Partner Profile: WEAVE

We published Where Women Have No Doctor, our first women’s health book, in 1997. Incorporating stories and easy to understand information, this book was truly a model of collaborative effort --reviewed by women in over 40 countries and illustrated by more than 50 women from 23 different --and all without email!

By 2008 this book has been translated into 29 different languages, including Arabic, Cebuano, Hindi, Tibetan, and Chinese, with five more currently in process. You can visit our translations page to see the list of languages.

Our newest translation, which we are thrilled to announce, is a Burmese edition of Where Women Have No Doctor. This book was produced by our translation partner WEAVE (Women’s Education for Advancement and Empowerment), whom we’ve been working with since 2005.

WEAVE was founded in 1990 with the intent to empower indigenous women and support their needs and basic human rights by focusing on the key areas of education, health, economic empowerment, and self reliance. Their projects were originally based in the Karen and Karenni refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border, but they currently have offices in the Thai cities of Chiang Mai, Mae Sot, and Mae Hong Son. There are at least 140,000 Burmese refugees in Thailand, and another 500,000 displaced persons in Myanmar’s ethnic states. Burmese is spoken by approximately 75% of the people in the refugee camps, 60% of people in these ethnic areas, and most of the medics and health services providers.

WEAVE works in cooperation with local community-based health service providers, who have limited funds in carrying out their health education work, and they also develop partnerships with refugee women’s organizations. While there are many NGO’s working in the area, their work is mainly with refugee camps inside Thailand, and focus only on medical emergencies.

WEAVE’s health materials reach far inside Myanmar and other neighboring countries, and are being used by backpack medical teams and medics in many remote locations. 
The Burmese translation of Where Women Have no Doctor will be distributed through WEAVE’s network of humanitarian and health services providers along the Thailand-China-India border; all clinics and medics in the refugee camps will be given copies, and the book will be distributed to NGOs and community-based organizations. We are really excited to see that this information will get into the hands of those that need it the most.

**Hesperian encourages translations and adaptations of all of our materials through our open copy right.**