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Home > 2012 > April

Labor rights activist murdered in Bangladesh

Hesperian is deeply saddened and outraged by the murder of Bangladeshi labor activist Aminul Islam.

Aminul was an organizer at the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS) and a local leader for the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF). He fought tirelessly alongside workers, unions, and organizations from Bangladesh and around the world to raise poverty-level wages, improve safety in response to tragic factory fires, and promote fair and healthy work in Bangladesh.

We first connected with Aminul in 2003 while developing our book A Workers’ Guide to Health and Safety. BCWS field-tested and contributed to several sections on the hazards of garment work, sharing not only their own experience and knowledge as organizers but also the comments, feedback, ideas, and suggestions of their Bangladeshi coworkers.

Aminul’s murder comes at a time of great progress and success for the workers’ movement in Bangladesh. He was fatally silenced by those who want to continue profiting from the poverty and ill health of workers in Bangladesh, who want to instill fear among those fighting for their rights.  When our staff connected with Aminul after he had been released from being arrested on trumped-up charges and tortured a few years ago, they were struck by his impossibly-cheery, positive outlook and his incredible courage and strength. We have all lost an important colleague.

Hesperian joins the international community in demanding that Aminul’s death be promptly investigated and those responsible brought to justice. BCWS has asked us to urge the government of Bangladesh to take action by sending a letter to the Prime Minister.  Please take a moment to join this campaign. 

40 Years of Where There Is No Doctor

May 16, 2013

Over the past four decades, has saved countless lives and has informed and empowered agents for change at every level of society. In celebration of four decades of supporting a vision of Health for All, Hesperian Health Guides is happy to be envisioning how it will save lives for years to come.

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Tackling the “Open Access” question

May 09, 2013

This is a letter that Hesperian originally submitted to the HIFA2015 listserv, an online community of global health professionals dedicated to community-centered health practices and increased accessibility of free health materials. We welcome your comments and feedback.

Dear HIFA2015 members,

We are responding to the moderator's question as to why some organizations (specifically Hesperian Health Guides), have not chosen to “go completely Open Access.” We appreciate the opportunity to share about this experience, as the process towards becoming more Open Access has been very important to our organization.

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“Taking Action for Women’s Health” | Published in University of Washington’s alumni magazine

There are moments when the world answers our questions.

For UW School of Medicine alumna Melissa Smith, one of those moments came in 1979, while she was working in a bush village clinic in Liberia. She was deciding between studying public health and going to medical school, trying to figure out what kind of education would allow her to be most effective. Her moment came when a child died in her arms of malnutrition.

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Press Release: Hesperian to provide California families free online resources for children who are deaf or hard of hearing

April 18, 2013

Berkeley-based Hesperian Health Guides has received a grant from The California Communications Access Foundation to provide free online multi-lingual early childhood development resources for California families of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The CCAF is a nonprofit that specializes in improving access to telecommunications services for people with disabilities and other traditionally underserved populations. The grant will support California families, educators, and service providers by placing Helping Children Who are Deaf in a free, mobile-accessible online format in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Amharic. This resource will support and enhance the long-term objectives of California State programs such as Early Start as well as the nonprofit organizations that support children who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families.

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No More Scissors and Tape: Hesperian Images is Here!

April 04, 2013

This week we announced the full service release of Hesperian Images, an online library of over 11,000 health illustrations and an exciting addition to the Hesperian Digital Commons.

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Hesperian Launches Online Database of 10,000+ Health-Related Images

April 04, 2013

Hesperian Health Guides announces the launch of Hesperian Images, a searchable online database of more than 10,000 hand-drawn illustrations related to health. Comprised of every image from Hesperian’s 20 renowned health publications, Hesperian Images is the largest online database of health-related images available.

Hesperian Images was developed in response to requests from health educators and practitioners around the world who have told us that they rely on images from Hesperian books like Where There Is No Doctor to illustrate everything from first aid to maternal health, hygiene to vaccines, and home remedies to modern medicines. Often using photocopiers, scissors, and tape, health workers have long used Hesperian images as sources for creating health training materials, health curriculum, presentations, flyers, posters, flipcharts, and many other tools.

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Press Release: Hesperian Health Guides Launches Award Winning App in Spanish

March 28, 2013

Hesperian Health Guides announces that its award-winning mobile app, “Safe Pregnancy and Birth”, is now available in Spanish. Available as a free download for iPhone and Android , “El embarazo y el parto seguros” contains lifesaving information presented in clear, accessible language and with informative illustrations. The app is ideal for working with community health workers and midwives with varied literacy levels in the US and abroad.

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Reflections on field testing the Health Action Guide for Women and Girls

February 28, 2013

At Hesperian, we talk a lot about our field-testing process, but we realize it must sound a little mysterious to people outside our offices.  A group of staff and advisors just reviewed the final comments generated by field-testing our new title in development: the Health Action Guide for Women and Girls, a book of information and activities designed to open spaces for work on topics such as sexuality, family planning, HIV, and violence against women.  We received such helpful feedback that we wanted to share this as an example of our field-test process.

