Faith in Asia's Poor: Ten Paths to Rural Development. Biographies of Ramon Magsaysay Foundation Awardees . Edited by Mae Handy Esterline. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1990. xiii, 192 pp. $14.95 (paper).

This book offers the brief biographies of ten dedicated men, of seven nationalities, who have introduced imaginative, easily applicable technologies to people of rural South, Southeast and Northeast Asia. Their unifying philosophy is that sustained social and economic progress can be achieved only through self-help. Includes a man in India planting forests, an Indonesian engineer developing water and fuel resources, an American missionary evolving a system of slope farming in the Philippines, and a Bangladeshi professor of economics organizing a banking system for the poor and landless in his country. Offers insight into the role of micro-economic programs in overall national developmental planning, and illustrates the need to build upon traditional patterns and strengthen the concept of self-help.