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Bee Bloeser with her late husband Carl

Ten-year-old Bee Bloeser, in small-town Oklahoma, dreamed of going to Africa to live the life she saw in medical missionaries’ filmstrips. Twenty years later she followed her husband to Africa in the campaign to wipe out smallpox. The warmth of the people, rhythms of tribal music and visits with a princess in a medieval palace delighted her. But she learned hard facts of women hidden behind walls, tribal conflict, and a heartbreaking humanitarian crisis unknown to the outside world. A violent dictatorship caused her family to live on constant vigil.

Equipped with vivid memories and her personal archives of notes, letters, cables, film and official reports, Bloeser speaks and writes about this personal story set alongside the public triumph of the global eradication of smallpox. Her historical memoir, Vaccines & Bayonets: Fighting Smallpox in Africa amid Tribalism, Terror and the Cold War, receives high praise. 

Bloeser has lived in West Africa, the Middle East and Native American nations, and supported her late husband’s public health work on five continents. After decades by his side and in her own career in speech-language pathology, Bloeser now lives in California. An award-winning writer, she has been a USAID Alumni Associate and belongs to Toastmasters International, PEO, multiple authors’ groups and her church. She still wants to return to Africa.  

Author:

Award-winning writer

Version 2Author of historical memoir, VACCINES & BAYONETS: Fighting Smallpox in Africa amid Tribalism, Terror and the Cold War

Here in this website you can glimpse the humor and horror of a true story that few have ever heard. And you may discover that VACCINES & BAYONETS reverberates in today’s news. READ EXCERPTS.  READ MY ARTICLES.

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Speaker:

Zoom bookings welcome!

Bee presents several different talks related to her complex first-person history:

VACCINES & BAYONETS: Fighting Smallpox in Africa amid Tribalism, Terror and the Cold War, Bee Bloeser’s historical memoir.

 

SIGNATURE TALK   

  • Sending Smallpox into History: Behind the Scenes with One Public Health Family— Highs and lows behind the scenes of the most astounding campaign in public health history—eradicating a dreaded disease. For the first, and so far the only, time in history. What does it mean for us?

     Join me as we move to Nigeria, toddler and preschooler in tow. Thrill to being a part of public health history and drink in the sights and sounds of Africa. Come then to Equatorial Guinea as it suffers in the vise of a murderous dictator. My husband is on the front lines of human vs. microbe. One of only two American women in the country, I’m isolated in an isolated country, a frontline of a different sort.

(This talk is available as a 25-40 minute overview or as an in-depth program or lecture series customized for your particular group.)

 

SPECIAL-INTEREST TALKS 

  • Women Hidden behind Walls—Join me as we visit women denied even a primary education—women isolated by literal walls or the “wall” imposed by the many hours spent walking to collect water. Then we’ll glimpse hope for the future in girls who’ve escaped their walls and experienced victories.
  • From Ramses V to the final case—The disease through the ages and the eradication campaign in depth.

Bee is an engaging knowledgeable speaker who supplements her presentations with photographs and personal experiences that will move you deeply while educating you about the incredible journey that led to the eradication of Small pox. I highly recommend her to your group. — Linda Herzog, J.D.

CONTACT BEE to book a presentation for your group, or just to connect.