Reviews Posted on Goodreads
Not One, Not Even One is a beautifully written memoir. Nancy Edwards, a barely out-of-school nurse leaves her middle-class Canadian home to work in Sierra Leone as a volunteer for Canadian University Services Overseas. Her role seems straightforward – to improve outcomes of maternal health. She quickly and painfully learns that barriers to maternal health are deeply interconnected to issues of poverty, power and control, cultural practices, funding, geography, and structural government.
It is a story brimming with humility and honesty about her own powerlessness to make change in the face of these tangled obstacles. However, little by little, change does take place as women and perhaps more importantly, their community elders receive, accept, and internalize prenatal prevention, modern childbirth practices and postnatal care. Her ability to build relationship with the local people, especially without adequate local language, speaks to the author’s warmth and genuineness of care. Her ability to describe these relationships and their impact on her are heart-warming yet, at times, difficult to read. I couldn’t put the book down and am recommending it as a must-read for my book club.
Wendy Nordick, Ph.D.
*****
A ‘must-read’ for anyone contemplating or undertaking community development work, whether domestically or in another country. Nancy’s narrative brought back many memories of the time I lived and worked in Haiti in the mid/late 1970s. Many of the same concerns, doubts, fears and as well the same desire to do and accomplish something concrete that would in some way and someday, contribute to improving peoples’ lives. Thank you, Nancy, for sharing your experiences and reflections.
James Chauvin
Former Director, Global Health Programs/Canadian Public Health Association (retired)
*****
Not One, Not Even One is a rich and compassionate memoir by Nancy Edwards. As a young volunteer with what is now known as Canada’s Cuso International, Nancy spends five years in remote villages in a country of which we have little news: Sierra Leone. She makes her home with villagers, learns of their challenges, and becomes aware of the nuances of their culture.
Public health is a critical concern for the villagers, especially maternal and child health in such impoverished and remote conditions. Nancy navigates the intricacies of tribal power and bureaucratic systems. Life is a constant shimmering ocean of peaks and troughs in the waves of everyday concerns. She recounts the breadth and depth of successes and failures as everyone strives for better health outcomes.
So much of our news of the Global South is superficial with images of picturesque poverty or horrific destruction with captions the length of sound bites. Not One, Not Even One is a compelling journey by a sensitive and resourceful young woman determined to listen and learn and assist others in achieving their goals of a better life. We cheer with Nancy when progress in health and education move lives forward. She shares with us how friendships are woven into the fabric of village life. Her years in Sierra Leone mark her indelibly and set her on a course to a lifetime of work in public health.
Not One, Not Even One has arrived at a time when discussions are escalating about Global North and Global South relations as well as increased concern for Indigenous people globally. This book would be an excellent and worthwhile selection for book clubs eager for more than conventional approaches to learning about others with whom we share this planet.
Merle Kindred, PhD
Cuso Volunteer: Jamaica, Guyana
*****
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this memoir. I was drawn into CUSO volunteerism by Nancy's passion and vivid emotive descriptions of individuals she met in Sierra Leone. She was only a few years ahead of me on our life paths; it felt like I was tagging along on the author's journey beyond the Serabu hospital compound on "motorable" roads and along foot paths over log bridges and through lush tropical jungle to villages. Although, by the time I was 64 pages in, the number of snake incidents & encounters had
already surpassed my comfort level eeek!
Evidence of Nancy's open-mindedness is on every page as she describes direct, primary, public health practices and cultural rituals. It was insightful of her to recognize the power of Mende beliefs and rituals; it was the key that unlocked what today we would call, "buy in" by the locals of Western maternal and child health care, e.g., sterilization of tools, immunization, and treatments.
My frustrations and impatience with bureaucracy might have been greater than the author's candid remarks -- as she sought approval under tight funding deadlines to conduct research of traditional birth attendants and government trained midwives -- for no good purpose, since we were young then and didn't grasp how massive change takes time. Luckily, Nancy's mentor was a beloved wise woman.
