Women and Disability

Women and Development 201

CAUSES OF DISABILITY
Causes of Disability
• Some women have
become disabled since
birth. Some women
become more disabled
over time. Some women
become disabled
suddenly, because of
accident or disease.
• It is not possible to
prevent all impairment.
Some babies form
differently in the womb
and no one knows why.
• But many disabilities in
babies are caused by
harmful conditions of
women’s lives. If women
can get enough nutritious
food to eat, protect
themselves from work
with toxic chemicals, and
can get good health care,
including care at the time
of childbirth, then many
disabilities could be
prevented.
 Poverty and Malnutrition
• Poverty is one of the
biggest causes of
disability. Poor people are
most vulnerable to
disability because they
are forced to live and
work in unsafe
environments.
• Poor people have little if
no access to basic
services.
• This make disease such as
tuberculosis and polio.
• Starting in childhood, a
girl is often given less
food to eat than boy.
Thus, she may grow more
slowly and her bones may
not develop properly,
which can later cause
difficulty in childbirth.
• If a baby cannot get
enough nutrition, the
baby may become blind
or have trouble learning
or understanding.
War
• Civilians are more likely
to be killed or disabled,
and most of them are
women and children.
Explosions cause people
to become deaf, blind,
loosing their limbs, as
well as causing injuries.
• The destruction of
homes, schools, health
centres and means of
livelihood that result to
the increase of poverty.
• Land mines, cluster
bombs, bullets and
chemicals cause more
disabilities in the world.
They often injure
women who are
carrying out their daily
activities in farming or
gathering water and
wood.
 Poor Access to Health Care
• Good health care can
prevent many
disabilities. Maternal
care can prevent
disabilities such as
difficult labor which
causes a baby to be
born with a disability
such as cerebral palsy,
physical deformity and
multiple amputation.
Dangerous Work Conditions
• Women who work long
hours without enough
rest are likely to have
accidents. Women who
work in factories or
agricultural plantations
can be exposed to
dangerous machinery,
tools or chemicals.
VICIOUS CYCLE OF
DISEMPOWERMENT
Poverty of History of Embryonic
Economic
State of
Person’s Charity
Financial
Weakness of
with the country
Services
Disabilities

Inability
Few Assets to invest
or Collateral

Negative Family and Educational

Social Expectations Derivation

Internalized Aversion to
Oppression Risk

Complex
Persons with disabilities are Service
economically inactive and Needs
invisible

