New "World Report on Disability" Parallels Hesperian's Approach
A new report from the World Health Organization and the World Bank, the "World Report on Disability," calls for the elimination of barriers that often force people with disabilities to "the margins of society." About 15 percent of the world's population - some 785 million people - has a significant physical or mental disability, including about 5 percent of children. Full text of the report is available here.
The report calls for innovative programs and policies that empower people living with disabilities and remove the barriers which prevent them from participating in their communities, getting a quality education, finding decent work, and having their voices heard. A practical manual for doing exactly that, Hesperian's A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities, is filled with descriptions of activities and programs that have been proven to work in a multiplicity of settings.
The WHO report underscores the message in Hesperian's publications about care for people living with disabilities. A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities, developed with the participation of women with disabilities in 42 countries, helps women to overcome the barriers of social stigma and inadequate care which they identify as often the biggest barriers to improving their general health, self-esteem, and abilities to care for themselves and participate in their communities. Topics include:
Organizing for disability-friendly health care How to care for daily needs with limited access to equipment Having healthy and safe sexual relationships Which family planning methods work best for which disabilities Pregnancy and childbirth How to defend against violence or abuse.
You can read more about A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities here. All of our titles are available in Spanish here.
Other relevant Hesperian publications include Disabled Village Children: A Guide for Community Health Workers, Rehabilitation Workers, and Families; Helping Children Who are Deaf; and Helping Children Who are Blind.
Environmental Health book available in Spanish! / Guía de Salud Ambiental disponible en español!
Guía comunitaria para la salud ambiental, the Spanish-language edition of A Community Guide to Environmental Health, is now available!
Por un tiempo limitado, compre Guía comunitaria para la salud ambiental y ¡el envío es gratis! Haga su pedido en nuestra tienda virtual y le mandaremos la Guía tan pronto esté lista, en la primera quincena de junio. Esta oferta no se puede utilizar para pedidos por mayoreo (mas de 5 libros). Para descuentos por mayoreo, favor contáctenos por correo electrónico en libros@hesperian.org o por teléfono al 510-845-4507. Más información en español aquí
For a limited time, get free shipping of Guía comunitaria para la salud ambiental. Order the title from our on-line bookstore. Books will be shipped during the first week of June. This free shipping offer does not apply to bulk orders (more than 5 books). For great deals on bulk discounts, please contact our order department at bookorders@hesperian.org or 510-845-4507.
Originally published in English in 2008, the Community Guide to Environmental Health is now available in Pashto, Indonesian, Russian, Mongolian and Khmer, with many more translations in progress. The Spanish edition has been adapted and translated based on extensive review by Hesperian partners in Latin America and the U.S.
This highly illustrated guide helps health promoters, development workers, environmental activists, and community leaders take charge of their environmental health. In small villages and large cities, Guía comunitaria para la salud ambiental can provide the tools, knowledge, and inspiration to begin transforming the crisis in environmental health.
The book's 23 chapters cover topics including:
- preventing and reducing harm from toxic pollution
- forestry, restoring land, and planting trees
- protecting community water and watersheds
- food security and sustainable farming
- environmental health at home
- solid waste and health care waste
- how to reduce harm from mining, oil, and energy production
With dozens of activities to stimulate critical thinking and discussion, instructions for simple health technologies such as safe toilets, safe cleaning methods, and water purification methods, and hundreds of drawings to make the messages clear, Guía comunitaria para la salud ambiental will be useful for people just beginning to address environmental health threats, as well as people with many years of practical experience.
Order your copy now from our online store.
"You have produced something quite extraordinary. The Community Guide will certainly be much used for the benefit of poor communities around the world. Too little has been done to provide this type of practical and useful information to communities. The human rights approach in the guide is especially useful." - Ingvar Andersson, former Head of Water Division, Swedish International Development Cooperation (Sida)
"Community work, especially our water and sanitation programs, are more effective and efficient when we have tools that meet the needs and expectations of the communities. Hesperian produces materials so creative and communicative, and of such quality and precision, that they allow us to respond to the many common problems of communities while recognizing that each case is unique. The flexibility of these materials makes them useful in a wide variety of social and geographic contexts." - Feliciano dos Santos, ESTAMOS, Mozambique; Winner of the 2008 Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa
Announcing a new way to access Hesperian's health materials online
For many years, Hesperian has made its books available for free download through our website, Hesperian.org.
Starting today, we are adding new features to our website that will allow you to read our books online, search for key words within a book, and search for key words across our collection of titles more quickly and easily than ever before.
These updates are made possible by Ebrary, a Palo Alto-based company and a leading provider of e-books and technology to libraries around the world.
The new features are especially valuable for browsing books before you download, searching our materials, and reading books online when you don't have the ability to download large files. Now you can use one search to find the content you need - instead of looking through each book.
Twenty of our books, including both English and Spanish titles, are available in this new format. You can find them by going to our Downloads page.
We've produce a how-to video and written instructions, available here.
This is the first of many improvements we'll be making to our Hesperian.org website over the next couple months - we'll be increasing access to our materials in more languages as well as debuting an adaptation tool to help you make your own posters, handouts, and booklets from our materials.
Your gift now will make health information available for those who need it most!
