1. Maintaining Healthy Lives for
People with Disabilities
Jane Maxwell

2. Hesperian Health Guides
Hesperian’s mission is to publish books and
other educational materials that enable poor
communities to take greater control over their
health and their lives. Our resources are used
by millions of people worldwide who have
little or no access to medical care.

3. Hesperian’s Community
Health Guides
• Helping Children Who Are Blind
• Where There Is No Doctor
• Where Women Have No Doctor • Helping Children Who are Deaf
• A Book for Midwives • Helping Health Workers Learn
• Disabled Village Children • Where There Is No Dentist
• A Health Handbook for Women with • A Community Guide to Environmental
Disabilities Health

5. • Afghanistan • Laos
• Argentina • Lebanon
• Australia • Lesotho
• Bermuda • Malawi
• Cambodia • Malaysia
• Canada • Mauritius
• China • Mexico
• Colombia • Nigeria
• DR Congo • Palau
• Dominican Republic • Philippines
• Egypt • Russia
• El Salvador • South Korea
• England • Tanzania
• Fiji Islands • Thailand
• Finland • Tobago
• Rep.of Georgia • Uganda
• Ghana • United States
• Hong Kong • Vietnam
• India • Yemen
• Jamaica • Zambia
• Kenya • Zimbabwe

7. I wonder if those chapters (family planning, sexuality) have already
been adapted to the Afghan context. Because I am concerned that
those chapters are going a bit too far in what Afghanistan can cope
with. Many things can be discussed openly with women nowadays in
Afghanistan, but printing and disseminating this material is another
huge step that I see as potentially being too ambitious at the moment. It
might create unwanted side effects, such as shuras, elders, or husbands
reacting strongly to such details – especially birth control techniques.
I think we have to be cautious with the pictures too.
-- Firoz Alizada,
-- National Association of Women with Disabilities of Afghanistan

9. Nagarathna and Shobha expressed that they could not
participate this time due to their prior commitments. I
managed to get Madhu (who is visually impaired), Jaya
(who has bilateral polio), and Dorothy (who is in a
wheelchair) to come to Mobility India and discuss the
chapters. This process took half a day, but in the end
they were satisfied, happy and are eagerly looking
forward to the book.
I must mention that there were some typing errors,
which I am sure you will attend to.

12. What the book does NOT cover:
• Disease-related disabilities, such as diabetes and
lupus.
• Physical therapy
• Medical management of individual disabilities

13. What the book DOES cover:
• 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.
• how families and caregivers can assist women with
disabilities in a way that is helpful and not demeaning.

30. Translations In Progress
Spanish Vietnamese
Nepali Bengali
Lao Azeri
Chinese Igbo
Khmer Armenian
Urdu Mongolian
Telugu Tamil
Arabic

31. Jane Maxwell
janem@hesperian.org
www.hesperian.org