TASK CLOSED-Help Secure Health Information Pamphlets and Health Education Materials
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This task is focused on providing help to the Community Health Team of Arrow-Web Hospital.
Do you know where we can obtain health information pamphlets or health education materials for free or low-cost? Pamphlets pertaining to HIV/AIDS, Malaria prevention, water-born diseases, proper sanitation and other health concerns would all be of great benefit to the Community Health Team at the hospital.
Help us locate and secure these resources for the staff to help educate and promote healthy living in the local community.

Hi Jennifer,
In the water and sanitation group, there are a number of posters and water related materials that can be printed. When in Uganda, one person had taken them and had the posters printed onto a sack or cloth-like material. It looked kind of like a potato sack made out of corn husks (not sure if it was or not). These withstand the conditions better than paper. The printing was done locally and I'm sure there are inexpensive printers in Kenya. The posters could also just be printed on paper as well...
If you have a hard time downloading them, I have them on my computer so I can email them to your or Bramuel.
Also, if you check Busukuma, there are a number of posters/brochures related to malaria that Phil Costa found. I think he posted them... if not I can get him to send them. He lives in the US and he mailed a CD to Uganda as well.
Also, see if Bramuel can contact the Kenya Institute of Education. They receive posters and other info and they may have some that he can get from them. If you need contact information, have Eric email Bramuel and he can probably get him in touch with someon. Bramuel met Eric in July. The Kenya Institute is located in Nairobi.
Also, there are offices in Nairobi for various health organizations, that may be able to give some pamphlets.
Barb
Hi Jennifer
These are a few that I have come across in the past...
Hesperian Foundation
http://www.hesperian.org/
"The Hesperian Foundation is a non-profit publisher of books and educational materials that help people take the lead in their own health care and organize to improve health conditions in their communities. Simply written, heavily illustrated, and developed in collaboration with groups around the world, our books contain a wealth of life-saving information on diagnosing and treating a broad range of health problems."
Also has links to groups who have translated them into many other languages
List of books
http://www.hesperian.org/Publications_and_Resources.php
As well as general health education books they also have one called Helping Health Workers Learn which contains a lot of advice on how to run effective community health education campaigns
Most available for download but are large files.
They run the Gratis Book Programme which sends free copies of books to groups in developing countries.
http://www.hesperian.org/projects_gratisBookProgram.php
"Hesperian's Gratis Fund acknowledges and responds to the reality that often, those who most need our publications are the least able to afford them. On average we receive 200 requests for free books per month. Letters come in from rural villages and urban shantytowns around the world. They are sent by religious leaders, community health workers, school teachers and others who are desperate for resources to help them better serve their communities."
Contact details - http://www.hesperian.org/contact.php
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Teaching-aids at Low Cost (TALC)
http://www.talcuk.org/
"Free and Low Cost Healthcare Books and Accessories
Founded in 1965 by Professor David Morley CBE, Teaching-aids At Low Cost is a unique charity whose main objective is to promote the health of children and advance medical knowledge and teaching in the UK and throughout the world by providing and developing educational material."
http://www.talcuk.org/shop.htm
"TALC's core objective is to provide free and low cost healthcare books and accessories to educate people across the world. We offer many essential texts in a wide range of areas including tropical medicine, HIV/AIDS, nursing, surgery and child health."
There are items on there that will be useful to the doctors in the hospital (CDs of medical articles etc) as well as for community education.
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Facts For Life
http://www.unicef.org/ffl/
"Facts for Life saves lives!
Every year, nearly 11 million children die from preventable causes before reaching their fifth birthday. Millions more survive only to face diminished futures, unable to develop to their full potential.
Many of these deaths can be avoided if parents and caregivers understand what to do when illness strikes and how to recognize the danger signs that signal the need for medical help. Facts for Life presents, in simple language, the most authoritative information about practical, effective and low-cost ways to protect children's lives and health. Everyone has the right to know this information.
Since it was first published in 1989, Facts for Life has become one of the world's most popular books, with more than 15 million copies in use in 215 languages in 200 countries."
Available on the site in English, Spanish and French.
Possible to download from the site either in sections or whole book. PDFs are quite large but there is a small text-only version too
http://www.unicef.org/ffl/text.htm
Also to order a printed copy from http://unp.un.org/search.aspx?q=facts%20for%20life&sort=0&type=allwords&...
Or maybe from local UNICEF etc offices, especially if wanting copies in other languages.
Mary
Hi
My name is Gillian, and I have just joined this site. I am a registered nurse with a post graduate qualification in management of HIV & AIDS in the world of work. I would be able to attempt to help with obtaining information pamphlets etc. Please give me a contact person with whom I could liase
Kind regards
Gilly
Hello Gillian and welcome to the Kayole-Soweto village!
