TALC is there to serve you

Author(s): Professor David Morley

The NGO, Teaching-aids At Low Cost (TALC), has been providing learning material for health workers in less privileged countries for over 40 years. Starting with teaching slide sets and interactive scripts, it moved on to provide low cost books, accessories and more recently, free and low-priced CDs.

TALC CDs

Since 2001, TALC has produced a series of free Health and Development (H&D) CDs that are especially suitable for nurses and other health staff who have access to a computer but not broadband connections to the internet. These CDs provide a wide range of carefully-selected resources including material from The Lancet, British Medical Journal, Archives of Disease in Childhood, World Anaesthesia, PLOS Medicine, Footsteps, WHO, UNICEF, and much that is more suited to community level. The HIFA 2015 1 website has been useful as a source of materials and in publicising these CDs.

To date TALC has produced 9 H&D CDs and regularly sends out over 6,000 of each one (see photo below). TALC continues to seek permission to include easily-viewed, useful material including books and video clips on these H&D CDs. 

If you want to receive a sample of a free H&D CD, please send your postal address to [email protected] or TALC, PO Box 49, St Albans, Herts, AL1 5TX, UK. To see information about these and other CDs/DVDs from TALC see www.talcuk.org under ‘Shop’ and then CD-ROMs.

TALC also produces priced CDs and distributes free and priced CDs and DVDs from other organisations. Chart 1 lists those likely to be of use to readers of this Bulletin. If you are ordering priced items (e.g. books) from TALC and you work in Southern Sudan, you can choose one of the free CD in chart 1.

At present, the majority of health workers in less privileged countries, including some in Universities 2., do not have ready access to websites due to the lack or expense of broadband internet facilities.

However, this is likely to change over the next few years. If workers in these countries follow the trend seen in Europe and America, health workers will use websites for most of their studies and may even prefer to read from a screen rather than from the page of a book.   By becoming familiar with searching for information on a CD, they will develop valuable skills in readiness for when high-speed internet connections become available. Experience from one country suggests that nurses prefer to read a CD’s content than a book. One CD could contain all the health information a nurse is likely to need.

 

 Chart 1. CDs and DVDs available from TALC

 Free

  • Anaesthesia Resource Vol 2
  • Brain Imaging for the Non Radiologist working in a resource poor setting
  • Community Eye Health Update 2007
  • Community Nutrition
  • Continuing Education in Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Vols 1-6
  • Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers
  • International HIV/AIDS Alliance Publications and Resources
  • Maternal and Women's Health: Focal Surgical Interventions (DVD)
  • Neurology Teaching Resource for African Students
  • Obstetric and Neonatal Emergencies for Poorly Resources Countries
  • Safe Anaesthesia (3rd edition)
  • Schistosomiasis Control Initiative: Advocacy and Training Interactive Guide
  • Young People We Care: Making a Difference in our Communities

 Low priced

  • Caring for severely Malnourished Children Book and CD ROM
  • Child-to-Child Early Years Children Promote Health
  • Low Cost Water Source Improvements
  • Topics in International Health CDs. These include: Acute respiratory infections, Dengue; Diarrhoeal diseases; HIV/AIDS; Human African Trypanosomiasis; Leishmaniasis; Leprosy; Malaria; Nutrition; Schistosomiasis; Sexually Transmitted Infections; Sickle Cell Disease; Trachoma and Tuberculosis.

 

References

 

1. The HIFA2015 discussion forum is strongly recommended. To join send your name, organization and brief description of interests to [email protected]

2.  World Health Organisation: World Health Report 2006: Working together for Health. Geneva World Health Organisation, 2006.

A printed list of TALC products and prices can be requested on-line at www.talcuk.org or by contacting TALC at  +44 (0) 1727 853869 or PO Box 49, St Albans, Herts, AL1 5TX, UK.