Paul Mason

Imagine a child catching a curable disease and not taking the medication that will save their life.

Imagine the reason they fail to take that medication is because their family and friends don’t understand the disease is treatable and instead shun the child, making it difficult for them to seek help. 
This is a painful sight and sadly, as an anthropologist working in developing countries, it’s a scenario I’ve witnessed too often.

Tuberculosis, or TB, is an airborne infection. It’s known as the coughing disease.

Each year, nine million people, including 500,000 children, become sick with TB.

TB is deadly. The disease kills more than one and a half million people annually, making it second only to HIV/AIDS as the world’s biggest infectious killer.

Thankfully TB is treatable. With a six to eight month program of antibiotics, most patients are cured but, as I have come to realise through my work, many patients fail to complete their complete course of medication.

The reasons for this are many and complex. Loss of income, stigma, and social isolation are just a few of the obvious challenges. The trouble is that untreated, TB kills.



Living in communities where I saw this happening every day, I knew I had to do something. My idea, perhaps an unusual one for a scientist, was to write a children’s book that teaches young people and their families the truth about TB.

Through the eyes of a child called An, kids learn the symptoms of the disease, the important message that it is curable with medication, and vitally, that they can support a friend from sickness back to health. The text is accompanied by bright, vibrant illustrations drawn by Sydney-based Indonesian artist, Amelia Darmawan.

The message simple, positive and, most importantly, we know it gets through. My colleagues and I trialled it with one hundred school children in Ca Mau, the southernmost province of Vietnam. On a quiz with ten comprehension questions about the content of the book, no students got more than two questions wrong. In fact, fifty per cent of students got every answer correct. This is a great indication that this little 15-page book is a powerful learning tool.



With such a great result, we’re understandably eager to get this book into the hands of the Vietnamese children who so desperately need to hear its message.

The next step is to distribute the book to people in sixty villages in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. We already have a TB screening team in the ground in the region ready and waiting to distribute it.

But the picture book and its positive message can't be delivered without your help to initiate the first print run.


Of course, monetary gifts are just one way you can help us out. One of my colleagues translated the book into Tagalog and I also have colleagues who are going to help translate the book into French, Portuguese and Indonesian. If you would like to help us to translate or distribute the book so we can reach communities in other countries as well, please do get in touch.

Please help our project become a reality. Donate now and put a book in a child’s hand.

About Paul Mason

Acknowledgements

I have been lucky to work with businesses who have generously contributed their time and provided discounted rates for this project. We now need support from the public to get this project completed.

Costs include:

Video production and editing: AU$1000
Illustrations: AU$800
Printing of books: AU$3300
Distribution cost: $900

If we raise above this amount we will use the extra funds to print more books to put in the hands of more children in need.