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Reproductive Health Victory in the Philippines

February 21, 2013

We are happily writing today to congratulate our friends and partners the Likhaan Center for Women’s Health, who rung in the New Year with the passage of a hard fought reproductive health bill in the Philippines.

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Hesperian mobile app reaches 50,000 downloads!

February 14, 2013

Hesperian’s mobile app, Safe Pregnancy and Birth was recently awarded $10,000 by the Ashoka Changemakers/Intel “She Will Innovate” competition thanks to the incredible outpouring of support we received from around the world. We are currently hard at work translating the app into new languages (look for the Spanish app in early spring!) and exploring possibilities for lower-end phones.

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Hesperian in solidarity with ‘Idle No More’

January 25, 2013

Friday January 11 was a Global Day of Action in support of the Canadian First Nation rights movement called Idle No More.  It coincided with the day that Prime Minister Stephen Harper finally met with some leaders of the official Assembly of First Nations -- but not Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence (who has been on hunger strike since December 11) or other chiefs who boycotted what appears to have been a perfunctory meeting.

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Hesperian’s mobile app featured on public radio

November 15, 2012

Hesperian's mobile app, Safe Pregnancy and Birth, was featured on the Bay Area's KQED public radio this morning.

Reported Kat Snow posted the following report on kqed.org:

"An award-winning app developed in the Bay Area aims to help pregnant women stay healthy and reduce the number of maternal deaths worldwide.

Berkeley-based Hesperian Health Guides created the Safe Pregnancy and Birth app for pregnant women, family members, and health care workers.   Hesperian executive director Sarah Shannon says the app uses line drawings to illustrate information, such as how to prevent shock.
         
"It just helps people as a visual cue to remember, oh, yes, I remember seeing that drawing -- that's what I know I'll do in the case of an emergency," says Shannon.

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Hesperian wins award for “Safe Pregnancy and Birth” mobile app

November 14, 2012

Hesperian Health Guides has been awarded $10,000 by Intel Corporation and Ashoka Changemakers as a winner of the “She Will Innovate” competition. Hesperian’s app for mobile phones, Safe Pregnancy and Birth, was chosen out of 292 submissions from 54 countries as one of three entries which most represents “the world’s most innovative solutions that equip girls and women with new digital technologies -- enabling them to live healthier, smarter, and more meaningful lives.”

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Hesperian at the American Public Health Association!

Hesperian will be all over the 140th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association this year in San Francisco! Events kick off on Friday, October 26th and continue through Wednesday the 31st. Hesperian staff will be co-sponsoring a pre-conference panel, presenting on a variety of topics, hosting two receptions, and selling our books and demonstrating new digital tools at our booth # 1600 in the Exhibit Hall.

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Hesperian’s Mobile App a Finalist in the “She Will Innovate” Competition

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Thank You! A Challenge Met

Thank you very much to all the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and friends and family who gave to Hesperian to meet our $22,000 matching challenge grant. Your generosity will make a difference in the ability of Hesperian to continue developing and distributing our lifesaving health manuals. 

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Donde no hay doctor in Guatemala

Mateo Nicolás is a teacher by profession, but because there is no village health promoter or midwife in his remote Guatemalan village nor in the village where he works, the villagers would often go to him with their health problems.  He felt grossly undereducated when it came to medical issues.  He got word that there was going to be a village health promoter training in a nearby village, and he asked if he could attend that training.  Casa Colibrí, a grassroots NGO working in the NW region of Guatemala, was presenting the training to a group of 15 health promoters.  The topics included taking vital signs, recognizing and treating common illnesses, essential newborn care and newborn resuscitation, and wound care and suturing.  Each participant was given a copy of Donde no hay doctor, and they were taught how to use the book through numerous activities and exercises.

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Hesperian at the 3rd People’s Health Assembly in South Africa

July 12, 2012

From July 6-11, Hesperian joined hundreds of health activists from over 90 countries at the third People’s Health Assembly in Cape Town.  The People’s Health Movementwas launched in Bangladesh in 2000 with a renewed call for ‘Health for All’ in response to the insufficient international commitment to address the conditions which cause poor health for millions of people around the world.  Three Hesperian representatives participated in the six-day gathering in South Africa to continue building this inspiring global grassroots movement for health and social justice.

At the culturally diverse and inspiring opening plenary, the South African Minister of Health greeted PHM activists, and the spirit of community health workers was celebrated in song and dance.  Speakers addressed the challenges confronting people’s health and our capacity to overcome them. The meeting place of the Assembly, The University of the Western Cape, had been an incubator of struggle in the anti-apartheid movement and once again its halls contained health workers, activists, and administrators from South Africa and around the globe, all working in their own ways to create a more just world. 

Watch a video of the opening ceremony.