Roxane Gravel
*****
As an epidemiological and global health colleague of Nancy Edwards for four decades, I read this compelling and exceptionally reflective autobiographical sketch of her time in West Africa with special interest - not the least because I too spent a similar amount of time with CUSO in Tanzania, as a primary care physician and trainer of Medical Assistants, just a few years earlier.
The book does not disappoint, because of both its rich recollections of a very demanding life there for a young and newly minted Canadian nurse, but also because of Nancy's talent for thoughtful reflection on trans-cultural issues that relate to the challenges of providing health care, and of living and working in a setting very different than one's home. In particular, Nancy's stories of how complex the local Mende culture was for health issues, and the often related (for the Mende) spirit-world around them, evokes many past cultures, including our own a scant few hundred years ago.
Above all, it is Nancy's humility in the face of this often (for outsiders) discouraging African way of accepting preventable illness and injury fatalistically, which sets the book apart. It also gives us much to contemplate now, many years after we had all hoped - as idealistic volunteers, "strangers in a strange land" - that the health status of poor African villages would have been by now substantially improved.
Rather than laying blame for this global failure of foreign assistance over four decades, Nancy's sage and sensitive observations help us to better understand that the determinants of health have very deep cultural roots, typically not readily amenable to outside cultures' efforts to change them. It is a lesson worth repeating today.
Professor John Frank, University of Edinburgh; Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto
*****
A different type of travelogue. Nancy recounts her adventures as a young idealistic nurse who travels to improve the world. She finds herself in a place which is very different from what she ever imagined. Openness to others, humility and humour allows Nancy to learn and thrive in the face of the many challenges and frustrations that are part of her daily life. Her work in Sierra Leone transforms her. Through her story, we grow like she grew, and learn to appreciate the wisdom of people with a different lived experience. And while her life’s trajectory did not go as planned, she keeps her idealism and imparts the insights
she gained to improve the health of people in other places.
Ronald Macfarlane
*****
The title of this memoir reflects the heartfelt sob of a mother who had borne eleven children. When asked how many had survived infancy, she replied “Not one, not even one”. It was the cry that generated Nancy Edwards’ drive to improve care for mothers and babies in Sierra Leone.
Nancy Edwards’ memoir can be an eye-opener to anyone who has wondered why it is so hard to improve health in other countries – and equally, in rural and isolated areas of our own. As I read it I realized how narrow my own vision is, derived from my own experiences and my own culture. Nancy was able to show me how the beliefs and expectations of the people she was serving were molded in exactly the same way by their own sense of history, family and culture. Only with experiencing some of the same hardships (although very much softened by the support of Western organizations) could she begin to appreciate their resilience.
Beginning with her anticipation of arrival in Freetown, the capital, we accompany her through the initial culture shock, her discovery of her own resilience, and her development of understanding and respect for the people and their way of life. She shows us why so-called “modern” concepts of disease and medicine were incomprehensible to them. Understanding their traditions and the basis for them led to an appreciation for their social structure. Working within the existing hierarchy made it possible to bring about measurable improvements in the quality of maternal and newborn care, and reduction in mortality.
Sadly, war, disease and personal circumstances intervened to deflect the arc of progress and keep Nancy from returning to Sierra Leone, but the lessons she learned there acted as guides to her further career, working in international health and then in nursing education and maternal health initiatives in rural Canada. Anyone interested in health care, here or abroad, will find this book a source of inspiration for meeting the continuing challenge of ensuring mothers throughout the world will be spared the heart-wrenching experience of that mother who had seen every child she bore die in infancy.
Phillip G.
*****
Nancy's memoir presents the challenges, work and learning opportunities she experienced in her CUSO posting with a reality that leaves the reader moving through the pages totally absorbed. Her years in Sierra Leone were foundational to her successful career in education, research and international development. Readers considering international work will be awakened to life with sparse and unstable amenities, cultural influences and harrowing travel experiences but Nancy portrays it all as a positive adventure.
