventing many refugees and immigrants in the US from seeking healthcare and other services, making these materials more important than ever. To address this problem, the US Gratis initiative is sending free health guides in English and Spanish to organizations that support refugee and immigrant communities. 

The initiative is run by volunteers, including RPCVs, ensuring that all donated funds go directly to purchasing and sending health guides. If you are interested in learning more about the US Gratis program, or receiving free health resources for your organization’s work, please contact Hilary Jacobsen, RPCV Outreach Volunteer at Hesperian, at rpcv@hesperian.org or visit the Gratis Books page.

Jean Aden is a returned Volunteers in Asia volunteer (Indonesia 1969-71) volunteering with Peace Corps Community for Refugees.

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Shortly after taking office, the Trump administration reinstated the Global Gag Rule, designed to cut US funding to any organization that provides abortion services. While every Republican administration since Reagan has promulgated the policy (and every Democratic withdrawn it), Trump’s expanded version is more disastrous for global health than any prior iteration. Not only does it cut funding to organizations for abortions, it slashes all US government funding – close to $9 billion – to organizations that offer a range of non-abortion related health services if they also provide, refer, or even just counsel about abortion. This expansion means essential health care for diseases such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and cervical cancer will be denied by the Trump administration’s unprecedented interpretation of the Global Gag Rule.

This administration is demanding that health care providers and organizations cut an essential component of women’s health if they are to continue to receive US funding. Without comprehensive family planning services, including safe abortion, women’s health is at risk. There will be more illness, more unintended pregnancies, more unsafe abortions, and, as a consequence, more deaths. One study examining the Bush administration’s less drastic application of the policy actually showed increased instances of unsafe abortions occurring when funds for family planning services were cut.

Women in Bangladesh learning about reproductive health. Photo credit: AusAID

Some larger organizations that offer a variety of services may be able to continue thanks to other funding sources, but many smaller organizations have already shut their doors or severely cut back their programs – including reaching out to women in need of birth control or safe abortion. Others now have to increase charges for previously free or affordable services, refusing low-income patients the health care they need. The Global Gag Rule leads directly to the denial of women’s right to health.

As organizations are forced to curtail their programs, charge fees, or shut their doors entirely, access to accurate, unbiased information on sexual and reproductive health is more important than ever. Hesperian’s HealthWiki provides many women’s health resources, like Where Women Have No Doctor, which is available online in English, Spanish, French, Filipino, Kreyol, and Swahili.

By targeting women’s health, entire families and communities suffer. Health organizations should refuse to comply when they can. If you’re in a position to do so, donate to smaller organizations that in the past have relied on US funding to deliver comprehensive reproductive health care in their home countries. And please share information about this with others, including this video from PAI, because too few people understand the disaster in the making.

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Close to 1 million Rohingya people have been forced from their homes in Myanmar in this tragic and unconscionable ethnic genocide. The Rohingya are a minority Muslim population in a majority-Buddhist country and have suffered burning, execution, rape, and other unthinkable cruelties as they have been driven into exile into neighboring Bangladesh, where overwhelming needs for food security, sanitation, and basic healthcare tend to sideline reproductive health needs.

But the need for reproductive health care in times of crisis is huge. The Myanmar military uses rape as a weapon against the Rohingya people, and women and girls desperately need access to care for their reproductive health needs. Hesperian is proud to have been selected as a winner of an OpenIDEO challenge to address the question: “How might we provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services to girls and women affected by conflict or disaster?”

Hesperian is working in partnership with IPAS to test and implement a Menstrual Regulation mobile app with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Over 260 entries were submitted and Hesperian’s app was chosen as one of 8 ideas with the most potential to improve women and girls’ reproductive health choices in emergency settings. Hesperian and IPAS staff will spend one year working with IDEO to test and further develop the app. The process is geared to answer questions about women’s pathways, needs, and desires for accessing reproductive health services, as well as how community health workers can function in crisis settings. IPAS staff in Bangladesh will facilitate in-country use with Rohingya refugees and Hesperian will work with user feedback to make the app as useful, practical, and accessible as possible. Look for the public release of the Menstrual Regulation app in the coming months, and visit Hesperian’s Mobile App page to learn about the Safe Pregnancy & Birth app, available in English and Spanish.

