Where there is no artist

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/385/49113noartist.jpgThe importance of appropriate communication was impressed upon Petra Rohr-Röuendaal while teaching in a Botswana squatter camp in 1976. The World Bank had decided to offer interest free loans to residents who wished to build themselves houses, and distributed a leaflet explaining the scheme. Sadly, few of its target audience were able to read it. On pointing this out to the World Bank, the author was commissioned to rectify the matter by producing an educational comic strip, which proved a great success. Since then she has produced a huge number of educational illustrations, run workshops, developed games and puppet shows, and has helped others to do the same.

‘Where there is no artist’ is a collection of over 1,200 drawings on a variety of development themes, mostly Africa based, which may be used free for education or non-profit making purposes. The book is aimed at fieldworkers, teachers, grassroots communities, anyone who needs to be able to create visual aids with very few resources or skills. It contains clear and simple instructions for how to use the drawings; how to copy them, how they may be used – for instance to create posters, games, flannel board figures or comic strips – all with an emphasis on community participation. In addition there is a section on how to draw, and some guidelines on techniques such as lettering and silk-screen printing. The drawings are engaging and skilled, and often humorous. For those with access to a computer the contents of the book are reproduced on two CDROMs, the images being in jpg format.

A valuable resource.

Practical Action Publishing
Available at