Last week we posted part one of our two part interview with Brian Julius, President of Books of Hope. Read the conclusion of the interview below.

Have the books been well-received by communities?

Specific comments on the “Speaking Book” Suicide Shouldn’t be a Secret

• ‘This book has shown me that even that I am a child, I can save someone’s life or I can help depressed people and I did” (Male, from Northwest)
• “My friend was stressed. He wanted to kill himself, the book help him avoid the stress” (Female from Limpopo)
• “The book helped them stop suicide and to stop laughing at someone who is in trouble or is seeking for help ” (Female, from Soweto, Gauteng)
• “I would just say that this book is going to help save many people’s lives because we are losing many family and friends because of depression” (Female, from North West Province)

We have received phenomenal responses for many of our books – I will also attach some other user comments.

What impact has Speaking Books made?

Again well researched and overwhelming evidence exists that the Speaking Book is accepted and cost effective. We have received accolades from research reports, with comments such as:

• Researchers from the Infectious Diseases Institute, Kampala, Uganda developed a ‘speaking book’ in partnership with the World Medical Association, the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics and the South African Medical Association. The book was presented at the conference “Is Medical Ethics Really in the Best Interest of the Patient” held in Uppsala on June 14-16. They conducted a clinical trial of the use of the speaking book to see how it improved knowledge about clinical trials amongst potential participants with poor literacy skills. It was found that the group of people who used the speaking books for a week had significantly improved knowledge of what is involved in participation in a clinical trial than the group exposed to a standard informed consent discussion. Added to which, every one person who used the book, introduced it to at least 8 other people amongst their family and friends.” Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics Uppsala Universiteit 2010

• “It is hoped that through initiatives like the speaking book, people in the developing world will have the opportunity to empower themselves before enrolling into clinical trials. Such interventions will contribute towards balancing out asymmetric power relationships, which are all too prevalent in research involving humans.” Journal of Medical Ethics (JME) 2010

• “The discussion presented here has sought to shed light on a new form of intervention that endeavours to increase levels of knowledge amongst those at risk for HIV and AIDS. The joint product of the Books of Hope programme and the South African Depression and Anxiety Group, speaking books, represent an exciting new avenue for developing effective tools for health promotion. It is clear that while this is a relatively novel form of intervention, speaking books have the potential to become effective tools in critical health information dissemination in lower- and middle-income community contexts. Particularly within the context of the public health crisis posed by the HIV & AIDS epidemic, such simple and effective tools for improving health knowledge and psychosocial coping skills in HIV risk populations are becoming invaluable.” Deanne Goldberg Consultancy Africa Intelligence HIV & AIDS Unit 2011

Through the books, what do you hope to achieve?

Low literacy is a tragedy and should not be allowed to prevent disadvantaged communities from receiving the basic life saving messages they have every right to know and understand. Speaking Books help to make health education available to all irrespective of their circumstances. They have already been proven to make a real difference. This program deserves to be scaled up and attract worldwide support.

How would you like Books of Hope to expand?

We already partner with the major pharmaceuticals like Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Eli Lilly, Sanofi, etc, the Health Departments of many African Governments, many organizations like UNESCO, Unicef, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, European Union, World Bank, and the Acumen Fund, all of whom have recognized the value and cost effectiveness of the Speaking Book.

We would like to see a major health education commitment to educate whole communities or regions that will reach every single person to ensure they all understand the issues and prevention that is available.

For example: In partnership with Pfizer we created a Speaking Book “Stay Healthy By Not Smoking” a book for Chinese school children recorded in Mandarin with the goal of educating school children on how living in a home where there is smoking is seriously affecting their health and to encourage their fathers, in particular, not to smoke, or if they continue to do so, make sure its outside of the home.  5000 books were ordered and distributed to schools in one particular area, with the potential of reaching 50,000 to 100,000 people. Pfizer suggested in a meeting with the Gates Foundation Tobacco Director in China that together if they produced 50,000 anti smoking Speaking Books, they would be able to reach a defined community of 500,000 or more people and be able to achieve a measurable behavioral change in the smoking habits of that community

Taking another case, long lasting anit-malaria bed nets are being produced and distributed in the millions. And yet malaria continues to be a major problem in all these areas, due in part to a lack of understanding of the risks and correct use of malaria nets. The malaria Speaking Books are easy to understand and make it very clear what has to be done to stay safe from malaria. Instead limited numbers, usually no more than 5000 books at a time are being sent to cover a complete malaria region!  If every household – with just a few books per village – had access to a Speaking Book recorded in their home language, children and adults alike, irrespective of any formal education, would understand exactly how and when to use a treated net as well as all the other steps they need to take to prevent malaria.