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Hesperian works with a wide range of partners, reviewers, and translators to make our materials accessible to as many people as possible. In September, we were honored to host partner Julie Cliff, a dedicated physician and teacher in Mozambique who worked with the Mozambican NGO Estamos to translate Where There Is No Doctor and A Community Guide to Environmental Health to Portuguese. Dr. Cliff discussed her work in Mozambique; her research on konzo, a deadly disease caused by eating cassava; and her experiences collaborating with Hesperian. Read our recent blog to learn more about Dr. Cliff and her work.

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After years of Medical Mission work, I found myself asking “What do they do when we are gone?”

Fortunately I stumbled upon the Hesperian book Where There is No Doctor. I was so inspired by the concept of allowing the villagers to learn to manage their own health. So, I started a nonprofit organization whose primary purpose was to form a community health program.

I went to work reading the wonderful books by Hesperian and now 4 years later a remote mountain village in Haiti has a working community health program. We have a relationship with a school there and started our program with 10 of the teachers from the school.

I was amazed how hungry they were for health care knowledge. We built a series of lessons based on the books. Now we have 27 students and 2 paid healthcare workers. We keep a Village Medical Kit at the school and one of our workers serves as a school health coordinator. He treats minor illness of the 800 school students. So if they come to school ill, he uses the book as a reference to treat them.

Our volunteers treat their families, friends and neighbors. They now have a good working knowledge about how to differentiate between a normal cold verses pneumonia. They treat asthma, skin infection, burns, hypertension, parasitic infection and many others.

CI Haiti runs 3 medical mission trips a year to the region and presents classes on each trip to the volunteers. The knowledge of how to identify and treat normal illness combined with the ability to identify when higher level of care is required is life-saving.

Thank You Hesperian!

Deborah Marrington CRNP
Director CI Haiti
www.cihaiti.com

The post Teaching Them to Fish appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Across the US, volunteers and community leaders are stepping up to serve their neighbors who are increasingly being denied health care, or rightfully afraid to seek the care they need. Headlines report the most jarring cases: a young girl in Texas picked up by immigration agents while traveling for emergency surgery; immigrants afraid to make routine doctor visits. Every day, across the country, similar stories are playing out.

That’s why, in June, Hesperian expanded the Gratis Book Program to include the United States. The Gratis Program provides free books to those who can’t afford the cost, but are well positioned to use the information to improve their community’s health. Since we asked for your support in expanding the program in June, we have received enthusiastic responses from both donors and people in need.

The Oakland, CA office of the International Rescue Committee requested 30 copies of Where There Is No Doctor in Spanish and English to serve their medically vulnerable clients.

San Francisco-based Operation Access, which arranges surgical care for undocumented migrant workers, will use Hesperian books as a resource for their office staff and referring clinicians. They wrote that the books are especially needed after the devastation of the Northern California wildfires because “so many doctors were affected by the fire, losing their homes, and now patients are having a much harder time getting medical care as a result.”

Please make a gift to support the expansion of the Gratis Books Program to people in the United States. Your support will empower people to understand what they can do on their own and with the support of their communities to prevent disease, improve living conditions and nutrition, respond to emergencies, and make pregnancy safer and children healthier.

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Join Hesperian at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting, November 4th through November 8th in Atlanta. Meet our staff and browse our books at Booth #1301 in the Exhibit Hall. Check out the special conference discounts on all products, as well as free shipping if you don’t want to lug the books home in your suitcase.

