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Community Clinics, Hospitals & Schools
Hospital Physiotherapist and Rehabilitation Program Coordinator Using Disabled Village Children and Helping Children Who Are Blind, Uganda, 2004
Sincere greetings to you and I wish you long life and your kindness/positive response to continue in the struggle for better life of the persons with disabililties. Thank you very much for honouring my request and sending me the most necessary books in helping me execute my work well. May the almighty Lord bless you. I have received two books and a letter from you:
- 1 copy of the Disabled Village Children. This is a very necessary book to me in this village setting where even getting a model to be used by the local artisans is a problem and I am sure this will improve my instructions on some designs of appliances. I am the head of the Physiotherapy Unit in the hospital;
- 1 copy of Helping Children Who Are Blind. I am happy to inform you that this book has landed in the most appropriate hands in Kibaaale District because I am coordinating the Rehabilitation Sector of Bunyoro Comprehensive Eye Services, a program supported by the Sight Savers International and we have children and adults (blind) already in the program and others continuously join. Thus, this copy will help all my MORA (Mobility Orientation & Rehabilitation Assistants) to improve on their training techniques. I once again thank the foundation very much for this program because so many people are willing to help and indeed have the potential to assist and only fail due to lack of instructional materials.
Community Clinic using Where There Is No Dentist, Ethiopia
I am one of your users who received all the books you sent. How much your books have been of value to me? I want to tell you one way. In my health center there is no physician. Due to this problem we nurses and health assistants do our duty as much as possible. There is one health worker that has done dental extraction. He doesn't know where anesthetic is given and what kind of teeth is pulled out. Simply if one patient complains of toothache or other problems, he pulled out by force. It is painful and hard. When you sent me Where There Is No Dentist, I read deeply and know where anesthesia is given and what kind of teeth should be pulled out. Then I got one patient that had a dental abscess. I gave the anesthestic in a good nerve site and used the proper extraction materials. I pulled correct teeth and without any pain. My staff admired everything that happened. But I told them that it is the result of the Hesperian Foundation. Now all my staff has good knowledge about how to remove bad teeth. So your foundation is our strength. Thanks.
Use of Disabled Village Children and Women's Health Exchange in a School for Mainstreaming Disabled Children, Kazakhstan
I'm a public health volunteer with Peace Corps. I want to thank you for all you have done for me so far. Thank you so much for all the copies of the Women's Health Exchange. I refer to your books often and use the material for instruction of personnel. I'm truly thankful to your organization. Without Hesperian I think that I'd be lost. I can't sing your praises enough. My primary job is the establishment of a special physical education curriculum in an experimental school. It is the first and only one of its kind in all of Kazakhstan and Russia that strives to mainstream students into the public sector. Disabled Village Children has become my bible. . . Thanks again for all you do.
Village Health Clinics and HIV Educators, Ghana, 2003
Many New Years greetings from Ghana! I received your generous donation of seven Hesperian Foundation books in early November. What a wonderful gift!
Thank you for your generosity and understanding that even though my community has a Peace Corps Volunteer now, your books will continue to guide them far into the future. I am writing you today not only to give a thousand THANKS, but to inform you of how and who are benefiting from your donation.
My village's health clinic has two nurses, Peace and Grace, but no doctors. It is the largest clinic within the Liati Traditional Area and is mainly visited by pregnant women and mothers & their children. I gave the nurses the copy of Where Women Have No Doctor hoping it can help them along with the many women who visit the clinic.
The Where There Is No Doctor book went to nurse Ama at a neighboring village clinic. The village is far from the main road and they have difficulty finding reliable transportation out.
The five copies of "HIV, Health, and Your Community," were distributed to people who have shown altruistic interest and easy-to-follow materials. Two of the copies went to two young men in my community. Richard, a local carpenter, is interested in starting an Anti-HIV club with the 20-30 crowd, and is using the book as the club's Bible. Randy-Teddy has been going house-to-house educating the people on general health issues and wants to start incorporating HIV/AIDS education into his work. The third copy was given to my village's Junior High school. I have been working with a Youth Health Club within the school for the past year. The club's mission is to learn and educate others on HIV/AIDS, STD's, teenage pregnancies, general health & hygiene, and making good life decisions for a healthy future. We integrate HIV/AIDS education through fun learning activities and drama skits, which are performed at the surrounding schools. The assisting teacher has taken the book for the clubs future years. It will be used as an educational tool for in-coming club members, and a resource guide to answer any existing questions.
