A virtual notice board to help people get to know Doctors with Africa Cuamm through the many publications which aim to inform and to promote dialogue and communication in the fields of health policy and international cooperation, and render public our experience and activities in these fields.

The common thread is the link between health and development, which coincides with the organisation’s specific area of competence. It is a link which needs to be examined not only from an economic viewpoint, but also in political and cultural terms. In its public communications, Doctors with Africa Cuamm has continued to affirm that it is a primary duty of every member of the international community to advance the case in favour of "health for all", a cause that the organisation has made its own through its constant efforts to call attention to the problems of Africa, and to dialogue with other institutions and organisations involved in cooperative projects in the field of healthcare.

The influence of many determining factors on the state of a population’s health is a complex area, and a controversial one which leads us to consider health not only in healthcare or professional terms, but also via a careful analysis of the context of social and environmental change.

This is why, in our various publications, there is an increasing amount of space dedicated to themes such as globalisation, the gap between the northern and southern hemispheres, the relationship between the rules of commerce and the need for solidarity, problems related to refugees, continuing conflicts and the difficult road towards democracy.

A little history

Doctors with Africa Cuamm’s experience in the editorial field was, until the mid 1980s, embodied in two publications: I quattro Venti, a six-monthly news bulletin which still today is a useful tool for internal communications within the association, and Notebooks, a collection of single-theme pamphlets based mainly on the study days (currently known as Saturday Cuamm) held at Doctors with Africa Cuamm head offices every two months, on subjects concerning anthropology, politics, economics, health and religion.

Publication of the latter was resumed in 2001-2 with a new and original graphic design, allowing the organisation to communicate the work achieved at successive Saturday Cuamm days. 1986 saw the publication of the first issue of the four-monthly news review Health and Development. Since 1998, there has been a supplement, Cuamm Solidarietà , aimed at a broad audience. This has since become an autonomous publication, with issues produced every two months.

The attempt to broaden the reach of the information we publish also includes the production of booklets about the organisation (in Italian and English); posters and leaflets to illustrate our projects; brochures which talk about the projects of humanitarian groups; monographs on important topics and experiences; and more generally, various communications to support the numerous events that the body organises.