Inability to read a handicap to health

Outside a small pharmacy in Quetta, the dusty capital of Pakistan’s vast southwestern Balochistan Province, Zaitoon Bibi, 25, clutches two bottles of medicine. “One is for the cough and one is for fever. I hope I can remember which is which,” she says, looking worried.

Zaitoon’s two children, girls ages 4 and 2, have been suffering from fever for over a week. “I was finally able to persuade my husband they needed medicine,” she said.

Like thousands of other women across Pakistan, Zaitoon finds her inability to read a significant handicap in her daily life. The lettering on the bottle makes no sense to her and she must depend on help from neighbors to read the instructions on dosage. Read more in this IRIN News article at One World South Asia online.