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Hesperian Translation Partner Elected to Mongolian Parliament

Hesperian congratulates Oyuna on her recent election to the Mongolian Parliament! As an experienced organizer with a passion for health, the environment, and women’s rights, she will be a powerful leader for change.

Oyungerel Tsedevdamba found Hesperian’s resources in a Google search when someone came to her nonprofit, Local Solutions, to ask about composting toilets. She was so inspired by what she found that she asked to translate Hesperian’s book A Community Guide to Environmental Health into Mongolian. With a grant from Hesperian’s Translations program, she hired a typist, sat down to do the translation—and translated all six hundred pages in forty days.

 

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Hesperian Friend and Partner Receives Award for Humanitarian Service

June 20, 2012

Congratulations to Dr. Melissa Smith, long-time medical advisor and friend of  Hesperian Health Guides, for receiving the University of Washington Medicine Alumni Association Humanitarian Award for her profound dedication to serving others through  medicine. A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Washington School of Medicine, she has had extensive involvement in global health work, training health workers and midwives for over two decades in poor communities of Central America and Mexico. 

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Double your gift when you honor a Peace Corps Volunteer

June 12, 2012

Peace Corps Volunteers are at the forefront of global health, and often share with us the stories of how they have used our resources to support their communities. Janelle Downing was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco from 2007 to 2009 and she shared this story with us.

“I lived in southeastern Morocco in a village in Ouarzazate province. I worked with a women’s weaving cooperative and we increased the number of carpets sold in cities and internationally. I learned to speak Tashlheet, one of Morocco’s native languages, and came to love the culture of the Souss-Massa Draa people...

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Safe Pregnancy and Birth mobile app released for Android

May 14, 2012

Hesperian is excited to announce a new addition to the Hesperian Digital Commons with the beta release of the Safe Pregnancy and Birth app for Android! The version for iPhone, which was released in January, has already been downloaded in 78 countries – over half of the countries for which the iPhone app is available. Since its release early last month, the Android version has been downloaded over 100 times per day, with a large number of downloads from India, the Philippines and Indonesia.

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Empowering Mayan midwives in rural Belize

I went to Punta Gorda, Belize Central America to train Mayan women to deliver babies in their communities using Hesperian's A Book for Midwives. Punta Gorda is a town in the southernmost part of Belize with a small hospital. Around the town are numerous Mayan villages. There is a bus service that goes two days a week to most of the villages, but for obvious reasons that is not a reliable way to get to medical help when a woman is in labor. Some of the villages might have one person who owned a truck and they soon became tired of being asked to transport people to town. They were especially leery of women in labor who might deliver in route and make a bloody mess in the process!

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National Geographic Features Hesperian Digital Commons

May 03, 2012

In a new post on National Geographic’s blog, Hesperian Executive Director Sarah Shannon writes about her experience using Where There Is No Doctor in Central America in the 1980s, how the world we live in has been transformed by technology since then, and the urgent ongoing need for accessible health information. Sarah writes, “I was only 22 when I arrived in the Salvadoran refugee camp in rural Honduras. Refugees were streaming over the border, running for their lives in the midst of a civil war. They were malnourished, terrified, wounded, and carried nothing but the clothes on their backs. For my part, I had a suitcase full of clothes, and a copy of the book Where There Is No Doctor given to me by a mentor as I was packing….” To read the full article, click here.

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Labor rights activist murdered in Bangladesh

April 13, 2012

Hesperian is deeply saddened and outraged by the murder of Bangladeshi labor activist Aminul Islam.  Aminul was an organizer at the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS) and a local leader for the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF). He fought tirelessly alongside workers, unions, and organizations from Bangladesh and around the world to raise poverty-level wages, improve safety in response to tragic factory fires, and promote fair and healthy work in Bangladesh.

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The Road to Health in the Indian Himalayas

April 04, 2012

The bags came up the mountain trail on the back of a horse as usual.  Inside there was a parcel sent from America by our friend Janet Meek.  Along with a few comforts from home was a copy of Where There Is No Doctor.  Inside the cover was scribbled a small note which said, “Thought this might come in handy, though I hope you never have to use it.”  There was no way she could have known what would become the irony of this statement or that she had cast a spark into the tinderbox of our community.

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Disabled village children in Ecuador get a second chance

April 04, 2012

I first learned about the book Disabled Village Children in an occupational therapy graduate class at Springfield College.  Scanning the pages of what I expected to be another uninspired, required reading I quickly realized that I did not want to put it down.  I marveled over the suggestions for adaptive equipment made from easily found materials in northern, rural Mexico, and therapeutic strategies modified for laymen.  The photos of real village people getting and giving appropriate rehabilitation with ideas from Hesperian’s manual were so exciting to me and the way I thought community health care should be in remote areas.  I knew I wanted to use this book one day in a real life experience of my own.