Hesperian is participating in these APHA sessions and events:

Sunday, November 5
2:00 – 2:45 pm @ the Industry Expert Theater, Booth 813, Georgia World Congress Center Exhibit Hall. “Creating Empowering Health Education Materials” with Kokaale Amissah-Aidoo

Monday, November 6
2:30 – 4:00 pm @ Room B-316, Georgia World Congress Center. Panel: “Responding to an increasingly polluted and toxic environment: Digital tools for cancer prevention and management” with Sarah Shannon

2:30 – 4:00 pm @ Room B-303, Georgia World Congress Center. Panel: “Health tools to respond to climate-fueled epidemics” with Lori Berenson

4:00 – 5:30 pm @ Booth 1301, Georgia World Congress Center Exhibit Hall. Book launch event with Henry Perry, Paul Freeman, Mary Carol Jennings, Emma Sacks, and Meike Schleiff, authors of Engaging Communities for Improving Mothers’ and Childrens’ Health: Reviewing the Evidence of Effectiveness in Resource-constrained Settings. Refreshments provided.

Tuesday, November 7
8:30 – 10 am @ Room B-302, Georgia World Congress Center. Panel: “Resources to Support Campaigns in the Struggle against Extractive Industries” with Lori Berenson

10:30 am – 12 pm @ International Ballroom C, Omni Hotel. Panel: “Knowledge and Action to Protect Women Workers” with Kokaale Amissah-Aidoo

12:30 – 2 pm @ Room B-304, Georgia World Congress Center. Panel: “Defending Women’s Health in the Context of the Global Gag Rule” with Planned Parenthood Global Executive Director, Latanya Mapp Frett, and moderated by Sarah Shannon

4 – 5:30 pm @ Booth 1301, Georgia World Congress Center Exhibit Hall. Reception and conversation with staff about Hesperian’s new Safe Abortion App and other multilingual women’s health resources. Refreshments provided.

Wednesday, November 8
10:30 am – 12 pm @ Room B-304, Georgia World Congress Center. “Safe Abortion App to Support Informed Decisions” with Sarah Shannon

See you there! 

The post See you in Atlanta! appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

We heard from Michael Terry, an ER Physician’s Assistant from Oakland, CA who is using online material from Hesperian’s A Community Guide to Environmental Health to show people how to disinfect water with bleach. He reports: “We have found less of a need for medical care and more for prevention…we reoriented the teams to become community health educators. [We] printed up flyers with graphics taken from the Hesperian website…went door to door and taught people how to purify water, treat diarrhea, and clean up mold. Will do the same tomorrow.”

Another way to help Puerto Rico is to share hard copy books that people can use as tools to rebuild from within. For example, one Puerto Rican health worker based in Los Angeles plans to take A Community Guide to Environmental Health and Where There Is No Doctor when she travels to the Centro de Apoyo Mutuo in Puerto Rico. Please consider doing the same if you or anyone you know is going to the island. Hesperian’s Traveler’s Set contains both of these books as well as Where Women Have no Doctor for just $68.95, a 20% savings off the individual prices.

The post Update from Puerto Rico appeared first on Hesperian Health Guides.

Online and Printable Resources for flood victims and disaster relief workers:

• Emergencies safety, including safe chemical clean-up (English & Spanish)
• Water & Sanitation (English & Spanish)
• Cholera Fact Sheet in 5 languages
• Health problems from unsafe water (English & Spanish)
• Building safe toilets (English & Spanish)
• Water purification methods (English & Spanish)
• Preventing mosquito-borne illnesses in 4 languages
• For more language options, see our Resources by Language page

This summer we have seen devastating floods around the world, in record numbers. Nearly 41 million people have been affected by flooding since June, in the Caribbean, Bangladesh, Nigeria, India, Sierra Leone, Nepal, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Sudan, Niger, Russia and Uganda, among others. The immediate destruction of these floods have already caused the death of thousands of people this summer from injury, drowning and electrocution. And unfortunately, severe threats to people’s health only increase as time goes by. Poor sanitation, lack of access to medication and medical attention, exposure to toxins and other chemicals, and increased risk of mosquito-borne illnesses will all pose serious health issues for people living in flooded areas.

