Politicising Polio - Diana Szántó Gebunden

This book examines disability in post-war Sierra Leone. Its protagonists are polio-disabled people living in the nation¿s capital of Freetown organizing themselves as best as they can in a state without welfare. There is little concrete support for people with disabilities in a country where the government is struggling with the competing requirements of the international community demanding - in exchange for its support - good standards of democracy and the maintenance of a free market economy. To what extent is the Human Rights framework of the disability movement effective in protecting t he polio-disabled and what are the limitations of this framework? Diana Szántó¿s detailed ethnography reveals through many real-life examples the vulnerability of disabled people living in the intersections of poverty informality and disability activism. At the same time it also tells about the many ways the polio-disabled community is transforming vulnerability into strength.