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. These practices have informed and shaped many of our materials, including our current undertaking of the major revision of Where There Is No Doctor. We are pleased to share with you the following profile of Dr. Bang recently posted to guardian.co.uk.
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decipher, had been photocopied and re-bound so many times that even new copies were mostly illegible, and contained out of date medical information.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.
Around the same time, Hesperian was looking for groups to begin translations of our newest book, A Community Guide to Environmental Health – Dr. Narita didn’t feel he could take the project on directly, but recommended one of his partners from the work on Where There is No Doctor, Mao Boran. Mr. Boran recruited two partners, a medical translator and an illustrator, and together with support from Dr. Narita they worked tirelessly to translate Environmental Health into Khmer, and to adapt 179 illustrations for a Cambodian setting. Throughout the process, they ensured that the page layout and numbers matched the English edition, so that Khmer and English speakers can work together using the two books.
Both books are now available in Khmer at three bookstores in Cambodia – Angkor Thom Bookstore, International Bookstore, and Peace Book Center – and can be purchased together for a reduced price. In addition, OMF is using both books as a part of their community health education and health evangelism work. Cambodia faces an array of obstacles to achieving health for all; 34% of the population lives on less than one dollar per day, and just under half of all Cambodia children under five are malnourished.
Mao writes, ‘I'm really proud to be part of the project, and always feel good when I got home and see the book. I expect to have more opportunity to expand my knowledge from translation, as well as to bring benefit to Cambodian people. What is most important is that I am really grateful for Hesperian to have brought books to Cambodia.’ Mao completed the translation just in time for his recent marriage, and we wish him the best in both ventures!
You can see a full list of Khmer translations of Hesperian titles here.
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.
Read statements from our partners in Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (the Peoples’ Health Movement – India) and The Lancet below, and a statement from Dr. Sen here. You can also read mainstream media coverage of the initial protests against his sentence here, listen to radio coverage here, and find more information on the Free Binayak Sen campaign website. The campaign will be organizing a Global Day of Protest around January 30th, including a protest outside of the Indian Consulate in San Francisco on January 28th at 10am.
PHM India (JSA) statement on Binayak Sen's conviction
Date: 27 Dec 2010
We, the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, a coalition of national networks and organizations actively working for health rights in the country, express our outrage at the verdict of the Raipur district and sessions court, on 24th December 2010, declaring Dr Binayak Sen, General Secretary of the Chhattisgarh People's Union for Civil Liberties and Vice-President of the National PUCL, guilty of sedition and treason, and sentencing him to life imprisonment.
Dr Sen has an illustrious record of over 25 years of selfless public service in areas of health and human rights. He has been an active member and former convenor of the Medico Friend Circle, a national organization of health professionals working towards an alternative health system responsive to the needs of the poor. He has been closely associated with the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, the Indian chapter of the People’s Health Movement. In recognition of his work, the Christian Medical College, Vellore conferred on him the Paul Harrison Award in 2004, which is the highest award given to an alumnus for distinguished service in rural areas. He continues to be an inspiration to successive generations of students and faculty. Many of his articles based on his work have been internationally appreciated.
His indictment under the draconian and undemocratic Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2006, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 is utterly condemnable. Not only has the farcical nature of the trial been reported in the media, the charges against Dr Sen, of engaging in anti-national activities, have been widely held as baseless. This judgment is an unacceptable attempt to intimidate and vilify those who advocate for the rights of the poor and the marginalized, and reveals the indiscriminate use of state machinery to stifle democratic dissent.
JSA believes that a great injustice has been done, not only to Dr Sen but also to the democratic fabric of this country. JSA salutes Dr Sen’s work, and demands that justice be delivered in his case.
Binayak Sen’s conviction: a mockery of justice
The Lancet
January 8, 2011
On Jan 4, the day this issue of The Lancet went to press, Binayak Sen should have been celebrating his 61st birthday. Instead, found guilty of treason and sedition by a court in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, Sen is facing the bleak prospect of a life behind bars. It is an inhumane sentence for a committed humanitarian, whose life before his imprisonment was devoted to improving the health and welfare of some of the most marginalised and poverty-stricken people in India—the Adivasi. This work led to Sen becoming the first Indian recipient of the Jonathan Mann award for Global Health and Human Rights in 2008.
