Entire countries are being disabled by diseases, some of which have reached epidemic proportion — like AIDS. Nations like South Africa are unable to afford adequate health services and are fighting, against all odds, to get themselves back on their feet and take control of their situation.
The reemergence of infectious diseases — like malaria, TB, hepatitis, HIV/AIDS and cholera — provides a warning that efforts to improve health conditions throughout the world are falling short. This issue of Changemakers Journal features simple, inexpensive healthcare initiatives that address health problems on the large scales required for progress by using an abundant but underutilized resource: family members, community residents, friends — in short, you and me.
This month, Changemakers features how Vera Cordeiro is transforming health care systems and dramatically improving health delivery for low-income families of Brazil during and immediately after hospitalization. And how Linzi Smith helps businesses in South Africa, the nation with largest number of HIV-infected people in the world (5 million), select and train male leaders in factory workplaces to be HIV/AIDS peer educators and counselors.
Smith and Cordeiro are examples of how innovators have hit upon a highly effective principle: for many societies, friends, family and peers are virtually the only resource that can tackle health issues on a sufficiently large scale.
