Homemade, Low-Cost
16CHAPTER
16-1
Equipment and Written Materials
Many of the tools that health workers
need are costly to buy. But some can be
handmade with local materials by the
health workers themselves, blacksmiths, or
other local craftsmen.
Homemade equipment can be simple
or complex. It can be made from local
materials only, or from a combination of
local and outside resources. The dental drill
shown here combines a high-technology
drill with appropriate local power sources—
people and bicycle.
Most of the homemade equipment we
describe in this chapter can be made quickly
and easily with materials on hand.
T h i s high-speed dental drill runs on air
compressed by bicycle power. It is used by
village dental workers in Verano, Mexico.
During training, encourage health workers to invent and make some of their own
equipment. This develops the imagination and creativity needed to help people solve
their problems in their own way-
HOMEMADE SCALES FOR WEIGHING BABIES
During training, health workers can
make their own simple scales for
weighing babies. Although less accurate
and less easy to use than store-bought
scales, they have several advantages:
• They are cheap and easy to make
• They can be made of local
materials.
• By building the scales themselves,
the health workers gain new
understanding and skills.
• By getting the local people to help them, they
extend that knowledge and skill to others.
• This gets people, including fathers, to take a more active part.
• Midwives or parents can make their own scales using the health worker’s as a
model.
• Homemade scales make the baby-weighing process less mysterious.
Ideas for several types of homemade scales are given on the next page. Be sure to