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Ecological-sanitation latrines transform rural Ethiopia

April 04, 2012

In rural Ethiopia, we have proceeded in stages from open-field defecation to ecological-sanitation latrines (Ecosan).  These above-ground latrines keep groundwater clean, divert urine for use as fertilizer, and compost feces.  It seems like a miracle to have watched villagers go from their first understanding of hygiene to their enthusiastic embrace of these latrines.  Farmers tested diluted urine (3:1 water:urine) on their corn crops and found the yield was higher with diluted urine than with expensive commercial urea fertilizer (results are statistically significant).  Thus farmers have "lined up" and use the diverted urine.

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Are you a Returned or Current Peace Corps Volunteer? Find out how You can make a Difference!

 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.

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Celebrating New Digital Tools

Hesperian is looking forward to celebrating the launch of our Digital Commons an our new app for maternal health with friends and supporters in Palo Alto and in Berkeley. Click the image below to see the invitation!

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Poor Education is Making Us Sick: March 1st

Here’s some healthy math: every dollar spent on early childhood education saves 17 dollars in future health and social costs. 

March 1st is a national day of action for education, and we know that supporting education is crucial to supporting public health.  To learn more about the connections between a good education and good health, check out the flyers below – the first one is good for sharing with friends, and the second one includes a full set of references for the facts listed. 

Poor Education is Making Us Sick (for printing – no citations)

Poor Education is Making Us Sick (with citations)

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Dollar-for-Dollar match for each Gift of Health until March 31st

Now through March 31st, 2012, if you make a Gift of Health through the Gratis Books program, it will be matched dollar for dollar by the generosity of the Wang-McLaren Foundation. This means that each gift you make will go twice as far—and for the price of one book, you can enable us to send two!

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Try our new digital tools for health

December 01, 2011

We encourage you to try out our new digital tools and let us know what you think!

Hesperian Images
Hesperian Images is an online image library containing thousands of Hesperian’s world renowned illustrations now available to all!  

Our Health Materials Workshop
The Health Materials Workshop is a new online tool to help you design flyers, posters and brochures using Hesperian text and images.  

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Check out our new Health & Empowerment titles!

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Updated Women’s Health Materials Customized to Meet Your Needs

November 10, 2011

A 2011 update of Hesperian’s widely used guide to women’s health is now available in both English and Spanish in two new formats... and we are currently testing and improving a beta version of our online Health Materials Workshop, where health educators can design customized flyers, posters and brochures using Hesperian source text and images. 

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The 2011 reprint of Where There is No Doctor is now available!

October 26, 2011

Our bodies and environments are constantly changing – new medicines are created and viruses evolve.  We continually update Hesperian health guides to ensure that those who rely on our materials to promote healthy individuals and communities have access to high quality, up-to-date medical information.

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Welcome to our new website!

October 14, 2011

We’ve been working hard to create a site that communicates all of the work we do here at Hesperian Health Guides, including our rich history and exciting new projects.  Our new site makes it easier to buy, browse, read and download our books and resources in English, Spanish and many other languages.  It also offers new features and tools, including an online image library with over 10,000 Hesperian images!  We hope that you’ll explore the new site and let us know what you think. Don’t forget to check out all the ways in which you can get involved in our work and help us to promote health for all.

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Where There Is No Dentist 2011 Reprint

September 15, 2011

You are what you eat -- this is reflected in all parts of your body including your teeth! The industrial food system is changing the way that we eat. In rich and poor nations alike, people are eating more processed, sugary foods that harm our health. Taking back our food system and making access to fresh, nourishing and affordable food a human right are long-term preventive strategies; in the meantime, how can we take care of our oral health?

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Midwives are Essential to Community Health, a new report confirms

September 01, 2011

The first report to comprehensively explore current midwifery practices across the globe, the State of the World’s Midwifery 2011: Delivering Health, Saving Lives, was released last month by the International Confederation of Midwives in Durban, South Africa.

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New “World Report on Disability” Parallels Hesperian’s Approach

August 16, 2011

A new report from the World Health Organization and the World Bank, the “World Report on Disability,” calls for the elimination of barriers that often force people with disabilities to “the margins of society.” About 15 percent of the world's population - some 785 million people - has a significant physical or mental disability, including about 5 percent of children. Full text of the report is available here. Read More

Do you know where your water comes from?

No matter where you are, in a rural or urban area, you are in a watershed. Often, we know which city, county and state we live in, but not which watershed! A watershed is an area of land where all the water from rain and snow drains downward to a single body of water, such as a stream, river, lake, or wetland. A healthy watershed has the right combination of plants, water and soil to protect groundwater and can provide us with water for drinking, washing, agriculture, industry, and recreation. If a watershed is damaged—for example by deforestation, dumping of industrial and agricultural waste, or building large dams—everyone’s health is affected.

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Happy Bike to Work Day!

Another morning, another commute to work – but this time, there were treats along the way! Today is Bike to Work Day, started by the League of American Bicyclists in 1956 and hosted in Berkeley by the East Bay Bicycle Coalition.