Denise Alcock
*****
This book grabs you from the first chapter and throughout the whole book. Nancy Christine Edwards does a great job at outlining and explaining the kind of important work that she and other aid workers were doing at the time with it's trials and tribulations. She does this from both a professional and personal standpoint, which I find makes the book even more enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed how even though she writes about the way she and her colleagues were trying to educate and help the local people, she also makes sure the reader understands how much the local people taught them back. Not One, Not Even One is a book about compassion and respect for your fellow man. It's about overcoming challenges and still keep the hope up.
Annika Ericsson
Reviews Posted on Amazon
Nancy Edward's book "Not One, Not Even One: A Memoir of Life-altering Experiences in Sierra Leone, West Africa" is a well-written, detailed and I believe, honest account of her work as a CUSO volunteer in Sierra Leone. As a young nurse trying to find better ways to deliver primary health care to scattered villages, she deals with what seem to be unsurmountable obstacles from traditional beliefs, inaccessible jungle paths, witchcraft, physical hardship and even the occasional snake! The subject will be particularly fascinating to anyone who is or has been even remotely involved in research for development. The author's dedication, tenacity and empathy for the people of Sierra Leone is evident on every page. What I really liked about the book is that the reader is on the learning journey with the author, every success and setback or hiccup along the way, leads to a new insight. Her honesty is remarkable. At the end, we are left saddened that the country, full of talented people and potential ended up so tragically in Civil War.
Ilse Zandstra
Reviews Posted on Friesen Press
I am typing this review for my 92 year old mother, Maybelle. Here are her comments:
Wow! As a Pro-life supporter, I admire your courage and commitment to helping mothers have a safe delivery and healthy babies.
In spite of all the obstacles in your path, the shortage of food, water, gas and the cultural differences, you kept going back for more.
May your life be smooth sailing from now on. God bless you and keep you safe. Thank you, Nancy for a great read.
Maybelle Nordick
*****
I'm so enjoying reading your book Nancy. Congratulations! You drew me in from the first page!
Pamela Thompson
Not One, Not Even One is a beautifully written memoir. Nancy Edwards, a barely out-of-school nurse leaves her middle-class Canadian home to work in Sierra Leone as a volunteer for Canadian University Services Overseas. Her role seems straightforward – to improve outcomes of maternal health. She quickly and painfully learns that barriers to maternal health are deeply interconnected to issues of poverty, power and control, cultural practices, funding, geography, and structural government.
It is a story brimming with humility and honesty about her own powerlessness to make change in the face of these tangled obstacles. However, little by little, change does take place as women and perhaps more importantly, their community elders receive, accept, and internalize prenatal prevention, modern childbirth practices and postnatal care. Her ability to build relationship with the local people, especially without adequate local language, speaks to the author’s warmth and genuineness of care. Her ability to describe these relationships and their impact on her are heart-warming yet, at times, difficult to read. I couldn’t put the book down and am recommending it as a must-read for my book club.
Wendy Nordick, Ph.D.
*****
A ‘must-read’ for anyone contemplating or undertaking community development work, whether domestically or in another country. Nancy’s narrative brought back many memories of the time I lived and worked in Haiti in the mid/late 1970s. Many of the same concerns, doubts, fears and as well the same desire to do and accomplish something concrete that would in some way and someday, contribute to improving peoples’ lives. Thank you, Nancy, for sharing your experiences and reflections.
James Chauvin
Former Director, Global Health Programs/Canadian Public Health Association (retired)
*****
Not One, Not Even One is a rich and compassionate memoir by Nancy Edwards. As a young volunteer with what is now known as Canada’s Cuso International, Nancy spends five years in remote villages in a country of which we have little news: Sierra Leone. She makes her home with villagers, learns of their challenges, and becomes aware of the nuances of their culture.
Public health is a critical concern for the villagers, especially maternal and child health in such impoverished and remote conditions. Nancy navigates the intricacies of tribal power and bureaucratic systems. Life is a constant shimmering ocean of peaks and troughs in the waves of everyday concerns. She recounts the breadth and depth of successes and failures as everyone strives for better health outcomes.
