E-DRUG: Two new books on community health
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Dear colleagues,
HealthWrights is proud to announce the recent publication of two
books: Questioning the Solution: The Politics of Primary Health
Care and Child Survival, by David Werner and David Sanders; and
Nothing About Us Without Us: Developing Innovative Technologies by,
With and For Disabled Persons, also by David Werner.
"Questioning the Solution" explores the history of medicine and
public health since colonial times, showing that health is
determined more by the equity or inequity of social structures than
by conventional health services. The authors reveal how structural
adjustment policies and the globalization of the economy diminish
vulnerable people, especially women and children. Examples from many
countries (including Mexico, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe and Mozambique)
illustrate approaches to health and development that put human needs
before top-heavy economic growth. As a case study, the authors show
how marketing Oral Rehydration Therapy as a commercial product,
rather than encouraging self-reliance, has turned this potentially
life saving technology into yet another way of exploiting and
further impoverishing the poor.
Author David Werner is particularly well known for his
groundbreaking book, Where There Is No Doctor, today translated into
80 languages, with a worldwide distribution of more than 2 million
copies. His other works, Helping Health Workers Learn and Disabled
Village Children are also found in many languages and are used by
numerous health and community based rehabilitation programs
throughout the world.
David Sanders is a Zimbabwean medical doctor living in Cape Town and
is the author of The Struggle for Health: Medicine and Politics of
Underdevelopment, and has for over 25 years supported struggles for
health and national liberation in Southern Africa. He is professor
and director of a new Public Health Programme at the University of
the Western Cape which provides practice-oriented education and
training in public health and primary health care to health and
development workers.
"Nothing About Us Without Us" is a book of true stories about
people's creative search for solutions. It is an idea book, written
for disabled persons, their friends, relatives, and helpers. Nothing
About Us has been written as a companion to David Werner's earlier
book, Disabled Village Children, now used in Community Based
Rehabilitation programs worldwide.
The book explores the development of innovative aids and equipment
that can be made at low cost, at home, or in a small community
workshop. It also considers how to achieve fuller integration of
disabled people into society; ways to help communities look at
disabled persons strengths, not their weaknesses. Examples of
Child-to-Child activities show how disabled and non-disabled
children can work, play and learn together, to enrich one another's
lives.
Nothing About Us Without Us is based on years of collaborative work
by Wernerand the disabled villagers who created and run PROJIMO, an
innovative rehabilitation program in rural Mexico. It also draws on
experiences from many other parts of the world. Over 1000 line
drawings and 500 photos help make the information clear for those
with little formal education.
Questioning the Solution (200 pages) is available in English and
will soon be available in Spanish and Japanese. Nothing About Us
(320 pages) is available in English.
For more information, please contact:
HealthWrights
PO Box 1344, Palo Alto
CA 94391, USA
Ph: 650-325-7500
Fax: 650-325-1080
e-mail: healthrights@igc.apc.org
website: http://www.healthwrights.org
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