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What’s changed? New software plug-in aids publishing work and Hesperian’s updates

Usually when a publisher reprints a book, they just send an order to the printing plant that they need another several thousand books, and the printer simply reuses the same files (or plates) to produce the additional copies. But not Hesperian.

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Environmental Health book available in Spanish!

May 02, 2011

Guía comunitaria para la salud ambiental, the Spanish-language edition of A Community Guide to Environmental Health, is hot off the presses! Read More

Happy International Workers Day!

This May 1st, workers all over the world will be celebrating International Workers Day. Our own Hesperian offices will be closed the following Monday, May 2nd, to show our solidarity with workers all around the world. Although International Workers’ Day originated in the US, we no longer celebrate it with other nations, instead celebrating our Labor Day in September, stripped of all political significance.

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Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Fire


Last month, we released a booklet on fire safety in the workplace to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. You can read more and download the booklet, “Fighting Factor Fires: 100 Years After the Triangle Fire” here. This booklet is based on content from our book-in-development, A Workers’ Guide to Health and Safety.

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Dr Abhay Bang: the revolutionary pediatrician

 Dr. Abhay Bang, a longtime Hesperian friend and advisor, is a world leader in community-based neonatal health. His approach to home-based newborn and child care, and belief in community health workers to provide lifesaving services has transformed care in Gadchiroli, India.

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A Manual for All Reasons

Hesperian depends on our volunteers and supporters around the world to get our books to those who need them most.  Judy Tart has been packing books as a volunteer with Hesperian since 2007 – and her sister, Barbara Bamberger Scott, has been using Hesperian books since the 1980s.  Judy recently sent Barbara the most updated version of Where There Is No Doctor, and Barbara was so excited to see the book again that she published an article on her experiences using it in on Homestead.org.

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Khmer edition of A Community Guide to Environmental Health released in Cambodia

In April 2006 Dr. David Narita, working with OMF in Cambodia, emailed Hesperian and asked for permission to translate and update the Khmer edition of Where There Is No Doctor. The only copies available in Khmer, he wrote, were printed in an old font that many people could no longer decipher, had been photocopied and re-bound so many times that even new copies were mostly illegible, and contained out of date medical information. In 2009, he printed a full translation of the 9th edition of Doctor..

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Pesticides and Pre-natal Care

 California agribusiness has long been working to maintain dangerous pesticide use by heavy lobbying, spending and misinformation campaigns to prevent methyl iodide from being banned in California. But in a recent hearing, as noted in a posting from Pesticide Action Network (PAN):

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Nnimmo Bassey on climate solutions, from Nigeria to Brazil to Stockholm

Nnimmo Bassey leads Environmental Rights Action, based in Nigeria, and was a reviewer of Hesperian’s A Community Guide to Environmental Health. Jeff Conant, one of the authors of A Community Guide, recently interviewed Nnimmo at the COP 16 (officially the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) conference in Cancun, Mexico.

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Health advocates condemn Binayak Sen’s unjust conviction

 On December 24th Dr. Binayak Sen, a vibrant voice for bringing health as a human right to the poor in India, was sentenced to life imprisonment for sedition. Hesperian has been campaigning against Dr. Sen’s unjust imprisonment and conviction, and stands with health advocates around the world in condemning his sentence. More than two dozen Nobel Prize winners have signed statements demanding his release and demonstrations have been held in many countries around the world against his trumped up conviction.

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Disabled Women Activists Change the World Through Music Video: Loud, Proud and Passionate!

Mobility International USA (MIUSA) has just released a loud, proud, and passionate new video, featuring 54 disabled women from 43 countries singing, dancing, and marching together to change the way the world perceives women with disabilities. Many of these women helped to develop Hesperian’s A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities, and co-author Jane Maxwell joined the women as an ally during MIUSA’s 5th International Women’s Institute on Leadership and Disability (WILD) conference, where the video was made.

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Hesperian Fellow Julie Cliff featured on KPFA Radio

On December 20, the KPFA program Africa Today featured Hesperian Fellow Julie Cliff talking about her work in Mozambique. Here’s a recording of the program (Julie’s interview starts at 29:30):

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US affirms Human Right to Health with signing of Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

On December 16, 2010, President Obama announced that the United States will sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Among many other rights, the Declaration affirms that indigenous people are entitled to the human right to health:

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Hesperian friend Amy Hagopian under attack by Bill O’Reilly

Amy Hagopian is an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, and a long time friend of Hesperian who is now under attack by Bill O'Reilly of Fox News. Hesperian’s Director, Sarah Shannon, has worked with Amy on the Governing Council of the American Public Health Association, and in various activities within the International Health Section of the APHA and the People's Health Movement.