So much of our news of the Global South is superficial with images of picturesque poverty or horrific destruction with captions the length of sound bites. Not One, Not Even One is a compelling journey by a sensitive and resourceful young woman determined to listen and learn and assist others in achieving their goals of a better life. We cheer with Nancy when progress in health and education move lives forward. She shares with us how friendships are woven into the fabric of village life. Her years in Sierra Leone mark her indelibly and set her on a course to a lifetime of work in public health.
Not One, Not Even One has arrived at a time when discussions are escalating about Global North and Global South relations as well as increased concern for Indigenous people globally. This book would be an excellent and worthwhile selection for book clubs eager for more than conventional approaches to learning about others with whom we share this planet.
Merle Kindred, PhD
Cuso Volunteer: Jamaica, Guyana
*****
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this memoir. I was drawn into CUSO volunteerism by Nancy's passion and vivid emotive descriptions of individuals she met in Sierra Leone. She was only a few years ahead of me on our life paths; it felt like I was tagging along on the author's journey beyond the Serabu hospital compound on "motorable" roads and along foot paths over log bridges and through lush tropical jungle to villages. Although, by the time I was 64 pages in, the number of snake incidents & encounters had
already surpassed my comfort level eeek!
Evidence of Nancy's open-mindedness is on every page as she describes direct, primary, public health practices and cultural rituals. It was insightful of her to recognize the power of Mende beliefs and rituals; it was the key that unlocked what today we would call, "buy in" by the locals of Western maternal and child health care, e.g., sterilization of tools, immunization, and treatments.
My frustrations and impatience with bureaucracy might have been greater than the author's candid remarks -- as she sought approval under tight funding deadlines to conduct research of traditional birth attendants and government trained midwives -- for no good purpose, since we were young then and didn't grasp how massive change takes time. Luckily, Nancy's mentor was a beloved wise woman.
Roxane Gravel
*****
As an epidemiological and global health colleague of Nancy Edwards for four decades, I read this compelling and exceptionally reflective autobiographical sketch of her time in West Africa with special interest - not the least because I too spent a similar amount of time with CUSO in Tanzania, as a primary care physician and trainer of Medical Assistants, just a few years earlier.
The book does not disappoint, because of both its rich recollections of a very demanding life there for a young and newly minted Canadian nurse, but also because of Nancy's talent for thoughtful reflection on trans-cultural issues that relate to the challenges of providing health care, and of living and working in a setting very different than one's home. In particular, Nancy's stories of how complex the local Mende culture was for health issues, and the often related (for the Mende) spirit-world around them, evokes many past cultures, including our own a scant few hundred years ago.
Above all, it is Nancy's humility in the face of this often (for outsiders) discouraging African way of accepting preventable illness and injury fatalistically, which sets the book apart. It also gives us much to contemplate now, many years after we had all hoped - as idealistic volunteers, "strangers in a strange land" - that the health status of poor African villages would have been by now substantially improved.
Rather than laying blame for this global failure of foreign assistance over four decades, Nancy's sage and sensitive observations help us to better understand that the determinants of health have very deep cultural roots, typically not readily amenable to outside cultures' efforts to change them. It is a lesson worth repeating today.
Professor John Frank, University of Edinburgh; Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto
*****
A different type of travelogue. Nancy recounts her adventures as a young idealistic nurse who travels to improve the world. She finds herself in a place which is very different from what she ever imagined. Openness to others, humility and humour allows Nancy to learn and thrive in the face of the many challenges and frustrations that are part of her daily life. Her work in Sierra Leone transforms her. Through her story, we grow like she grew, and learn to appreciate the wisdom of people with a different lived experience. And while her life’s trajectory did not go as planned, she keeps her idealism and imparts the insights
she gained to improve the health of people in other places.