From the outset the charges against Sen reeked of political motivation—a reaction to Sen’s tireless documentation of human rights abuse at the hands of the state. He was accused, on the flimsiest of evidence, of acting as a courier for the imprisoned Maoist leader Narayan Sanyal. The subsequent trial, spanning more than 3 years, was Kafkaesque. Its conclusion is a travesty.
Reaction to the ruling was swift, with the Indian press unanimous in their criticism of the court’s decision. Amnesty International described Sen as a prisoner of conscience, while a statement signed by over 80 prominent academics worldwide decried the sentence as savagery. The Lancet adds its voice to this chorus of condemnation.
In April, 2009, we called for the Indian Government to intervene in the case, and ensure that justice be done. An injustice can still be overturned by India’s supreme court. If it is not, the already profound damage done to India’s credentials as an upholder of human rights will be damaged for years to come. Where the state failed to provide for its poorest citizens, Sen stepped in to give them health care and to champion their rights. His reward: to be convicted under a section of the penal code first introduced by the British to quell political dissent, and later used to convict Mahatma Ghandi. On his conviction, Ghandi argued that the administration of the law had been “prostituted consciously or unconsciously for the benefit of the exploiter”. The conviction of Binayak Sen shows that, in parts of modern India, precious little has changed.
Photo courtesy of AFP/Getty Images via The Lancet.
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.”
In these two pieces, Kristof bemoans the lack of funding for new contraceptive technology, saying, “Yet after three millennia, although we can now intercept a missile in outer space, we’re often still outwitted by wandering sperm. Largely, that’s because research on contraception is pitifully underfunded; if only family planning were treated as seriously as baldness! Contraception research just hasn’t received the resources it deserves, so we have state-of-the-art digital cameras and decades-old family planning methods.” He argues that cheap contraceptives could make a huge difference in the developing world.
We agree! Helping families plan and space their children is an essential part of empowering women, especially in developing countries – and investing in new technologies that make contraception more accessible, easier to use, or with less side effects, is to be championed. However, the problem of promoting contraception use in developing countries (and here in the U.S.) is not as easy as just creating new methods.
Hesperian friend and partner Melissa Smith, medical editor of Where Women Have No Doctor, summarized these challenges in her response to Kristof, published in the comments section of the NY Times blog:
While researching low-cost effective contraceptives is critical to improving global health, let us not forget to support grassroots action to deal with barriers to family planning.
As a physician in poor Guatemalan communities, I witnessed high maternal and infant mortality rates. Data show that simply spacing pregnancies by two years can dramatically reduce these deaths.
Contraceptives, however, often sit unused on clinic shelves. Family planning myths, religious barriers, and resistance from male partners mean many women cannot access contraceptives.
Effective strategies to address these barriers do exist, though they are not widely known. Grass-roots activists are working throughout the world to change this by publicizing ways communities can overcome these challenges.
If we focus on research but neglect grassroots strategies, we run the risk that these new methods will gather dust on clinic shelves along with existing contraceptives – affordable or not.
Melissa Smith, M.D
For more information about grass-roots efforts see: Community Action for Women’s Health and Empowerment, a work in progress at the Hesperian Foundation.
Thanks, Melissa, for bringing to light many of the complexities and nuances of this issue!
Bangladesh garment workers face repression for demanding a living wage
Bangladeshis have asked the international community to bring pressure on the government of Bangladesh to free all BCSW staff and other organizers, withdraw the criminal cases, and guarantee the safety of the workers and worker leaders under attack. Please join us (and Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Labor Rights Forum) in expressing our solidarity by supporting the following actions:
- Write a letter to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh insisting on: the reinstatement of Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity's NGO status, the release of Kalpona Akter and Babul Akhter, and a cease to all harassment against BCWS.