In Houston, Texas, primary health providers are struggling to address the immediate need for food, shelter, clean water, and medical assistance and supplies. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, one network of health providers is sharing Hesperian’s first aid materials to spread useful, accessible information to those who need it most. As the clean-up and reconstruction progress, health concerns will shift from basic survival necessities to prevention and protection from pollution, mosquitoes, and mold. Houston’s metro area contains over a dozen superfund sites that have been flooded. Each of these sites may very easily contaminate large areas with deadly toxins such as carcinogenic dioxins, which are linked to birth defects. Proper clean-up of the superfund sites will need to be a priority in order to prevent long-term harm.

To help assist communities and health workers in affected places, Hesperian is sharing our myriad resources on first aid, cholera, water & sanitation, and health problems caused by unsafe water. These resources are available in English and Spanish online, and many others as downloadable PDFs. To see what information is available in a specific language, visit our Resources By Language page. Please share these important resources widely with your network and those you know living and working in affected areas. If you or someone you know is traveling to a flooded community, consider bringing printouts of Hesperian materials or copies of our books to deliver to people in need. A limited amount of books can be donated by our Gratis Book Program. To learn more about delivering books to flooded communities, contact us directly.

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If you’re in the Bay Area, please join Hesperian and Dr. Julie Cliff for a wide-ranging conversation about health in Mozambique on Wednesday, September 27th at 6:30pm.

Dr. Cliff has lived and worked in Mozambique for over 40 years, leading the epidemiology department at the Ministry of Health and the infectious diseases unit at Maputo Central Hospital, Mozambique’s primary teaching hospital. Some of her work has focused on the elimination of konzo, a paralytic disease closely tied to poverty. Konzo afflicts people who have nothing to eat but bitter cassava, a drought-resistant crop that people in many parts of Africa rely on. Without fertile land, money to buy diverse crops, or resources to process the cassava to reduce its toxicity, people – especially women & children who have the least varied diets – are at high risk for contracting Konzo. Until the underlying causes of poverty, hunger, and inequality are addressed, konzo will persist. To learn more about konzo in Mozambique, see Dr. Cliff’s essay, “An Orphan Disease in Mozambique”, in The Practice of International Health.

Where There Is No Doctor in Portuguese was reconceived and translated by Julie and her team for Mozambique and other Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa. The Portuguese Where There Is No Doctor addresses the underlying causes of poor health adapted to the realities of Mozambique. So it includes crucial information about how to prepare bitter cassava safely to prevent konzo, techniques for supporting people who suffer from paralysis, and other health issues central to the lives of Mozambicans.

Julie also worked with the Mozambican water and sanitation NGO Estamos to complete the Portuguese edition of A Community Guide to Environmental Health as well as many of the translated chapters of the New Where There Is No Doctor, available in Hesperian’s HealthWiki.

Visit Hesperian’s offices on Wednesday, September 27th at 6:30pm to learn about Dr. Cliff’s work supporting community health in Mozambique. Space is limited, so please RSVP today to secure your spot.

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One strategy of Tomorrow’s Stars is to ask former scholarship recipients to lead activities as a way to “pay it forward” once they graduate. One “pay it forward” student gave a lesson on gender and equity based on Health Actions for Women. The kids role-played a scene where a girl was teased at school and the teacher never called on her. Then they re-played the scene to explore how she could have been empowered to speak up in class. Rudolph, the pay it forward student leading the lesson, made a poster that all of the male teachers signed pledging not to use violence towards women or stand by in silence. Afterwards, they displayed the poster in the school.

The dozens of adaptable activities and stories in Health Actions for Women can be replicated in any community to teach about equity and empowerment. Integrate them into your lesson plans, or let them inspire you to create something new. For suggestions on classroom use, check out our new Teaching Guide to accompany Health Actions for Women. This dynamic guide includes thought-provoking questions to consider as a group, and is a helpful addition for anyone considering using Health Actions for Women in a classroom. Available free with purchase of the book, or for just $0.99 on its own.

