Hesperian Weblog

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.

You may already be familiar with the Story of Stuff Project - they created a series of wildly popular web videos that expose the hidden costs of the consumer products we buy and toss at alarming rates. You can buy the DVD of Story of Stuff in English or Spanish, as well as the full-length book The Story of Stuff (352 pages of great information) on our website.

The Electronics TakeBack Coalition partnered with them on this new film, which asks why we throw away millions of tons of electronics every year, and what that means for the planet. You can watch the film here.

The timeliness of The Story of Electronics can’t be overstated, as the impact of the electronics industry on the health and lives of electronics workers around the world is coming into a global spotlight. In the current issue of Ms. Magazine, an article by Lily Bixler titled: “Korea’s Electronics Scandal: Why are Samsung’s women workers getting cancer?” quotes a Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency report:

“…incidences of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma among the companies’ women workers—including at Samsung—were 2.67 times that of the general population. For women assembly operators, the rate of lymphoma was an astonishing 5 times higher.”

You can learn more about health problems at Samsung on Tuesday November 16th at 5:30 pm, when Dr. Jeong-ok Kong MD MS of Korea will be speaking at Hesperian’s office about her work with SHARPS (Supporters for the Health and Rights of People in Semiconductor Industry). Dr. Kong, who is working with Hesperian in the development of A Worker’s Guide to Health and Safety, has just received the OHS Section International Award from the American Public Health Association.

Hesperian staff writer Miriam Lara Meloy learned about electronics workers health problems when she visited the export processing zone of Batam, Indonesia after the annual meeting of the Asian Network for the Rights of Occupational Accident Victims, ANROAV. This article by Elizabeth Grossman in the Pump Handle gives an overview.

And finally, our friend Madhu from Bhopal has just written us about incidents at a Foxconn plant in India. As you may recall from our June blog, Foxconn’s electronics plants in China were the site of a series of worker suicides earlier this year. From India, Madhu writes:

On 23rd July …in the assembly section, 120 workers complained of breathlessness, vomiting, giddiness and fainted. They were taken to Jaya Hospital in Sriperumbadur and discharged within an hour. During the night shift…107 workers complained of similar symptoms, including two workers vomiting blood. …Some of the workers from the morning shift, who were discharged by Jaya Hospital, fell sick again by the evening, and were taken to [another hospital].

The Story of Electronics is not only a story of threats to the environment from the overconsumption of electronics and problems with their disposal, but of the very real threats to the lives of workers who make these gadgets that we so hungrily consume.

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. Workers and organizers in Bangladesh, now with the support from the TUC and AFL-CIO among many other international labor organizations, poured unto the streets to protest the government’s lack of commitment to help people out of poverty and continued to demand a living wage. The government retaliated against the workers, and, pressured by the large corporations operating in Bangladesh (such as Walmart, H&M, and JC Penney and one of their suppliers Nassa Global Wear), began cracking down on and harassing workers and organizers associated with the BCSW. The government dissolved BCWS and filed criminal cases against several of its staff, including Kalpona Akter and Babul Akhter, as well as other workers and worker leaders. Some workers have been detained and others are currently hiding from the unsubstantiated criminal charges. To find those in hiding, police have been threatening and harassing their families, colleagues, and friends.

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.

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.

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. 

CHA was created in 1987 by a team of educated and experienced Afghan volunteers with the goal of raising community awareness of social justice issues. Over the past two decades CHA has expanded to play an important role in providing emergency assistance and delivering basic services in health, agriculture, education and infrastructure rehabilitation in Afghanistan. CHA began its health activities with training first aid workers to provide rescue services for war victims. Their health activities grew to providing vaccines and maternal and child health services in underserved areas.

We asked Dr. Hamidullah Saljuqi, Director of CHA, how they have used Hesperian health materials in their work, and he sent us the following letter.

“Where There is No Doctor” was the valuable book introduced to me and our team with Hesperian Foundation’s publications in 1996- 1997 when we started to design training program for Village Health Volunteers (VHVs) and School Health Volunteers (SHVs). As a good and relevant resource it fulfilled our requirements for designing curriculum for VHVs. In 2003-2004 CHA started training of Community Midwives in Farah province- Afghanistan for promoting skilled birth attendances as part of newly designed national health strategy. 

