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Thank You, Translators!
Our impact is only as strong as our partnerships. Fortunately, our enthusiastic and dedicated network of translation partners help bring our health information to people we otherwise would not reach....
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WHO cares about your health?
The Trump administration’s decision to halt US funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) during the pandemic has met complete rejection from all experts and organizations working to protect...
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Stop the Spread of Neglect
As the COVID-19 worldwide death toll breaks 250,000, it obscures the even larger number of lives claimed by another virus: HIV. Since the beginning of the year, over 500,000 people have died from...
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Hunger, Food Not Bombs and COVID-19
The coronavirus pandemic is making access to food even more difficult for people everywhere. The UN World Food Program estimates the number of people being pushed to the brink of starvation will...
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#Actions4SafeAbortions: Supporting Safe Abortions During COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted all aspects of our lives and limited our access to health care globally. This has been especially harmful for women and girls seeking safe abortions. Lockdown...
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Demonstrating for Dignity #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd
8 minutes and 46 seconds. That’s how quickly the police murdered a 46-year old African American man named George Floyd on May 25th, 2020. The horrifying reality is that we have seen these police...
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New COVID-19 Info You Can Put To Use!
Since we published our COVID-19 Fact Sheet in the first week of March, the world has changed drastically. The pandemic has impacted the way we work, socialize, and do just about any other “normal”...
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We Make Inclusivity A Priority
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire world, but has not affected all of us equally. Social and economic factors determine who is most vulnerable to the virus and who’s health will suffer...
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Managing Emotions During COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased anxiety and stress for all of us. Lost income, crowded living spaces, violence, fear, uncertainty, and living with mental health problems can make these...
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Defending the WHO
If we are learning anything from the COVID-19 pandemic, the increase in racial violence, and the instability that results from a lack of positive leadership, it is that our world is more...
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We’ll never beat the pandemic without supporting women’s health
The suppression of women’s rights to control their health and lives continues in the midst of the pandemic. Recent Supreme Court decisions take us one step forward at the beginning of the week and...
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Racism at the CDC impacts all of us
“Systemic racism is not just a concept perpetrated outside these walls; it is a crushing reality for people of color in their daily lived experiences here at the CDC” states a letter signed by 1,200...
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Actions that go beyond clicktivism
Many of you are probably familiar with the term “armchair activist”. This label describes someone who might take strong stands on social media, but rarely does anything more, especially if it involves...
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Your Support Travels Far
Earlier this month, Papua New Guinea (PNG) reported its first COVID-19 death. One death may not seem newsworthy in countries with a much higher death toll, but an outbreak of coronavirus could have a...
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Resources for Rural Health
With this pandemic, where we live is a major factor influencing health and well-being. While housing density and urban poverty shape the impact of the COVID-19 crisis in cities, rural communities face...
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Telemedicine is not the future, it’s the present.
While we try to stay safe and protect against COVID-19, our pre-pandemic medical needs and new health concerns often require a doctor’s attention. In the past several months, telemedicine has become a...
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Don’t wait until the pandemic ends
If we have learned anything from the pandemic it is that existing health problems do not magically disappear in a global health crisis; they get worse. Unsafe abortions and pregancy-related deaths...
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Disrupting efforts in the fight against HIV is life-threatening
“This is a universal crisis and, for some children, the impact will be lifelong” warns a recent UNICEF report on the impact of COVID-19 on the well-being of children globally. In addition to...
View ArticleClimate Change— A Crisis Here and Now
Climate change hits already marginalized communities the hardest. Dozens of isolated Maya-Q’eqchi’ communities in Izabal, near Guatemala’s Atlantic coast, are currently facing devastating flooding in...
View ArticleInternational Women’s Day 2021, looking back and looking forward
Monday, March 8th, is International Women’s Day. Every year IWD calls us to challenge the social forces that oppress women and girls and prevent them from living full, fair, and free lives. IWD invites...
View ArticleWorking together to support women’s health during COVID-19
One in four women of reproductive age in East Africa can’t get the contraception they need. In low-wealth communities and in remote and rural areas, it can be even more difficult to get needed sexual...
View ArticleStanding in Solidarity with the Asian Community
As the horrific news of the murder of six women of Asian descent in Atlanta sinks in, all of us at Hesperian stand in solidarity with members of the Asian community, as well as others who face racism...
View ArticleHow the ‘Shadow Pandemic’ has impacted women worldwide
Gender-based violence, especially domestic violence, has increased as isolation at home has forced more exposure to abusers. This surge of violence, often referred to as the Shadow Pandemic, is a...
View ArticleIndia’s COVID-19 Emergency
India is experiencing a worse-case pandemic scenario. Over 300,000 people are reporting sick with COVID-19 every day. As the virus spreads, the health system — and the political and administrative will...
View ArticleHesperian’s COVID-19 Resources in Indian Languages
As the COVID-19 crisis continues in India and affects other countries in the region, we wanted to compile a collection of Hesperian’s COVID-19 resources in Indian languages. This blogpost will be...