- Ask Walmart, Sears, H&M, JC Penney and their supplier Nassa Group to call for an end to the persecution of human rights leaders in Bangladesh.
- Visit the Maquila Solidarity Network page “Fair Wage and Safe Workplaces in Bangladesh” to learn more about campaigns and conditions in Bangladesh.
UPDATE (9/13/2010): Through a massive outpouring of international solidarity, three Bangladeshi worker leaders (Kalpona Akter and Aminul Islam of BCWS, and Babul Akhter of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation) were released from jail last week. Unfortunately, Montu Ghosh, legal advisor to the Garment Sramik Trade Union Kendra, remains imprisoned, BCWS leaders are still facing legal charges, and Bangladeshi workers and organizers continue to face violence from employers and the state.
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.
Workers at Foxconn face grueling work conditions: excessive forced overtime, extremely low pay, unattainable productivity targets, and a harsh and isolating management system –workers on the shop floor are not even allowed to speak to each other during their 12-14 hour work day! More than 300,000 workers live inside the factory walls, their lives completely controlled by Foxconn.
Foxconn responded to the suicides by blaming the victims. Foxconn’s CEO, Terry Gou, asserted that workers were committing suicide to get compensation for their families. Instead of improving working conditions, Foxconn installed nets around dormitories and buildings, brought in dancers and computers to entertain workers, and demanded that workers sign a contract swearing they will not commit suicide and that they will report anyone who is struggling with mental health problems.
Though Foxconn is responsible for the conditions in the factory, the bigger culprits in these suicides are the brand names that Foxconn supplies – Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Nokia, and Motorola – which demand cheaper and cheaper labor.
A Hong Kong-based group, Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) has been spearheading the movement to bring the working conditions in Foxconn to light. SACOM is demanding the company reform its management methods, permit workers to form trade unions through democratic election, and asking that the brands change their purchasing model to end the "race to the bottom" which leads to these inhuman working conditions.
Apple, one of Foxconn’s main buyers, launched its 4th generation of iPhone amidst the horror of these continued suicides. But even as Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, declared that Apple suppliers were not sweatshops, a worker at Foxconn died of exhaustion after working 34 hours straight with no breaks! To increase the pressure on Foxconn and the corporations it supplies, SACOM urges you to sign a petition and to boycott Foxconn’s products.
Sadly, Foxconn is not alone when it comes to unhealthy and unsafe work conditions – factory workers all around the world sacrifice their lives and health for our electronics (see the Samsung case in Korea, the RCA case in Taiwan, and the IBM case in the U.S.).
Hesperian is currently developing a book to help make accessible knowledge and techniques workers can use to organize for safer and healthier working conditions, both in and out of the workplace. You can read more about our ongoing book project, A Worker’s Guide to Health and Safety on our website.
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.
The book has been a huge success outside of bookstores as well. Three government ministries (Health, Environment and Education) are distributing 400-450 books each from through their offices in the local soums (counties) of Mongolia. Journalists have published at least 5 interesting and engaging articles directly related to the book in newspapers and magazines. Mongolian National Television have produced and broadcasted "environmental health" spots to coincide with the book release and Oyungerel has been hard at work encouraging other media to publicize the book and its contents. Recently, a Mongolian health blogger offered to publish the book chapter by chapter on his blog! Also, some journalists are initiating a series of articles calling upon Mongolians to utilize the information in our book to transform local communities.
During the development of this edition, Local Solutions discussed with Hesperian the necessity to add a chapter on geothermal heating to their edition. Poor air quality during the long and hard Mongolian winters is a huge health issue there. As they were compiling the information for the chapter, the test building with the first geothermal heating system was not providing the hoped-for results, and the engineers were worried that geothermal might not prove sufficient to overcome the cold Mongolian winter. As it turned out, by the time the book was sent to the printer, they learned that geothermal heating worked in a completely unexpected place – an old kindergarten building which contained more insulation than the test building. While timing did not permit Local Solutions to include that story in their edition, they recently wrote us:
”After publishing the Community Guide for Environmental Health, we were so encouraged to see that Mongolian public is VERY enthusiastic about learning everything to make their lifestyle greener. Unfortunately, our winter is the biggest enemy of our environment – just imagine – one village burns 18,000 tons of wood in one winter. So, we are starting to work on the second book with your style of simple language and drawings.”