The last two copies of "HIV, Health and Your Community" were given to other PCV's who want to work with HIV/AIDS issues for the secondary projects. Hilary Hershman is a science teacher in the Volta Region at a High School. She wants to use her copy to help other teachers incorporate HIV into their curriculum. Hilary had an HIV Awareness Week and used the book to help her create different events.
David Branigan is a new water and sanitation volunteer. David wrote, "The book is wonderfully comprehensive and clear. I plan to use it as a teaching resource in my community. It will be a source of information for myself and will be a reference for the community. I will teach and do many activities about HIV/AIDS in the schools and will freely let the children explore the books. The book is great at answering questions. I also plan to teach and share information with the headmaster and teachers in the schools. Many of them are seriously interested in understanding HIV thoroughly and instituting a strong health education program."
Thank you again for your kind donation. As you can see, the books will be used greatly and will benefit many groups of people throughout Ghana.
In your letter, you asked if I have any comments or suggestions… yes I do. In my Public Health Class in College we used "WTIND" as our main textbook. From that point, I voted it my favorite book and was surprisingly useful even when living in a developed country with some of the best health care. It uses comprehensive language that us non-science majors can follow. [...] I am now working every day with the people who you intend to have as an audience and am able to say that your simplified language and explanations are written extremely well to guide all type of literacy levels (even the college students). The "List of Difficult Words" section is mandatory because of the wide range of users. Another incentive about the books are the way you have organized the text. The context is easy to follow along with the different colored sections (maybe the "List of Difficult Words" could be put in a different colored section because of its importance and need to find).
Some things to consider for future books could be to replace some of the illustrations with actual pictures. One thing I've learned since coming into the PC is how helpful photos are compared to simple illustrations. Actual photos seem to make things come alive, making the matter more clear, easier to relate to, and easier understood. I think it's important for people to relate and see correlations between what the books say and their problems. Much of your audience still believes in traditional beliefs, such as Guinea Worms come from bad blood and not from contaminated water. Maybe if they see an actual person with the same problem in the book, it may help to encourage them to follow the books advise. Another suggestion that may help emphasize an important message or direction is not only to bold the text, but to print it in another color besides black. I'm not sure how helpful these suggestions will be since they will probably be on the expensive side.[...]
Endless Thanks,
Sunnive Rodgers, Peace Corps Volunteer
Establishment of Basic Health Care through a Primary School in Kenya
On behalf of the school where I teach and where you sent us a book entitled "Where There Is No Doctor," also as the in-charge of the First Aid Department, I wish to sincerely thank you a lot for your genuine generosity for such a wonderful book you sent us and which has proved its greatest use straight away. Please thank you a lot. Your book is so good beyond good. We are grateful indeed. Schools in Kenya now do not these days get any books from the government. Corruption is so high here. Instead if the P.T.A. or the school committee does not organise to buy useful books such as that one of yours then no way out; they miss them completely. That book you sent is not only useful to the school but it has already proved its goodness far back to the community around the school and beyond. Since it arrived in the school it has so stimulated the parents around the school seriously to a point of seeking lots of assistance from the school on what they've seen done to its affected children with their school.
Great thanks are just owed to you for your well thought of and published book. The school is in a remote place, far away from the main town, hospital or road. The teachers of the school under me sat down, studied the book and discussed and agreed to offer and donate some money to buy the drugs and some equipment they could afford, to help the children and the villagers. In return, the villagers, also seeing that, have come up to also donate and keep the stock up. As I read your book and letter I learnt you still have some three more good books, which could also prove very useful to the school and the community just as the first one. Kindly sir send us those books, please: Helping Health Workers Learn; Where There Is No Dentist and Disabled Village Children. Also for your information, we the teachers of this Primary School render free services to the school and community. We need no money from our children. Until then sir, I humbly request you to acknowledge this letter and the request therein.