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Four years ago the world watched as 1,134 people lost their lives in the deadly Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh. In the wake of the disaster, 200 brand name clothing retailers responded to public pressure by signing on to the more effective Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety and the less effective Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. Both agreements bound the participating retailers to fund safety inspections and improvements at the Bangladeshi factories that supply them with product. The Alliance has already announced it would close its doors this year, despite ongoing safety concerns. Fortunately, the Accord members have agreed to a three-year renewal.

Long-term change in the garment industry requires a change from the current “race to the bottom” led by the brands to one where workers are protected. The new OHS Initiative for Workers and Community is promoting that fundamental shift from the bottom-up. The six member organizations will be holding worker trainings on a broad range of topics, and through the Initiative are expanding their knowledge of occupational health and safety issues. Initiative staff have been meeting with members since February to conduct needs assessments and develop targeted training materials in Bangla. OHS trainings with members will be more effective thanks to an understanding of the concerns of the majority women workforce, and the use of training materials that are already tested, such as Hesperian’s Workers’ Guide to Health and Safety.

This project is designed to provide a gender-sensitive, health-focused approach to workplace health and safety, and to avoid the duplication of efforts by already overextended grassroots organizations. The OHS Initiative, led by in-country staff with existing grassroots networks, is key to responding to the real conditions in Bangladeshi factories and improving Workers’ health and safety in Bangladesh.

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The influence of policies created by the United States and Canada is strongly felt in Honduras, magnifying poverty, inequality, insecurity, and violence in the country. In response to this interference, organizations from the US and Canada have formed the Honduras Solidarity Network (HSN) to support Honduran activists and community leaders in their commitment to further social justice.

One way they do this is by partnering with local organizations in Honduras. Karen Spring, the HSN Program Coordinator, organizes educational delegations to Honduras to accompany and assist communities in this struggle. On a delegation earlier this year, participants traveled with copies of Donde no hay doctor and Donde no hay doctor para mujeres to bring to grassroots organizations throughout the country. The delegates’ impact was even greater because they were able to leave these important health resources behind after their trip.

One group, the Siria Valle Environmental Committee, works with people sickened by open pit gold mining, pervasive in the region and backed by US and Canadian interests. Committee member Olga Velasquez is a self-taught promotora who talks to her neighbors about health concerns, accompanies them on the hour-long bus ride to the hospital, and makes sure they are following through on treatment plans. When people come to see Olga, she consults Hesperian books, and always takes them with her on health visits.

Karen also delivered books to COPINH — the Civic Council of Indigenous and Popular Organizations. COPINH was founded by the late Berta Cáceres, winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize, who was murdered for protecting her land from corporate mining interests. Members of the organization use Donde no hay doctor and Donde no hay doctor para mujeres in promotora trainings with Lenca indigenous women, and distribute photocopies to the participants.

OFRANEH, a Black Fraternal Organization, also received copies of the books. The Garifuna (afro-Honduran) people they work with live over two hours from the nearest hospital, and struggle with high rates of malaria, dengue fever, diabetes and hypertension. In this remote part of the country, Donde no hay doctor and Donde no hay doctor para mujeres are truly lifesaving resources.

The next time you travel, bring Hesperian books with you to have a lasting impact on the communities you visit. Learn more about ways to share these resources on your travels with our free travel handout, available along with our new Traveler’s Set, in English and Spanish.

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We receive stories from people around the world who use Where There Is No Doctor and Hesperian’s other titles in their training and primary health care programs. Health workers appreciate the books’ approach to sensitive or “taboo” issues, the clearly-written information their patients or trainees can understand, and the adaptable, practical solutions to a variety of health problems.