Local Solutions fundraised enough to bring 4 consultants from JUCCCE (Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy), an environmental NGO and a network of eco-friendly specialists and engineers, to Huvsgul province. Combined with work they were already carrying out in the capitol Ulaanbaatar and Selenge province, Oyuna reports “I am expecting extensive recommendations from JUCCCE team on how to green Mongolia's harsh winter. They will advise on how to improve building codes, insulation, heating systems, sealing practices, alternative fuels etc. Following their advice, Local Solutions is planning to compile a book "How to Make Winters Green" that will be for the general public. We are visualizing that it is going to be at least 500 pages explaining engineering stuff with simple illustrations and simple language.”
Misereor, the agency that helped fund the printing of the book, will be meeting with Local Solutions to discuss how to undertake some of the projects described in the book. It should be a fascinating and productive discussion.
We are looking forward to a Bay area visit from Local Solutions in August to hear more about their work and how they use the Community Guide as an organizing tool. If you are in the Bay Area and would like to be notified about (invited to!) a brown bag lunch talk at our office, let us know by writing to tawnia@hesperian.org.
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.
In the United Sates, May 1 has also become an important day for immigration activists since 2006 when a broad coalition of groups mobilized millions of people in the U.S. for a “Day without Immigrants” to call attention to the role of immigrants in the U.S. economy. With the passing of a new, tough immigration law in Arizona last week, this year’s May Day is particularly important for the movement. The law, known as SB 1070, gives police officers unprecedented authority to stop and detain anyone who is suspected of being in the country without legal papers.
But despite the increase in worker occupational health and safety programs that labor organizing has won, each year thousands of workers are killed and millions become ill or are injured from unsafe conditions in their workplaces. Each year, workers and unions around the world, including AFL-CIO member unions in the US, recognize April 28 as an International Day of Mourning, or Workers Memorial Day.
This year’s Memorial Day is particularly significant for Hesperian because the Korean organization Supporters for the Health and Right of People in Semiconductor Industry (SHARPS) led by Dr. Jeong-ok Kong, one of our partners in the development of our book-in-progress A Worker’s Guide to Health and Safety, is remembering the workers who have died of occupational cancers in Korea. The most recent case, the death of Ji-yeon Park — a young worker from Samsung’s Onyang semiconductor factory — who died of leukemia at age 23, came less than one month after Samsung workers, their families, and community supporters participated in the 1st Memorial Week of occupational deaths of semiconductor workers to honor the memory of the many other workers who gave their lives working at Samsung. There are now 23 documented cases of Samsung workers who have suffered from blood cancers like leukemia or lymphoma, and 9 workers among them have already died.
Please take a moment to visit the recently unveiled Stop Samsung website, watch the workers and their families tell their story, and sign the petition to demand that Samsung acknowledge its responsibility for the cancer deaths of its workers; and the Korean government enforce its laws to protect workers.
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?
These were some of the questions raised by a presentation by noted Indian human rights activist Kamayani Bali Mahabal in Berkeley in April during a talk titled 'Naxalism, Violence and Development: The Unholy Nexus.' She was discussing her fact-finding mission in Chhattisgarh and other regions affected by the Indian government’s “Operation Green Hunt” against Maoist insurgents – commonly known as Naxalites – in the so-called "Red Corridor."
She visited the site of the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, near Dantewada, run by Himanshu Kumar, which was completely leveled in May 2009 by a group of 1,000–1,500 police. For 17 years Kumar had worked with the local people in Chhattisgarh helping to provide food, housing, medicine, and job training to those who had been forced from their traditional lands. The rise of a government-funded paramilitary force, “Salwa Judum,” in the area caused alarm; in the course of fighting supposed Naxalite terrorists, the Judum and police were accused of rapes, murders, and other human rights violations. Kumar began filing official complaints on behalf of the victims; as a result, he received a police notice one Saturday to evacuate the next day. Within 2 hours, the ashram was bulldozed. Kumar was charged with aiding the Naxalites, running a prostitution ring (the police found a lot of condoms in the ashram, which Kumar used to teach about HIV and safe sex), and finally kidnapping a tribal woman (who had sought refuge in his home). His trial is still pending.
