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Feedback from our readers/users

From a former intern at Kisii Special School in Kenya
I have known about Hesperian Foundation for a while now. I first heard about Disabled Village Children when I visited Dagoretti Children’s Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. The school where I did my internship (Kisii Special School in Kenya) also had the book. I used this book a lot (for example we used it making toys for the children and thinking about a new playground). I always wanted to have my own copy of the book. I recently gave a training about children with disabilities in Bulgaria and ordered the book. It just has so much information and good pictures too.

From a long time Hesperian supporter and medical mission volunteer
In 1985, as a physician assistant (PA) serving in the U.S. Army, I was notified that I was going to be deployed to Honduras. Although no one could or would confirm it, I surmised that at least some of my time might be devoted to medical missions to remote villages. I had happened to see a copy of Where There Is No Doctor in a book store, so I bought it and took it with me.

When I got to Honduras, I found that there were indeed medical missions going on. I volunteered for as many as possible, but soon found that providing care for common ailments on a one-time basis was unlikely to bring about any lasting improvement in the campesinos' health. I therefore started bringing my copy of your excellent book and verbally translated many of the recommendations in it (e.g. recipe for cough syrup, recipe for rehydration mixture, preventive measures against varicose veins, etc.) to my patients while treating their ailments…

Many years later, I participated in a medical mission to a rural village in Jamaica. At that time, I was struck by the large number of women with gynecological or obstetric complaints. So, the next time I got to go there, I brought a copy of Where Women Have No Doctor, and gave it to the medical director of the nearest hospital.

I don't know how much, if any, impact my efforts have made, but I know that they would have had much less were it not for your fine publications. I have not been to the Third World recently, but I have been wondering whether anything has been proposed to help people there protect themselves from environmental hazards, so I was glad to see that you have published a book on the subject.

Keep on fighting the good fight!

From a participant of Volunteer in Missions (VIM) I am a Christian volunteer in missions (VIM) who has had the privilege of training indigenous people in some aspects of dentistry. I have used the textbook, Where There Is No Dentist, as a reference manual in the training. We give each student a personal copy.

Registered Nurse Utilizes Donde no hay doctor on a Mission’s Team to Iquitos, Peru

I am going on a mission’s team to Iquitos Peru. There is a very poor Indian barrio in the city called Masusa, on the Amazon. This is our 3rd trip. The first was a full blown physician staffed medical outreach. Our second was to build a church 25 miles outside
Iquitos in the jungle. This trip, I will be back in Masusa doing 30 minutes a day of health teaching as part of a morning outreach to the women. I am a registered nurse, but confess to having no idea about teaching in such a primitive community as health care goes. Your books were recommended to me by a local missionary. I am going to be using them as my only resource. I have the book in English and Spanish as well as the download.

I hope to leave the Spanish book with a woman active in the church, along with a thermometer, a canister of salt and sugar and the recipe for hydration solution. The intent is to bring people to the church for prayer as well as practical help. I would love to attend the seminar you have to train healthcare workers as I plan on participating in more outreach to river churches where there really is no doctor.

Thank you for the incredible resource,

Hesperian Publications Inspire UW Madison Masters Candidate to Construct Waste Water Infrastructure in El Salvador

I am a second year masters in bacteriology at UW madison. At the moment I am working in a civil and environmental engineering and bacteriology mixed lab. I am also working as the translator and workshop and educational materials team developer and leader. I was introduced to your organization through your book Sanitation and Cleanliness. Our EWB group is working with two refugee turned into permanent and slowly developing communities in El Salvador. Our team made a "dumbed" down version of the book and added some specific info that was pertinent to our villages to distribute to the villagers and we used that book as a reference basically. I realized after being there that we had to make it even simpler for people and children to understand, so currently we are designing a kids coloring book that basically displays the same info.

The actual engineering project we are working on is the construction of a waste water infrastructure to stop the waste water from running through the streets. We are also hoping to modify the existing low-scale waste water treatment system so it can meet capacity and hopefully improve the quality of the effluent that flows into the river (where children swim and women wash clothes).

So your books have been a tremendous inspiration for us to develop workshops and create appropriate material for the wide range of ages and educational backgrounds that exist within these villages.

thank you so much.

Hesperian Booklets inspire High School Sophomore in New Jersey to Create Comic Books Educating Children about Safe Water, Sanitation, and Cleanliness

I purchased your materials so I can learn more about Safe Water and Sanitation and Cleanliness. I would like to turn your books into comic books to be used to educate, especially children. I am a high school sophomore in New Jersey. When I was in 8th grade, as part of a "capstone" project, I created a comic book for an organization called Prevention First, which educates teens about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

I recently read an article about Feliciano Santos and his organization Estamos in the New York Times. As you probably know Feliciano uses music to educate the African population about water sanitation and cleanliness. I immediately came up with the idea to create a comic book that can also be used to inform the public about these topics. As I continued my research of Estamos on the web, I discovered Hesperian and your books.

I contacted Mr. Santos and he is very excited about my idea. Perhaps a small cartoon of mine can be included in your quarterly E-newsletter. I plan on working on these comic books over the next couple of years as part of a Senior Capstone project that will also include a lengthy paper. If there is a specific topic that you think I should focus on, please let me know.

Read what others are saying about us!

Here you'll find excerpts from letters and e-mails we've received in recent years noting the impact of our materials on particular communities, organizations or projects.

• Training Programs and Community Centers
• Community Clinics, Hospitals & Schools
• Non-Governmental Organizations, Foundations, and Social Workers
• Libraries and Community Study Groups
• Individual Stories