In April, Save Tanzania, a  community-based organization that works to protect the reproductive and economic rights of women, used Where There Is No Doctor, Where Women Have No Doctor, and A Book for Midwives to conduct a multi-day training on Reproductive Health Capacity Building. The mixed gender cohort of participants included pharmacists, nurses, midwives, and doctors from rural environments. The organizers used the books to provide current information on transmission of HIV/AIDS, nutrition during pregnancy and while breastfeeding, family planning, and reproductive rights. Each participant left the training with a copy of the books to support them in their work.

In Chuuk, a state in Micronesia, the State Department of Health Services purchased several hundred copies of Where There Is No Doctor and A Book for Midwives for use by their Health Assistants, assigned to remote islands far from the state’s only hospital. The Health Assistants consult the books for reference.

These are just two examples of how Hesperian books make a valuable addition to any health training program. To support your efforts, we are happy to offer significant discounts on bulk orders of our books. Please contact us at bookorders@hesperian.org for details or to place an order. 

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Information on women’s health, and especially family planning, can be difficult — sometimes impossible — to find in the Philippines due to governmental and religious opposition. But access will soon become easier when Hesperian Health Guides releases Where Women Have No Doctor in Filipino on the HealthWiki! Together with our Philippine partner Likhaan, this edition is being carefully updated to reflect current information on a wide range of women’s health issues and produced for online viewing, including on mobile phones.

While this important resource will be available for free online, the cost of updating it and making it available in the HealthWiki isn’t. Hesperian needs $3,000 to complete the updates and production that will make this lifesaving resource accessible to women who desperately want and need it. Can you help with a donation today to support the online Filipino edition of Where Women Have No Doctor?

Hesperian and Likhaan piloted making two chapters of the Filipino Where Women Have No Doctor available in the HealthWiki. People soon found it online and started using it: 177,145 people in the past 18 months! Considering that every visitor to the HealthWiki shares what they learn with an average of 15 others, the numbers of people we reach with women’s health information is staggering!

For over 40 years, Hesperian has written, translated and distributed materials that address the health needs of people worldwide. Despite the barriers of access and affordability, the knowledge our materials provide has helped families and whole communities live healthier lives.

 Women in the Philippines deserve the health information that will keep them healthy and empower them to be in charge of their own bodies. Please help Hesperian make Where Women Have No Doctor in Filipino available for free in the HealthWiki with your donation today!

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The war in Yemen that has already killed thousands through bombing and starvation is now killing thousands more with one of the worst cholera outbreaks on record, over 300,000 reported cases. South Sudan, already struggling with fighting among armed factions and the threat of famine is now also facing a cholera outbreak. Cholera spreads when water is contaminated with human waste but people still must use it for their daily needs.  

In both Yemen and South Sudan, thousands of people are seeking care in overburdened, overcrowded hospitals where dedicated health workers are doing their best to treat them with few supplies and limited support. The World Health Organization had pledged to send one million doses of a cholera vaccine to Yemen, but has now backed out of that plan saying the outbreak is too widespread, the situation too unstable. World powers that are fueling the ongoing conflict in Yemen are choosing to ignore this “collateral damage” of war.

Cholera is preventable when people have access to clean water for drinking, cooking, and sanitation and when human waste can be disposed of safely. Where There Is No Doctor, also available in Arabic, is a lifesaving resource where public health infrastructure and the right to clean water and sanitation has been destroyed. The book provides simple instructions on how to prevent infectious disease such as cholera and treat its symptoms. Hesperian has also just released an Arabic translation of our fact sheet on cholera that provides clear, easy-to-follow information on preventing and treating this deadly disease.

Hesperian also worked with the CORE group to provide images for their recently released cholera teaching modules. Available in English, Spanish and French, these modules will be distributed in Yemen and Ethiopia, in coordination with UNICEF and WHO, where health promoters will use them to teach others about preventing cholera. To learn more about using Hesperian images in your work, contact images@hesperian.org.

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Recently, we lost Simone Veil, a Holocaust survivor who became a French politician and advocate for women’s health. Veil’s message was that women forced into a corner by laws and social pressures are left with dangerous health choices, neglecting their safety or trusting the wrong people, and ultimately risking their lives. Honest and trustworthy information is one of the best protections there is, presenting options and encouraging sharing.