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Voices from Climate Negotiations in Cancun

Jeff Conant, former Hesperian staffer and co-author of A Community Guide to Environmental Health, is at the United Nations COP 16 climate negotiations in Cancun, Mexico this week. He is working with Global Justice Ecology Project, Indigenous Environmental Network, Global Exchange, Climate Justice Now! and a host of other organizations, to draw attention to the urgent need for governments, civil society, and the international community to develop solutions to the ecological crisis.

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Women Helping Women in Rural Madagascar

In the 15 years since Hesperian first published A Book for Midwives in 1995, the book has been used all around the world by traditional midwives, as well as by women concerned about their health and the health of their newborn children.

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Global Mining and Health

Though he crooned “Because I Love You Too Much Baby” on David Letterman last week, rescued Chilean Miner Edison Pena might just as well have sung “Don’t Be Cruel”. The experience of working as a miner, for Pena and those like him throughout the world is more often than not, cruel.

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The Story of Electronics

Today, our partners at the Story of Stuff team released a new film - The Story of Electronics: Why ‘designed for the dump’ is toxic for people and the planet.

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Meet Hesperian in Denver & Louisville

This November, Hesperian staff members will be traveling to the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in Denver and the Global Missions Health Conference in Louisville. See below for Details!

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Filling Without Drilling: Supplies for Community Dentistry

We are excited to announce the release of the new update of Where There Is No Dentist, a resource that community health workers, educators, and individuals from around the world have used to help people care for their teeth and gums since 1983!

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Digging beneath the Chilean mine rescue

As we take a rare collective moment worldwide to celebrate the rescue of 33 men from a collapsed Chilean mine this month, our PHM colleague Tim Holtz calls on us not to forget the millions of other miners who never make the news.

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New Contraceptives Are Not Enough

Late last month, Nicholas Kristof wrote a column for the New York Times on contraception, “Birth Control Over Baldness” as well as a blog post called “An Aside on Contraception.”

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Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves Falls Short

Late in September, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the US’s commitment to a global initiative to improve the quality of cooking stoves for millions around the world, primarily in developing nations.

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Support Expanded Legal Rights for Midwives

Hesperian has long recognized the central role that midwives can play in pregnancy and birth around the world. The US is no exception. A recent New York Times article on September 24 about the possible legalization of direct-entry midwifery practice in the state of Illinois did a great job of summing up some of the current statistics surrounding birth practices in the U.S.

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Aruna Uprety speaks to Congress on Human Trafficking

This Thursday, long-time Hesperian friend and partner Aruna Uprety will speak in front of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs during a hearing on human trafficking, “Out of the Shadows: The Global Fight Against Human Trafficking.”

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Working for young women’s health and empowerment in Sudan

In July 2010, I spent two weeks traveling as a volunteer with the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation in Marial Bai, Southern Sudan, along with two friends, Sarah, a freelance journalist with the UK Guardian and Danielle, a domestic violence counselor in Seattle. The three of us initiated a twice-a-week girls club at a secondary school established by Valentino’s Foundation to provide a safe space for girls to discuss reproductive health issues and offer peer support, and conducted meetings with women entrepreneurs in the market to increase their access to resources.

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Bangladesh garment workers face repression for demanding a living wage

 Workers in Bangladesh, most of them women, have been organizing massive, country-wide campaigns in the garment sector. Led by Hesperian’s partner Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS), these workers are demanding that the minimum wage be raised from less than $24 a month to around $70 a month. After several months of protest, citizen-actions, and strikes, with most of the country’s garment workers participating, the government finally agreed to a raise and on July 29 announced that it would increase the minimum wage to $43 a month, nearly double what it was but still well under the poverty line.

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Inside Hesperian

Last December, I started in earnest to think about an ever-present fear in the college student’s life—finding an internship for the summer. I pored over job search websites, talked to my school’s counselors, and, when all else failed, sent a pleading mass email out to my contact list of family and friends. I vaguely referred to terms such as “social medicine” and “health equality” in my preferences for a job. I’m going to be a third-year student at Williams College in Massachusetts, and I wanted something that would intertwine my sociology major with my pre-med classes and my interest in social justice work.

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The Human Right to Water and Sanitation

Hesperian has long recognized safe water and sanitation as cornerstones to health and human dignity. Today we join the global water justice movement in celebrating a major victory: the United Nations General Assembly vote to recognize the human right to water and sanitation. 124 countries voted in favor of the resolution, while 41 voiced their opposition by abstaining, including the US, UK and Canada.

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Exposing the Cosmetics Industry: The Story of Cosmetics

Women and men spend millions of dollars every day to make themselves more attractive – and to poison themselves in the process.

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Environmental Justice in Detroit and Beyond – Fighting the World’s Largest Trash Incinerator

The next time some perky, well-meaning health professional cheers you on to take charge of your health, remember to ask her how to do it without breathing. That’s what it would take for Detroit residents who live in the shadow of the world’s largest incinerator, owned by Covanta.