Ronald Macfarlane
*****
The title of this memoir reflects the heartfelt sob of a mother who had borne eleven children. When asked how many had survived infancy, she replied “Not one, not even one”. It was the cry that generated Nancy Edwards’ drive to improve care for mothers and babies in Sierra Leone.
Nancy Edwards’ memoir can be an eye-opener to anyone who has wondered why it is so hard to improve health in other countries – and equally, in rural and isolated areas of our own. As I read it I realized how narrow my own vision is, derived from my own experiences and my own culture. Nancy was able to show me how the beliefs and expectations of the people she was serving were molded in exactly the same way by their own sense of history, family and culture. Only with experiencing some of the same hardships (although very much softened by the support of Western organizations) could she begin to appreciate their resilience.
Beginning with her anticipation of arrival in Freetown, the capital, we accompany her through the initial culture shock, her discovery of her own resilience, and her development of understanding and respect for the people and their way of life. She shows us why so-called “modern” concepts of disease and medicine were incomprehensible to them. Understanding their traditions and the basis for them led to an appreciation for their social structure. Working within the existing hierarchy made it possible to bring about measurable improvements in the quality of maternal and newborn care, and reduction in mortality.
Sadly, war, disease and personal circumstances intervened to deflect the arc of progress and keep Nancy from returning to Sierra Leone, but the lessons she learned there acted as guides to her further career, working in international health and then in nursing education and maternal health initiatives in rural Canada. Anyone interested in health care, here or abroad, will find this book a source of inspiration for meeting the continuing challenge of ensuring mothers throughout the world will be spared the heart-wrenching experience of that mother who had seen every child she bore die in infancy.
Phillip G.
*****
Nancy's memoir presents the challenges, work and learning opportunities she experienced in her CUSO posting with a reality that leaves the reader moving through the pages totally absorbed. Her years in Sierra Leone were foundational to her successful career in education, research and international development. Readers considering international work will be awakened to life with sparse and unstable amenities, cultural influences and harrowing travel experiences but Nancy portrays it all as a positive adventure.
Denise Alcock
*****
This book grabs you from the first chapter and throughout the whole book. Nancy Christine Edwards does a great job at outlining and explaining the kind of important work that she and other aid workers were doing at the time with it's trials and tribulations. She does this from both a professional and personal standpoint, which I find makes the book even more enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed how even though she writes about the way she and her colleagues were trying to educate and help the local people, she also makes sure the reader understands how much the local people taught them back. Not One, Not Even One is a book about compassion and respect for your fellow man. It's about overcoming challenges and still keep the hope up.
Annika Ericsson
Reviews Posted on Amazon
Nancy Edward's book "Not One, Not Even One: A Memoir of Life-altering Experiences in Sierra Leone, West Africa" is a well-written, detailed and I believe, honest account of her work as a CUSO volunteer in Sierra Leone. As a young nurse trying to find better ways to deliver primary health care to scattered villages, she deals with what seem to be unsurmountable obstacles from traditional beliefs, inaccessible jungle paths, witchcraft, physical hardship and even the occasional snake! The subject will be particularly fascinating to anyone who is or has been even remotely involved in research for development. The author's dedication, tenacity and empathy for the people of Sierra Leone is evident on every page. What I really liked about the book is that the reader is on the learning journey with the author, every success and setback or hiccup along the way, leads to a new insight. Her honesty is remarkable. At the end, we are left saddened that the country, full of talented people and potential ended up so tragically in Civil War.
Ilse Zandstra
Reviews Posted on Friesen Press
I am typing this review for my 92 year old mother, Maybelle. Here are her comments:
Wow! As a Pro-life supporter, I admire your courage and commitment to helping mothers have a safe delivery and healthy babies.
In spite of all the obstacles in your path, the shortage of food, water, gas and the cultural differences, you kept going back for more.
May your life be smooth sailing from now on. God bless you and keep you safe. Thank you, Nancy for a great read.
Maybelle Nordick
*****
I'm so enjoying reading your book Nancy. Congratulations! You drew me in from the first page!
Pamela Thompson