In 1999, I got two new books from Hesperian Foundation publications through a partner organization working in Afghanistan called (EO/CA = Ecumenical office/Christian Aid). I found it very interesting with very easy and demonstrative ways for understanding how to save motherhood and newborn and how to address the women problems which were very critical in Afghanistan. CHA had started working with it training Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and family planning services. Wow; these two books were the ones we were looking for.  Soon after we started reading it and went on to translate part of it into Dari (our national language).  These two books were “A Book for Midwives” and “Where Women Have No Doctor”. 

“A Book for Midwives” was the 1st book translated by CHA in 1999, followed by translation of “Where Women Have No Doctor” in 2000.

The destructive effects of longstanding conflict in Afghanistan was not only tangible on the economy, basic infrastructures, government administration, health, education, agriculture and other vital aspects of life for Afghan communities, but also on human and technical resources and capacities. All these effects worsened by appearance of Taliban regime which made impossible for female staff to work and even pictures were prohibited.

 It was more risky to work on translation and printing of these books during Taliban time inside Afghanistan and this is why we shifted our working place to Peshawar- Pakistan for completion of the translation and printing of the books.

It was a new beginning for CHA’s health sector; we established our Health Technical Support Unit and continued with developing health resources and education materials as well as conducting training for health related staff and community health volunteers.

The following books, manuals and teaching aid materials are translated, developed and printed by CHA:  

- “A Book for Midwives” translated in Dari. 
- “Where Women Have No Doctor translated” in to Dari.
- “Guidelines for Rational Use of Drugs” translated in Dari.
- “Contraceptive – Your Questions Answered” translated in Dari.
- “The Pills and Other Hormonal Contraceptives” translated in Dari.
- “Life Saving Skill for Midwives” translated in Dari.
- “Guidelines for Health centers management” prepared by CHA.
- “Guidelines for Village Health Volunteers (VHVs) and TBAs developed by CHA.
- “Manual of Trainers Guides” developed and adapted by CHA.
- “Manual for clinic nurses” developed and adapted by CHA.
- “Manual for clinic midwives” developed and adapted by CHA.
- “Manual of Family planning for health facilities staff” developed and adapted by CHA.
- “Supervision and Staff support” developed by CHA.
- “Drug Stock Management” translated by CHA.
- “Essentials of Delivery” translated and adapted by CHA.
- “Health Education Guide for health staff” prepared by CHA.
- Eight kinds of different fillip charts.
- Six kinds of different posters.
- Different protocols mainly on reproductive health.

Fortunately in December 2008, I visited the Hesperian website and started contacting the Hesperian team directly which happily got encouraging response from Ms. Tawnia Litwin. The new books from Hesperian introduced to me and we received copies of the new books.

“A Community Guide to Environmental Health” is currently being translated by CHA team to Dari language. CHA received a small grant from Hesperian for its translation and publication.  Up to November 9th, 2009 more than 400 pages of the mentioned book is translated as first draft in to Dari Language.

Special thanks on behalf of CHA and the Afghanistan people for Hesperian team for their precious work and resources for promoting a healthy world.

Best wishes
Dr. Hamidullah Saljuqi
CHA- Afghanistan

address:
Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (CHA)
House#2nd, 3rd & 4th, end of 5th Street of Siloo, University area, Near to Sangkasha mosque
Kabul- Afghanistan
Email: hamidsaljuqi@cha-net.org
website: www.cha-net.org

Naomy Ruth Esiaba Works for Change in Kenya

By Jane Maxwell, Hesperian Editor

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.

Though she was scared, Naomy decided to go through with the pregnancy. But she was afraid to go for any more medical check-ups and didn’t do so until she was quite far along. Fortunately, when she did go for her check-up, she saw a helpful doctor who assured her she was going to carry the pregnancy to term, and advised her to give birth in a hospital. Naomy carried her baby the full 9 months, and delivered a healthy, non-disabled girl. During a recent trip to Kenya, I was lucky enough not only to visit my long-time friend Naomy, but to be there when “baby” Ann was home from college to celebrate her 21st birthday!