It would be great if you could help us secure some of these materials. You can talk with either Bramuel, the local representative, or myself. I am the facilitator for the village.
Please let me know if you want to follow up on some of the suggestions already posted, or if you have your own resources that you want to try. I appreciate your offer to assist!
Kind regards-
Jennifer
Hi Gillian-
I just wanted to follow up and make sure you have what you need to move forward. If not, please let me know.
Thank you-
Jennifer
We don't seem to be making much progress forward on this task. Does anyone have any other suggestions about where else we might look for and access free information? Online resources are fine, but we need to make sure the files are not so big that Bramuel cannot download them and then print them off. I think the preferenc is ultimately for stacks of brochures that might be used with the patients who are treated at the hospital.
Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer
I can have a look (not tonight!) and see what I can find. May make sense to try Hesperian and TALC (mentioned under the hospital reference task), also the sites Barb mentioned. Then we could work forward from there?
What about other local hospitals, Kenyan health authority etc?
Mary
Hi Jennifer
I did have a look, couldn't find any more sources of printed material othert than those I have suggested already.
There is a huge amount of information out there that the hospital could download and print. Is it possible to be more specific about what they need?
As they have access to a computer it may also be possible for them to create and print their own, designed to meet local needs.
Mary
Hi Jennifer, Bramuel and Mary,
Has Bramuel gone to visit any of the organizations in Nairobi? There are a number of offices for NGOs and big organizations such as WHO and UNICEF and others there. It is just a matter of him actually visiting the offices and seeing if they have posters, brochures, etc that they would be willing to let have displayed in the hospital.
What about other hospitals in Nairobi and area? If Bramuel can make some connection with them they may be able to direct him to good sources of information. When I visited a hospital in Kisumu, I remember there being many pamplets - there must be someone who knows where to get these locally?
Barb
One other thought,
Is there any possibility of getting some of the hospital members (maybe some young students) to get together and make posters or brochures? Can the hospital hold a short health session on a specific topic and then have the people that attend design posters/brochures/info sheets with the information covered in the session?
I was once involved in the evaluation of a youth HIV/AIDS project. They were street youth, drug users and homeless individuals. The youth would drop in for meetings/social gatherings and/or info sessions. The organization asked the youth to have a contest to design posters and other medium for distributing health information in a form that appealed to them. They developed posters, decks of cards and other items. Eventually some were printed in large quantities (the decks of cards). The point is that this group, which would be considered high risk and inconsistently available, took a great interest in this and got more out if this than just gathering info. It might be possible to do this kind of think in Kenya too.
It would really only take an info session (staff time), paper and materials for designing the posters or brochures (minimal cost). Posters could just be put up immediately (as long as they had appropriate health info!) and others could be scanned and printed later if needed.
Barb
Barb-I think that's a great idea and it really fits in well with the Arrow-Kenya mission. I'll let Bramuel respond regarding where else they have looked for pamphlets.
Mary-Arrow Kenya does have a brochure on HIV/AIDS. I posted it here awhile go, so it should still be somewhere in our resources. It could probably use some updating.
Bramuel-what do you think about these ideas?
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer
Do you mean this one: http://www.nabuur.com/en/village/kayole-soweto/project/task/review-kayol...
That looks more like a list of their needs and an appeal for assistance, rather than actual education material for the community. I assume that the items on there are still an issue?
Barb, you have great ideas, especially about getting young people involved in learning and producing their own posters etc. T
here are many examples out there of programmes where young people are trained as health educators so that they can pass information on to others, on the basis that they are more likely to take notice if the people giving them advice come from their own age group.
Mary
Mary, you amaze me how fast you find things!! I looked all the way through the resources and didn't find it. Yeah that's the one that I was thinking of and it definitely needs work to be more focused on HIV/AIDS.
Grace Chen did a beautiful template for a newsletter in Khandbari, maybe if she's not busy I could recruit her to redo this for us. Of course we'd just need the content we want to add-maybe we could start reviewing the HIV/AIDS info we wrote up for the website FAQ.
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer/mary/barb
Thanks I think HIV/AIDS Bronchures we have so many in the hospital
we are already beeen getting this from Nascob kenya, Kenya kango,Aids organization kenya,ministry of health,National AID Control council.{NACC}
getting this and malaria bronchures here in kenya is not a problem and i think we have more stock in our stores.
thanks
warm wermest regard
Bram
Is this task no longer needed then Bramuel?
Are you using the old brochure that Mary posted?
Jennifer