View ArticleCelebrating the ADA’s 31st Anniversary
31 years ago today, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law after two years of lobbying and organizing. This historic win was made possible by the work of activists like Ed...
View ArticleHesperian’s Social Justice Summer Reading List!
It’s finally summer! After everything that has happened over the past year and a half, many of us are eager to take time off and spend some quality time relaxing. Whether you travel or stay local,...
View ArticleWins and losses in reproductive health
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) predicts that the COVID-19 pandemic will erase more than 20 years of progress on women’s health and reproductive health access. Hesperian and our partners...
View ArticleHope and action arise from tragedy
In 2013, the ongoing difficult and dangerous working conditions plaguing the global clothing industry tragically became headlines when the Rana Plaza factory building in Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed,...
View ArticleCoronavirus Costumes and a Cumbia Band
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit US Latinos harder for a number of reasons: many Latinos work in service or care jobs that can’t be done remotely and expose them to more people; many live in...
View ArticleCelebrating the Contributions of Community Health Workers in Family Planning
The COVID-19 pandemic has limited access to family planning and other essential health care. Country-wide lockdowns and breakdowns of healthcare systems have restricted contraceptive care to the extent...
View ArticleEnding HIV in children is way off target
Earlier this month, The Telegraph reported that the world has missed several targets for tackling AIDS in 2020 — putting in jeopardy the goal of ending new AIDS infections by 2030. According to the...
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One Peace Corps Volunteer’s Mission for Health
One Peace Corps Volunteer in Cambodia, Helen Pu, has supported Hesperian in a special way — by field testing a book in progress! Helen is one of the many women and men worldwide who are striving to...
View ArticleCooling climate anxiety during the hottest summer yet — heat, floods, fire...
The brutal consequences of climate change are especially apparent this summer. On the West Coast, we are sweating through an extreme heat wave and bracing for a prolonged, frightening fire season....
View ArticleHealth Resources for the Earthquake in Haiti
The huge 7.2 earthquake on August 14 has devastated the southwest of Haiti. More than 1,400 people have died and at least 84,000 homes and buildings were destroyed or damaged. Coming on top of the...
View ArticleImproving Family Planning in the DRC
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), access to family planning services remains difficult, especially for adolescents and young adults. Consequently, unwanted pregnancies and clandestine...
View Article“No hot water, no toilets, no lights.”
In late July, Jeff Bezos orbited the Earth for about 10 minutes — a $5.5 billion dollar trip to nowhere funded by Amazon employees and customers. Bezos flaunted his greed and demonstrated his...
View ArticleThis is a good news post.
Labor Day 2021, as it was last year, is going to be very different from previous celebrations. And while we might still be marking the end of summer with BBQs with our vaccinated friends and family,...
View ArticleMidwives for Every Community
National Midwifery Week is an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the essential role that midwives play in delivering ethical, culturally appropriate, quality health care. This year’s theme is...
View ArticleHoping for the best, preparing for the worst
The headlines have been bleak. Hurricanes, floods, fires, and earthquakes, all caused or intensified by climate change, have destroyed homes, businesses and crops, and displaced families all over the...
View ArticleWomen choose. We help.
Mexico’s highest court ruled unanimously this month to decriminalize abortion and set the precedent to legalize abortion nation-wide. While the focus is on abortion, it is impossible not to be moved by...
View ArticleEveryday is Indigenous People’s Day
This Monday, Hesperian did not observe Columbus Day. Our organization made a conscious decision to not honor the holiday, not reinforce the misinformation that Columbus’ “discovered” the Americas, and...
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Celebrating volunteers at Hesperian
Where There Is No Doctor began as a voluntary effort to develop health protocols that could be used by volunteer health promoters in a small mountain village. And Hesperian began as a volunteer...
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Everybody Poops.
Here in North America it sounds like the punchline to a bad joke, but World Toilet Day is real. And we’ll be celebrating it along with the rest of the world next week! 1 in 3 people around the world...
View ArticleRemembering Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury
Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury, an internationally known public health leader from Bangladesh whose organization, Gonoshasthaya Kendra, was one of the first to translate and adapt Where There Is No Doctor,...
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A new edition of “Where Women Have No Doctor” for a new generation.
To mark its 25th anniversary, a completely revised, updated edition of Where Women Have No Doctor is just back from the printer! When first published in 1998, Where Women was the first accessibly...
View ArticleThe buzz around the BBQ
Memorial Day means summer is on the horizon for the northern hemisphere, where many of us will be stocking up on sunscreen and dousing ourselves in bug spray. For those of us living in drier climates,...
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Getting heated about workers’ protections
2023 is on track to become the hottest year ever recorded. For people who work outdoors in industries like agriculture and construction, warmer temperatures can be dangerous. Heat-related illnesses...
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Hesperian Executive Director Receives Carl E. Taylor Lifetime Achievement...
From left to right: Hesperian Board Member Leigh Haynes, Sarah Shannon, Jennifer Ware and Julia Robinson Oakland, CA – Sarah Shannon, the Executive Director of Hesperian Health Guides, has received...
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