DAA - Disability Awareness in Action

Haiti: Free health manual on line in Creole

Posted 03/2-10 at 11.58

Hesperian, a nonprofit publisher of community health books in Berkeley, California, has posted free downloads of emergency health information in Haitian Creole to help doctors, nurses, and others assisting victims of the devastating earthquake.

The general lack of appropriate health resources in the Creole language makes Hesperian's materials particularly useful in Haiti today.

The World Health Organization considers Hesperian's flagship book, Where There Is No Doctor, "the most widely used health manual in the world."

This book has been produced in more than 80 languages and is used on every continent. "No matter who you are or where you live," says Hesperian Executive Director Sarah Shannon, "everyone should have the right to health care and free access to health information."

http://www.hesperian.org/

Editorial comment: The book was written in the 1970s by David Werner, a world-famous disabled community activist and author. He was closely involved with the disabled-person-led Projimo Project in Mexico and wrote about it in Nothing About Us Without Us. Werner also wrote Disabled Village Children, a book user extensively in Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) programmes throughout the world. All these books can be downloaded for free from the Hesperian website