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Health and Human Rights at the US Social Forum

 At the end of June, two staff members from Hesperian traveled to Detroit, Michigan for the United States Social Forum, where we joined 15,000 other community organizers and social justice activists from around the US to network, share, and learn. We’ll be blogging about the Social Forum over the next couple of weeks, and wanted to begin by sharing some of the inspiring stories we heard from people across the country who are organizing around the human right to health.

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World Cup of Health: The Netherlands vs. Spain

At Hesperian, as with much of the world, football fever is in the air as the final of the World Cup approaches. Isolated whoops of victory and cries of defeat can be heard around the office, as staff members surreptitiously (or not-so-surreptitiously) keep an eye on their favorite teams. Comparisons and discussions are inevitable, and it didn’t take long to connect the game with the subject that is constantly on our minds here: health. What if the fates of the two competitors in Sunday’s final were to be decided through their approach to health and social justice, as opposed to a lucky kick of a ball?

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Worker suicides focus attention on electronics factories

Over the past few weeks, a string of suicides in a Foxconn export factory in Shenzhen, China has brought world-wide attention to working conditions in the factories where modern electronics are made. Twelve suicides have been reported so far in 2010.

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Mongolian Edition of A Community Guide to Environmental Health

 The Mongolian edition of A Community Guide to Environmental Health was among the top 20 bookstore bestsellers in April and May! This thrilling news is due to the work of Hesperian translation partner Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, director of the Mongolia NGO Local Solutions which produced their edition of A Community Guide to Environmental Health in April of 2010.

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People’s Health Movement statement on Israel’s attack on the civilian ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza

The People’s Health Movement* (PHM), strongly condemns the Israeli government’s violent and premeditated attack on the civilian flotilla’s carrying peaceful activists and humanitarian aid to Gaza on 31 May 2010.

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SUPERFEST 2010, International Disability Film Festival

For a brief two days in Berkeley, California, people with disabilities (PWDs) can see themselves reflected on the silver screen. The 30th International Disability Film Festival, this Friday and Saturday June 4 and 5 celebrates the lives – both ordinary and extraordinary – of people with all types of disabilities.

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BP Oil Spill Clean-up Plans Fail to Address Health Issues

April’s BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico has dominated the media for the last few weeks, but the coverage has focused primarily on impact to wildlife and who’s going to pay for the cleanup. For an update on what’s going on with the spill right now, check out these alarming figures reported by Mother Jones Magazine. These interactive maps from The Guardian and USA Today show how the spill has grown since April 20.

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At Hesperian, every day is Bike to Work Day

As so often in the San Francisco Bay Area, the early morning was foggy and cool, and now the rain is coming down into the office courtyard outside Hesperian’s windows. Through the raindrops, you can glimpse at least eight staff bicycles locked to the stair railings.

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May Day: Remember the Dead, Fight for the Living

 Labor activists in the US have traditionally celebrated May 1, International Workers Day or May Day, with actions and rallies to raise awareness and support for all workers, and in particular to recognize the advances of trade unions. We love Peter Linebaugh’s “The Incomplete, True, Authentic and Wonderful History of May Day” which dates the beginning of May Day to 1886.

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Cochabamba Climate Change Conference Gives Voice to World’s Social Movements and Indigenous Peoples

Jeff Conant, a friend of Hesperian and co-author of A Community Guide to Environmental Health, spent last week attending the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia.

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Organic Health Response links community health to the planet’s health

In our work developing and sharing environmental health materials we have met many inspiring organizations working on innovative solutions to care for both people and the planet, some of whose stories are shared in A Community Guide to Environmental Health.

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India’s Unholy Nexus: a talk by human rights activist Kamayani

Who makes decisions about development? How do you fight injustice? When is violence justified?

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On the Radio, in Rwanda

We were recently contacted by Griffin Matthew, an energetic young graduate student from Stanford University. Last summer, Griffin used Hesperian materials to help produce a community-based radio program in Rwanda, and the program is now expanding to other countries. We are thrilled to have our materials transformed into a medium that can carry the message of health for all to those who don’t have our books and those who cannot read.

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The Story of Bottled Water

 Let’s raise a glass of tasty tap water to toast Annie Leonard for producing another informative, entertaining and accessible video, The Story of Bottled Water (watch it free on the web).

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The Undermining of Haitian Health Care: Setting the Stage for Disaster

One of the barriers to health after the earthquake has been the lack of medically trained Haitians to care for the sick and wounded. The blame for this can be laid squarely on the doorstep of the US government which sponsored the 2004 coup that removed Aristide from power and shuttered the medical school he founded. This article tells the (very short) story of that medical school, but it also tells of how the students continued their education at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Cuba, and returned to Haiti to work tirelessly after the disaster. Hesperian, MEDICC, and ELAM collaborated in the production of a 4-language medical glossary (Kreyol/ English/ Spanish/ French) in the days after the earthquake.

