Resources search

Disability-inclusive healthcare in humanitarian camps: Pushing the boundaries of disability studies and global health

MIRZA, Mansha
2015

Expand view

A significant proportion of forced migrants live in humanitarian camps located in remote regions of the global South. Disabled persons have been historically neglected within camp programs across all service sectors, especially healthcare. This paper describes an exploratory research study on healthcare access for forced migrants with disabilities in the context of humanitarian camps. Based on the methodological framework of rapid ethnography, the research involved guided tours, community mapping exercises, ethnographic observations, and semi-structured interviews in a refugee camp in southern Africa. Additional key informants from other sites were interviewed remotely using a convenience sampling strategy. Several important insights emerged from the research including: misperceptions about the health-related needs of disabled persons, their specialized health needs falling outside the ‘social minimum’ of humanitarian healthcare, and concerns about distributional ethics in relation to disability-inclusive healthcare. The research also highlighted barriers and strategies for addressing disability-specific health needs given significant resource constraints in humanitarian camps. These findings are discussed in light of practical and theoretical challenges in the fields of disability studies and global health.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2015, Vol. 2 No. 1

Partnerships for disability research in Africa: Lessons learned in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

ALDERSEY, Heather
WENDA, Delphine Assumani
2015

Expand view

Issues concerning individuals with disabilities are under-researched in Africa, and persons with disabilities remain some of the most highly disadvantaged groups. In an increasing era of globalization, partnerships across borders and boundaries to conduct disability research is inevitable. Yet, such partnerships might be complicated by issues such as unequal power dynamics, poverty, and cultural misunderstandings, among others. In this article, the authors reflect upon their experience partnering for disability research across cultures, with one author being a Congolese person with a disability and the other being a Canadian ally. They discuss the nature of their research relationship, challenges they faced while conducting a seven-month study of personhood and support for people with intellectual disabilities in Kinshasa, and how they addressed these challenges. They also outline lessons learned from this partnership and how their past experience collaborating for disability research will shape their future endeavours.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2015, Vol. 2 No. 3

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2015, Vol. 2 No. 3

2015

Expand view

Articles include:

  • Typhoon Haiyan One Year On: Disability, Poverty and Participation in the Philippines
  • Beneath the rhetoric: Policy to reduce the mental health treatment gap in Africa
  • Working within the tensions of disability and education in post-colonial Kenya: Toward a praxis of critical disability studies
  • How disability studies and ecofeminist approaches shape research: exploring small-scale farmer perceptions of banana cultivation in the Lake Victoria region, Uganda
  • Partnerships for Disability Research in Africa: Lessons Learned in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Representation, Access and Contestation: Facebook and Vision Impairment in Jordan, India, and Peru

National response to disability and HIV in Eastern and Southern Africa

HANASS-HANCOCK, Jill
GRANT, Kitty
February 2010

Expand view

Although people with disabilities are often at increased risk of exposure to HIV, this policy brief outlines that less than half of the national strategic plans in Eastern and Southern Africa recognise disability as an issue of concern. Recommendations are provided to governments and civil society on how to address the issue effectively. This policy brief would be useful to people interested in HIV policies in Africa

Features of integrated professional training for physically disabled people in a community-based rehabilitation programme in the rural and urban areas of Congo

LUTALA, M P
et al
2010

Expand view

This study evaluates the professional integration of trained disabled people using a retrospective survey which included all physically disabled people admitted to two rehabilitation centres in Congo between 1996 and 2005. The study concludes that, despite a high rate of integration in Congo, professional training and subsequent integration would still benefit from a comprehensive approach that considers the type of disability, training and socio-demographic features
South African Family Practice, Vol 52, No 3

Voices from the ground : landmine and explosive remnants of war survivors speak out on victim assistance

HANDICAP INTERNATIONAL
September 2009

Expand view

This report surveys landmine survivors’ opinions on assistance. The survey includes questionnaires and data from 1,645 survivors in 25 affected countries. The report finds that survivors are rarely included in decisions and activities destined to benefit them and subsequently more than two-thirds think that their needs are not taken into account when their governments makes plans to assist them. This document is useful for people interested in landmine survivor's opinions about governments supporting and reintegrating landmine survivors into society

The health worker shortage in Africa : are enough physicians and nurses being trained?