Naomy was a key reviewer of A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities, and brought the same determined spirit to that endeavor. She gathered 7 friends—all women with disabilities—who camped at Naomy’s house for several days, sleeping on mattresses on the floor while they did a thorough review of the early manuscript. During that meeting they decided to start an organization, Disability and Women Development Strategies (DWDS), with the mission of empowering women with disabilities by providing education and building collaborative networks.

When A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities was published in 2007, Hesperian received a grant to give copies of the book to disabled women’s groups in Africa. We sent Naomy 30 copies (later, she obtained and distributed 28 copies more). When the books arrived, she and her 7 colleagues at DWDS brought 30 women with disabilities to Kisumu and held the first workshop of its kind in that region of Kenya, discussing information from the book and giving each woman a copy. Naomy told me that this gathering gave the women and girls who attended an opportunity to get to know each other and establish relationships. Out of that workshop, 10 more community-based organizations for women with disabilities formed.

Representatives from each of these organizations continue to gather once a month to discuss various disability-related issues. While in Kenya, I was fortunate enough to attend one of the monthly meetings where about 50 women with disabilities, many of them with Hesperian’s book in hand, participated in discussions about disability and human rights. Naomy stressed to the group that many policies giving certain rights to people with disabilities are already in place in Kenya, such as physical access to public buildings, and free health care. However, few disabled people are aware of these policies, so they do not demand the services they are entitled to.

There are now 102 women with disabilities registered with DWDS, and there’s no doubt that with Naomy Ruth Esiaba at the helm, they will be making their voices heard.

Johan van Lengen: "The Barefoot Architect"

Hesperian networks with many individuals and organizations committed to providing accessible, easy-to-understand resources that empower communities to thrive and grow on their own terms.  Among these is the author of the newest text on our Health and Empowerment Bookshelf, The Barefoot Architect.

As the environmental movement began to take off in the 1970s, Dutch-born Johan van Lengen left his job as an architect in San Francisco and moved with his family to Brazil.  Crediting the innovative Whole Earth Catalogue as an early influence, van Lengen set out to work with poor communities to build safer and more environmentally sustainable housing.

With his wife Rose, he founded TIBÁ (Bio-Architecture and Intuitive Technology), an institute in Brazil’s Mata Atlantica jungle that offers workshops on ecological building techniques. TIBA hosts students and community leaders to work on bioarchitecture projects and learn new methods, from creating grass roofs to building with adobe.  In doing so, they also hope to reframe peoples’ ideas of their home’s relationship to the surrounding environment, creating shelters that are natural and sustainable members of a community’s ecosystem, whether urban or rural. 

Early in his work, van Lengen recognized that people in poor communities often have little choice but to seek shelter in buildings that are poorly constructed, environmentally detrimental, and hazardous to their health. Open windows and gaps in house construction provide entry to mosquitoes carrying malaria or dengue; found construction materials and furnishings might contain finishes or other chemicals harmful to both the family and the community; cracks in walls and floors can encourage dampness and mold, leading to asthma and allergies; and poor indoor sanitation facilities can lead to serious health problems. 

Van Lengen believed that a written guide to ecological building, with language and diagrams that could be easily followed, would help communities looking to construct safe and healthy shelter and empower them to take on these projects themselves. Like Hesperian’s Where There Is No Doctor, The Barefoot Architect was originally written in Spanish while van Lengen was working in Mexico in 1982. Manual del arquitecto descalzo was a heavily illustrated guide to building simple, environmentally sustainable houses using both traditional and modern methods. For example, while encouraging people to use recycled modern materials like bricks and concrete blocks, van Lengen also notes that cactus juice is an excellent impermeable finish.  Diagrams are not only clear and easy to understand, but also include images of materials easily recognizable to communities looking to build with what they have on hand, including palm, straw, agave, bamboo, sand and clay. 

The Mexican government was so impressed, they bought 40,000 copies and placed one in every library in the country. The book went on to sell over 200,000 copies in Latin America. It has also been published in Portuguese, and is now available in English.
 
