Memo goes to New York

In August 1985, after ten years with the Hesperian Foundation, Bill “Memo” Bower left the organization for a faculty position at Columbia University’s Center for Population and Family Health, a division of the School of Public Health. He is continuing to work in the area of community health care at the village level, focusing on communities in Africa.

Bill, co author of Helping Health Workers Learn (1982) has been an important part of the Foundation’s health education team. He remains a board member of the Hesperian Foundation’s board of directors, and continues to participate in Foundation work from his New York address.

WHO Award for Health Education

On September 6, 1985, the World Health Organization (WHO) named the Hesperian Foundation the recipient of its first international Award for Health Education in Primary Health Care.

One of 33 nominees, the Hesperian Foundation received the $5,000 award at the 12th World Conference on Health Education held in Dublin, Ireland. Professor Lowell S. Levin of the Yale University School of Public Health who nominated Hesperian for the award, said the Foundation’s work has proven that, “ordinary people can become a major and effective resource in health promotion, disease prevention and treatment of common health problems.”