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Celebrating International Women’s Day

 For almost a century the world has celebrated International Women’s Day, not only to recognize women’s many achievements and contributions, but also to acknowledge the challenges they still face. On March 8, 2010, Hesperian will honor all women around the world, and especially the women of Haiti and Chile who are struggling to rebuild their lives and support their families in the wake of natural disaster and tragedy.

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Putting the ‘Humanitarian’ Back in “Humanitarian Aid”

We were relieved to hear that Roseanne Auguste and our friends at the Haitian women’s organization APROSIFA survived the earthquake and are taking part in the relief efforts to rebuild a stronger Haiti. We worked closely with APROSIFA as they translated and produced Kote Fanm Pa Jwenn Dokte (Where Women Have No Doctor) in Haitian Kreyòl. The following report by Beverly Bell highlights the efforts of these incredible women to build community and help one another rather than remaining passive recipients of less than adequate aid. This article was originally posted on the Other Worlds website at: http://www.otherworldsarepossible.org/another-haiti-possible/putting-humanitarian-back-humanitarian-aid

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Building an occupational health and safety movement in Asia

Last month, we had the pleasure of being visited by Sanjiv Pandita and Omana George from the Hong Kong-based Asia Monitor Resource Center, a partner organization for our book-in-progress, A Worker’s Guide to Health and Safety. Sanjiv and Omana were in the US to speak about worker organizing for safe workplaces in the electronics, garment, toy, sport shoe and ship-breaking/ship demolition industries. The issues of worker organizing, occupational health and safety, and environmental health are becoming increasingly important in Asia as it has become the factory for the world as well as the global dumping ground.

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Health resources in solidarity with Haiti

The day after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Hesperian worked quickly to upload digital copies of Kote ki pa gen dokte (Where There Is No Doctor in Kreyòl), Kote Fanm Pa Jwenn Dokte (Where Women Have No Doctor in Kreyòl), and other health materials in Hatian Kreyòl, French, Spanish, and English to our website.

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Afghan publisher reconnects after 15 years

For over 15 years, Dr. Hamidullah Saljuqi and Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (CHA) have used Hesperian materials in their development work in Afghanistan. However, we were unaware of this work until recently when Dr. Saljuqi contacted us and informed us that CHA had translated Where Women Have No Doctor and A Book for Midwives into Dari over 10 years ago to use in their health programs. We were very excited to learn about the work of CHA, and to “discover” a  partner that is acknowledged as one of the most relevant organizations for humanitarian assistance and social development in Afghanistan. 

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Happy holidays from Hesperian

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Novartis threatens Indian generic drug industry

Health activist Dr. Gopal Dabade recently came to Berkeley to speak on the ongoing struggle against Swiss Pharmaceutical company Novartis in India. Dr. Dabade is a Hesperian partner who developed the Kannada edition of Where There Is No Doctor, and he has long been working for the rational use of essential medicines.

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PHM-US Editorial featured on cover of The Lancet

The latest issue of The Lancet features the editorial below, written by members of the People’s Health Movement-US. Click here to view the full December 5, 2009 Lancet, which also includes a letter from PHM activists Wim De Ceukelaire and Pol De Vos from Belgium, "Social movements are key towards universal health coverage."

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Naomy Ruth Esiaba Works for Change in Kenya

On page 210 of A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities, there’s a story told by Naomy Ruth Esiaba, a polio survivor and woman of great determination from Kisumu, Kenya. In her story, Naomy recalls how, despite strong beliefs in her community that women with disabilities could not (and should not) become pregnant, Naomy did just that. She very much wanted to be a mother, loved children, and was delighted to be pregnant. But when she went for a check-up, the doctor told her to have an abortion right away because her disability would damage the developing baby. Women with disabilities are often encouraged to have abortions, even in countries where abortions are illegal.

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Partnership for Honduran Health Before the Coup

The current coup d’etat in Honduras and the suppression of democratic rights has made health work by many of Hesperian’s partner NGOs much more difficult. We are very concerned about their safety and the repression faced by the communities they serve. Here is a description of one kind of community health program sent to us prior to the coup.

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Asian organizations fight for the rights of injured workers

According to The International Labor Organization (ILO), about 2.1 million workers die every year worldwide from occupational accidents. That number does not include the workers who are injured, sick, or permanently disabled, or the many millions of accidents that are never reported. Because both companies and governments have developed a model of doing business that prioritizes economic gain over people’s lives and wellbeing, workers and their families end up bearing the brunt of occupational accidents. But workers in Asia are uniting against this model, saying, “No amount of money is worth a human life.”

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Hesperian’s Deborah Bickel on the revision of HIV, Health, and Your Community

The following is an interview with Deborah Bickel, a former member of Hesperian’s Board and now on staff as a writer, technical advisor and editor. Deborah has recently joined Hesperian editor Susan McCallister to work on a revised edition of Hesperian’s HIV, Health, and Your Community to respond to changes in the epidemic and possibilities for treatment since it was written.

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