Containing a wealth of information about natural materials, design for energy conservation, and building for different climates, the author emphasizes using materials that communities may already have on hand. The book straddles the diverse array of climates in the Global South, from deserts to humid tropical areas, and offers constructive, accessible instruction on planning to build in locations both rural and urban, for structures intended to be permanent or for those that could move with a family to a new location. The Barefoot Architect also invites to the reader to consider their local environmental threats, offering insights on building in areas prone to floods, earthquakes and mudslides.  The book includes sections discussing small-scale energy production, cleaning and storing drinking water, and dealing with septic waste. Some of these topics, such as protecting community water, building toilets, indoor health hazards in the home, and waste disposal, are discussed in more depth Hesperian’s own A Community Guide to Environmental Health.

One of the world’s foremost authorities on environmentally friendly building design and construction, Johan continues to develop new ideas and reach out to new audiences. For more on Johan van Lengen and his projects, visit TIBÁ’s website at: http://www.tibarose.com/ing/news.htm.  Click here to buy The Barefoot Architect.

Where open copyright leads: What’s next for Native American adaptation of Where Women Have No Doctor

By Sarah Shannon

Earlier this month, Hesperian had a visit from the women of NARA (Native American Rehabilitation Association) of the Northwest who coordinated the creation of JourneyWoman: A Native Woman’s Guide to Wellness – a health guide adapted from Hesperian’s Where Women Have No Doctor. This beautiful book is an inspiring example of the way that our open copyright enables grassroots groups to take our material, modify and add to it in ways that best meet their community's needs. Sharon Fleming and Jen Olson told us the story of how the book came to be (see our October 2008 blog for more details) and shared their plans for “JourneyWoman II” (working title), a new resource planned by the JourneyWoman Council which oversaw the development and distribution of JourneyWoman.

JourneyWoman is now in its second printing, with 5,500 copies distributed so far. Development and printing were supported with grants and many in-kind donations.  JourneyWoman materials are not for sale, but are given as gifts to women screened by NARA’s Women’s Wellness Program and through other channels. The book has been received with tremendous enthusiasm by Community Health Representatives, tribal communities, tribal health programs, urban health programs, state and tribal breast and cervical cancer programs, drug and alcohol programs, cultural competency classes and workshops and many other audiences—so much so that the JourneyWoman Council decided to create a new resource to share additional women’s health-related information with the Native community.

Topics in the new book will include grandmothers raising children, the health implications of methamphetamine, Hepatitis C, tattooing and body piercing, “two-sided spirit” or gay and lesbian health concerns, incest, autoimmune systems, and policy and advocacy around health issues affecting Native American women, among others. Council members hope the new book will support bringing back the tradition of mother-daughter dialogue around health, and have already begun to see this in the field testing meetings of communities.

In Native communities, the presence of JourneyWoman has led to a ripple effect similar to what our partners report from around the world: with this critical information in hand, community leaders make new efforts to increase their communities’ overall health. Members of the Makah Tribe in Neah Bay, WA, the northernmost community in the US, are developing a community-based program based on JourneyWoman; their goals are giving Native women a voice in health care decisions, building community sustainability, empowering women, and coming together to work for change.  The JourneyWoman Council, in turn, is following in the Makah Tribe’s footsteps, and plans to develop the new sister resource together with members of the Native community.

The council also plans to create a Training for Trainers program to answer the question “How do I use JourneyWoman”? As Hesperian works on our women’s health “how to” resource in progress, Community Action for Women’s Health & Empowerment, we see many more opportunities to work together.

To learn more about the JourneyWoman project, or make a donation to help support the new book, contact:

Women’s Wellness Program
NARA Indian Health Clinic
15 North Morris
Portland, OR 97227
NativeJourneyWoman@gmail.com

David Morley, June 15, 1923 – July 2, 2009

When David Morley died on July 2nd, Hesperian lost a long-standing friend and a loyal but critical supporter. Although he was 86 when he died unexpectedly from a heart attack, David had an unparalleled enthusiasm for his work that belied his age and affected everyone he met.

At the beginning of his medical career, and after working for a short while in general practice, David left England for Imesi-Ile, a village in rural Nigeria and began the pioneering work that would eventually help transform primary health care—especially for children. After arriving in Nigeria he quickly realized that the conventional Western hospital model for delivering health care would neither reduce infant mortality nor cure other serious childhood health problems. Health improvement would only be achieved by providing information and training people locally in health-care skills. By 1965, Imesi-Ile became the first community in the world to record the elimination of measles, achieved by training local women to immunize the children.