Any woman can be an educator or advocate, any group can work together to gather and share information that changes lives and creates a network of support. Hesperian is offering a free teaching guide for Health Actions for Women. This teaching guide, originally designed by a college instructor for classroom use, can help a community health worker or informal women’s group to dig deeper into Health Actions for Women and its innovative — and enjoyable — learning activities.

Hesperian aims to produce health information in the most accessible form possible, because we know that health workers, peers, and teachers know best how to share it with their communities. Please let us know how this new teaching guide helps you make a difference in the health of women — and how we can make it even more empowering.

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After last year’s frightening Zika outbreak, it comes as welcome news that reports of new cases have slowed down in areas of Brazil and the Caribbean. While cases in Florida also seem to be reducing, the CDC recently reported a larger breadth of the Zika-carrying mosquito in the south than previously known.

The Zika crisis is a powerful reminder that mosquito-borne illness can make a serious impact on your health. Take precautions to prevent Zika, malaria, chikungunya and dengue, because some of these diseases can make you feel miserable quickly and others could cause long-lasting problems. Knowing how to prevent mosquito bites in risky areas is vital, especially when traveling to a new place.

Hesperian’s Zika Fact Sheet, available in 5 languages, is a resource for those living or traveling in areas at risk for mosquito-borne illness. The Zika Fact Sheet has information about identifying Zika, care and recovery, prevention, and transmission. Equip yourself with this free and useful information if you are traveling or returning from zones at risk of mosquito-borne illness. Also be sure to take our Spanish, French, Portuguese, or Haitian Kreyol translations to share with health care workers, teachers, and other community members.

Community-wide prevention efforts are crucial to fighting mosquito-borne illness. Communities have many options for protecting themselves, such as ensuring that standing water does not collect, making diligent use of repellents and mosquito nets, and sharing resources and information about transmission. Community Guide to Environmental Health has more information about the safety of various insecticides and natural methods of combating mosquitoes, like breeding mosquito-eating fish and planting trees where bats, birds and other mosquito predators can nest. To help share this information, all 5 language editions of Community Guide to Environmental Health are 20% off, now through July 7th. Use coupon code Protect at checkout to save.

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Every year a new group of nursing students from the Boston College Connell School of Nursing Global Health Initiative travel to Central America equipped with the clinical knowledge they learned from their textbooks and a copy of Donde no hay doctor (Spanish edition of Where There Is No Doctor). Ronna E. Krozy, EdD, RN, who has led the program since 1991, first to Ecuador and since 2005 to Nicaragua, has found Where There Is No Doctor to be the most important resource her students have.

The BC nursing students provide direct nursing care to patients at the Nueva Vida clinic in Ciudad Sandino, a municipality of Managua, Nicaragua’s capital. The students also work with Nicaraguan promotoras – dedicated volunteer health promoters – who teach their neighbors about how to prevent illness, how to care for themselves and their families, and when to seek medical attention. According to Krozy, her students don’t need more books with high-level scientific language, they need materials that will help them teach people the practical and important information without speaking down to them. “Where There Is No Doctor is an essential resource for our work. It breaks down information in a culturally sensitive and very accessible way.” Over the past few years, Krozy has also begun incorporating Helping Health Workers Learn into her program because it helps students think critically about caring for and engaging with their patients in a way that is sustainable for the community.

A number of years ago, to better prepare her students for their work in Nicaragua, Krozy began using Where There Is No Doctor in a new Spanish-language tutoring program. It helps them gain the language they need to communicate better with the people they serve. Students and tutors use Where There Is No Doctor to role play and discuss topics that the promotoras have identified as being pertinent to the community. Krozy states “Where There Is No Doctor has been instrumental to our program’s success because it enhances the student’s ability to communicate important information to people in an understandable way. No other book does that.”

Connell nursing student treating infant in Nicaragua

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