KINFU, Yohannes
et al
February 2009

Expand view

"The health worker shortage in sub-Saharan Africa derives from many causes, yet the dynamics of entry into and exit from the health workforce in many of these countries remain poorly understood. This limits the capacity of national governments and their international development partners to design and implement appropriate intervention programmes. This paper provides some of this information through the first systematic estimates of health worker inflow and outflow in selected sub-Saharan African countries"

Mapping malaria risk in Africa

MAPPING MALARIA RISK IN AFRICA / ATLAS DU RISKE DE LA MALARIA EN AFRIQUE (MARA/ARMA)
December 2004

Expand view

This site presents maps of malaria risk and endemicity (the presence of malaria) in Africa, drawing on published and unpublished data, and through spatial modelling of malaria distribution, seasonality and endemicity. Many factors, especially endemicity, affect the choice of control methods. In the absence of such data it is impossible to rationalize the allocation of limited resources for malaria control. This site presents an opportunity to rethink endemicity and how we may map malaria risk in order to better support planning and programming of malaria control

Disability and rehabilitation status : review of disability issues and rehabilitation services in 29 African countries

GIANNELLLI, Massimo
DEEPAK, Sunil
Eds
December 2004

Expand view

This report provides information related to disability issues and rehabilitation services, provided by 29 countries of Africa, and includes demographics, the presence of national policies and NGOs. The report is divided into the following three parts: a global review of information, the country profiles and a summary table of the information provided in individual countries. This report is useful for people interested in disability and rehabilitation services in Africa

Sustainable health care financing in southern Africa : papers from an EDI health policy seminar held in Johannesburg, South Africa, June 1996

BEATTIE, Allison
et al
1998

Expand view

This book summarizes a senior policy seminar in Johannesburg, South Africa, that examined two facets of sustainable health care financing: using available resources more effectively to extract more value for the money; and raising additional revenues for health care. Topics included orienting public health resources toward primary health care, improving control of and accountability for district financing, improving hospital efficiency, and making more effective use of donor funding

Epidemiological evidence from Zaire for a dietary aetiology of konzo, an upper motor neuron disease

TYELLESKAR, T
et al
1991

Expand view

A clear association between seasonal outbreaks of a paralytic disease called konzo and toxic effects from consumption of insufficiently processed bitter cassava roots has been demonstrated in Bandundu region, Zaire. A community-based survey of 6764 inhabitants identified 110 live and 254 dead konzo-affected persons with a history of isolated non-progressive spastic paraparesis of abrupt onset. The start of these annual outbreaks of konzo in 1974 coincided with the completion of a new tarmac road to the capital, which facilitated the transport of cassava and made it the main cash crop. The extensive cassava sales encouraged the consumption by the peasant families of roots that had not been adequately processed; frequent acute cyanide intoxications resulted when the naturally occurring cyanogens in the roots were eaten. The disease mainly appeared in the dry season when there was high consumption of insufficiently processed cassava and the diet lacked supplementary foods with sulfur-containing amino acids which promote cyanide detoxification. These results, which confirm the earlier findings in East Africa, show that, owing to the high cyanide and low sulfur dietary intake, there is an increased risk of konzo outbreaks in cassava-growing areas during periods of adverse agro-economic changes

The Africa campaign on disability and HIV & AIDS

Expand view

The Africa Campaign is a unifying umbrella under which disabled people's organisations, organisations of people living with HIV & AIDS, non-governmental organisations, AIDS services organisations, researchers, activists, and other citizens work collectively to achieve two main objectives: a coordinated response involving persons with disabilities in African countries to achieve inclusive national HIV & AIDS policies and programmes; and equal access for persons with disabilities in Africa to information and services on HIV & AIDS. This website contains information about the campaign and key documents

E-bulletin