David Morley

Brief description of achievement:

Professor David Morley began working in the field of child health in Nigeria in the 1950's. He is a life long supporter of new methods of health education and has developed simple and innovative diagnostic tools and teaching aids for child health, working particularly with vulnerable children under five years old, and which have inspired health workers world-wide.

He has set up two international health charities - Teaching Aids at Low Cost (TALC) and the Child-to-Child Trust - and continues his work today, at the age of 80.

Detailed description:

David Morley is a founder of charities, author and expert in the medical field. He set up under five's clinics in Nigeria that trained local women to immunise their children and learn about family health, founded in the belief in the capacity of people to help themselves. Since their operation in 1950, these clinics, including the weighing and chartering of childre's growth, have now spread worldwide.

Professor Morley is also responsible for designing and developing low cost simple health accessories such as the two-ended sugar/salt spoon for mixing rehydration fluids and a direct-recording scale that allows women in developing countries to monitor a child's weight and growth. He has also developed innovative medical kit from everyday objects - such as a flytrap, water purifier and asthma inhaler made from old plastic drink bottles. These low cost inventions have helped save the lives of many thousands of children.

Morley's charities - Teaching Aids at Low Cost (TALC) and the Child-to-Child Trust - have been set up to further his aims to educate families and health workers in the developing world about child health. Child-to-Child is now the leading organisation promoting the full participation of children in designing, implementing health programmes to influence their families and local communities. TALC has distributed 7 million teaching transparencies and around a million books. Morley has also written numerous articles and books on child health and is Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Child Health in London.

"Professor David Morley, CBE, has made an exemplary and unique contribution to international Child Health. Simply put, he cared for the health of poor children. He showed that they can be helped. He taught - through his writing - thousands of child health workers. He influenced the international community to put children's health first."

David Narbarro, Executive Director, WHO

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