So why did this happen?
A little background: The regions of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Andhra Pradesh, among others, are home to the earliest inhabitants of the subcontinent, the “tribal” people or adivasi. Living in isolated groups in central India’s hills and forests, they practiced small-scale agriculture and collective land ownership. But during the Mughal and British periods, their lands were taken away and given to feudal landlords, leaving them impoverished and in debt. At the time of Indian independence, the tribals were recognized as needing special programs to support their development and laws were adopted to protect their rights.
However, it also happens that the traditional adivasi lands are rich in minerals, especially tin, coal, dolomite, bauxite, and iron ore, and international corporations became interested in exploiting that wealth. The Indian government created a plan to remove the people from their lands in order to “protect” them and “bring them into the mainstream.” But the adivasi didn’t want to go.
According to Kamayani Mahabal, India’s 60 years of independence have largely benefited the already-privileged classes. In 1967, the deep, persistent inequalities in Indian society and the ineffective implementation of the laws set up to protect tribal rights led to an uprising by poor farmers in the village of Naxalbari in West Bengal, where there had been a history of peasant agitation. The Naxalbari uprising was put down by the police after a few months and the leaders, some of whom were Maoists, were arrested. But the ideas did not die, and the Naxalite movement grew, even in spite of brutal repression by the police.
Thus the tribals find themselves now in a “sandwich” (to use Bahabal’s term) between the police (and Salwa Judum) and the Naxalites. The government wants to remove them from the land, and the Maoists want to help them get it back. Both sides use violent tactics, and the violence is increasing, with civilians forming the greater percentage of the casualties. But who is a civilian? Recognizing that the tribals are suspicious of outsiders and often speak different languages, the government instituted a force of SPOs (“special police officers”) recruited from among the local people with the promise of a steady paycheck. The Naxalites also recruit from the local people. And the local people sometimes switch allegiances, depending on their needs for livelihood or security.
In her talk, Mahabal made it clear that she opposes violence by any group. She insists that the state has a responsibility to protect its citizens (including the tribals), which they are not doing. Instead of using state resources to fund programs to alleviate poverty and malnutrition, the government is promoting militarism to combat “the greatest single internal security threat” India has ever faced.
So what does she suggest? The Naxalites and the government should have a dialogue.
But do the Naxalites really want to talk? They have said that if a discussion is arranged with Arundhati Roy or a similar supportive celebrity as mediator, they will come. Yet they also say that they do not believe the Indian government supports their interests. They want autonomy, to establish their own state, based on their own principles.
According to Mahabal, the government needs to take the first step. But does the government want to talk? If they initiate a dialogue with the Naxalites, it means elevating them to the status of equals, not of “terrorists.” Will the government allow that?
And who represents the tribal people? If new leaders emerged from among the tribals to speak out against the atrocities, the government would likely arrest them, just as they arrested the activists working with Himanshu Kumar on the ashram, and as they arrested doctor and human rights worker Binayak Sen in 2007.
And what kind of development should take place in these areas? Adivasi culture and land use is protected under India’s Forest Rights Act of 2006, but those protections have largely been ignored. The tribals also suffer from crushing poverty, malnutrition, high maternal death rates, and high rates of suicide. Health and education services are needed, but with the violence and poverty that have characterized adivasi history, in the words of BD Sharma, for the adivasi “development means exploitation.” They need to be an equal partner in any development plans, and as of yet, they are barely even consulted.
Kamayani Bali Mahabal’s presentation in Berkeley was sponsored by AID-India Berkeley Chapter, Hesperian, the UC Berkeley Center for South Asia Studies, and People’s Health Movement USA. She is also an active member of PHM India.
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