After 5 years in Nigeria, David returned to London and founded the Tropical Child Health Unit at the Institute of Child Health in London, but continued to travel internationally working with community-based groups helping them train local health workers. And somewhere along the way, David and Hesperian discovered each other and realized how complementary our people-oriented, low-tech approaches to health care for the world’s poorest people were. Bill Bower, co-author of Hesperian’s Helping Health Workers Learn, remembers David as an “out-of-the-box thinker,” who was consistently supportive of Hesperian’s work and who made the long journey to visit Project Piaxtla—the village-based health project in Ajoya, Mexico where the book Where There Is No Doctor was developed.

David was also a co-founder of Child-to-Child, which teaches children about various health and development issues. Children then pass on what they learn to other children, their families, and their wider communities through participatory activities, such as telling stories and playing games. Hesperian was one of the early “testers” of the Child-to-Child activities at Project Piaxtla, and you will find several of them in Helping Health Workers Learn and Disabled Village Children.

TALC (Teaching-aids At Low Cost), also founded by David, develops and distributes low-cost health education materials (including Hesperian’s books) to community health workers all over the global south.. TALC has been especially instrumental for getting wider distribution of Where There Is No Doctor, particularly in Africa. And unlike most octogenarians, David jumped whole hog into modern technology by pioneering the use of CD-ROMs as a way to provide access to health and medical education information in areas beyond the reach of the internet.

Over the 30-plus years we have been colleagues, we have been champions of each other’s work. It will be difficult to continue extending the reach of primary health care without David, and certainly we will not do it as creatively, as sensitively, or as successfully in his absence. David Morley will remain an inspiration to all of us involved in making health a reality for all people.

Renewable Energy in Rural Health Clinics

Unreliable electricity endangers deliveries and surgeries, impairs the operation of essential hospital equipment and communications, and compromises the ability of health workers to provide safe, appropriate, and timely medical care. Without electricity, nurses cannot quickly notify doctors of emergencies. Midwives are forced to make treatment decisions without diagnostic tests or equipment. Procedures are conducted under very difficult conditions.

“If you would like to have an inkling of the significance of [electricity] to the people we serve, I recommend you set up a very difficult task in your home one night, one that requires concentration, clear focus, illumination, and is of life-threatening importance. Then…turn out your lights and try to complete your task. And no…you can’t ask for help. That would require a remote communication system.” –Dr. Laura Stachel, founder of WE CARE Solar

WE CARE Solar promotes safe motherhood and reduces maternal mortality in developing regions by providing health workers with reliable lighting, blood bank refrigeration, and mobile communications through the use of solar electricity. They have put this cutting edge technology to use as a solution to the problem of unreliable electricity in several maternity centers in Nigeria where maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world: 1100 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births.

WE CARE is one of several exciting organizations being established to help people meet the need for clean reliable energy. Another is the Solar Electric Lighting Fund, also fighting against global poverty through the provision of solar power.

Locally controlled renewable energy sources such as solar, small scale hydro, and wind can provide a much needed solution to the problem of unreliable energy for rural health clinics. On site energy generation can address many issues including:

Vaccine refrigeration
Ice pack freezing
Lighting
Communication
Medical appliances
Sterilization
Water supply and purification
Safe, comfortable conditions for staff and patients
Long term cost savings

However, one of the major challenges facing the introduction of renewable energy technology remains its relatively high cost. Too often, advocates for renewable energy minimize the high initial cost of the technology and argue that ongoing costs are negligible. Unfortunately, although recurrent costs are indeed low, they exist. Batteries eventually need to be replaced and people need training for on-site maintenance and repair of the systems.

 When there is no specific plan for meeting these costs, the technology may quickly become useless. Administration errors by the organization providing the technology will then be blamed on the technology itself, or worse, on the people for whom the project didn’t work. Too often villagers and health workers are “kept in the dark” when renewable energy projects are planned, and then “left in the dark” when the projects fail.

When the priorities of both the health clinics and the broader community at large determine whether and when a renewable energy system is installed, village members are provided with valuable technical expertise and there is increased community responsibility for the long term maintenance of the systems.