Little demand for

persons with
Undeveloped disabilities for Diagram by Mike Albu:
Markets for Economic Improving Business
Services Empowerment Development: Services with
Services Disabled People in Northern
Uganda. July 2005
WRONG IDEAS AND MYTHS ABOUT
DISABILITY
• Local customs and
beliefs may include
wrong and harmful
ideas about disability.
• Women gets disability if
she or her parents did
something bad during
their lifetime. Due to
God’s wrath, they are
being punished.
• The woman or the
mother may have sexual
relationship outside
marriage. Due to Karma,
they are suffering from
disability.
• Disability is contagious.
• For many, disability is a
bad omen. Thus, it has to
be avoided otherwise, it
will bring bad luck.
• Having sex with a virgin
(woman with disability)
will cure HIV/AIDS.
• Women with disabilities
are often sexually
abused because people
believe they are free of
HIV/AIDS or having sex
with women with
disabilities can cure
HIV/AIDS.
• If a pregnant woman is
touched by a woman with
disability, her baby will be
born with disability too.
• Disabled women’s bodies
are shameful.
– If a woman’s body looks
very different from that
standard, people may not
think she is “worthy” to be
married or to be a sexual
partner.
• Disabled women cannot
have sexual feelings.
– Woman wit disability
comes to believe she
does not have sexual
feelings and no one will
be sexually attracted to
her or want to have
babies with her.
• Disabled woman always
want sex
ABUSE AND VIOLENCE
• Abuse can happen to any
woman.
• Women with disability are
abused because they have
lesser power than the
person abusing them, or
because they are alone,
weak or vulnerable.
• Because disabled women
often get little respect, they
are sometimes seen as not
worth protecting. Making
them more prone to abuse.
• Abuse to women with
disabilities is not a problem
because there is no need to
respect their rights.
• A disabled woman may
suffer abuse from
someone else who is
also disabled. If a
disabled man feels
powerless and angry
because of his disability,
he may act out his
anger as a way to assert
his power over her.
Emotional Abuse
• This happens when
someone insults a
woman, threatens or
frightened her; isolates
her or treats her as
though she is worthless.
• Emotional abuse makes it
hard for a woman with
disability o stay strong. A
woman who is
abandoned feels as if she
has lost her place and her
role in society.
• Abandonment
– A family abandons a
disabled child because they
are ashamed or they think
they cannot provide for
the child’s needs.
– A woman is abandoned by
her husband because he
does not accept the
change in his wife’s body.
– Woman with disabilities
feel useless especially
when the family is poor
because the members of
the family sees her a
liability or a cause of their
misfortune.
• Isolation
– Keeping a woman with
disability shut inside a
room alone is one the
worst forms of abuse.
– The family keeps other
people from finding out
about the disabled woman
and girls in their family, or
pretend they do not exist.
– In some communities,
woman with disabilities are
isolated because other
people are afraid that
being around them will
make them disabled too.
 Physical Abuse
• Includes being beaten,
pushed down, pinched,
slapped or hit.
Sometimes, people treat
the disabled woman’s
children.
• Women with disabilities
can be physically abused
and treated roughly in
many different ways and
places; in clinic, schools,
homes and public
transportations
 Sexual Abuse
• Women with disabilities • Women with disabilities
are more prone to sexual
abuse because they are
smaller, weaker and are
less aware of the social
rules and practices
around the communities.
• They are weakened by
their difficulty in
communications or are
not fully accepted by the
community.
are most often raped by
the persons whom they
know, by someone who
takes care of her. When
the family finds out about
the abuse, they most
likely to blame the
woman with disability
and protect the abuser.
WHAT WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES
CAN DO
 Organizing Women with
Disabilities
• Organizing women with
disabilities is a must.
• They must be empowered
as individuals and as a
group to be able to take
stock of their own situation,
assess their strengths, link
with other women’s group
and take part in decision
making processes that will
affect their lives and that of
their families.
• Women with disabilities
create avenues/structures
where they can
communicate and discuss
their practical needs,
problems and strategic
interest. As a group they
develop confidence and the
will to work on these needs
and interests and take
actions to achieve them.
 Three Major Approaches Involved
in Organizing
Community Development Approach
Involve the community members interacting through different group
centered activities. All sectors within the community are involved. The
women will be able to look at their needs within the larger context of the
whole family.
Social Planning
Problem solving approach. Finding solutions to the identified problems
faced by the community as a whole.
Social Action
Responding to the problems identified by the community. The plans of
action may take form in linking with other organizations and activities
pursuing more direct forms of involvement like lobbying, rallies and
forging alliances with more established organizations.
• Organize for your voices to
be heard.
• Advocate for your rights and
make sure disability issues
become a priority.
• As one organization, you can:
– Refuse to be confined to one
place.
– Learn business skills and
empower yourself
economically.
– Insist /be a part in community
participation at all levels.
 – Speak out about your
disabilities.
• Together you can decide
that things in your
community can be changed
in order to make life better
for all.
– Start literacy class.
– Small business together.
– Work together
– Get funds together.
– Awareness raising about
disability issues.
– Advocate for rethinking of
independence.
• Work with LOCAL
GOVERNMENT UNITS
for programs for
women with disabilities
and the community of
persons with
disabilities.
 Working with other community groups to:
• Look into different causes of heath
problems and together decide
which of the causes can be
addressed collectively.
• Take actions by advocating for
activities and services that make
life better for everyone.
• Set-up small groups. The voice of
the organization is stronger than
the voice of an individual
• Raise your voices against policies
and laws that discriminate against
women with disabilities.
COMMUNITY-BASED
REHABILITATION
  Is an INCLUSIVE
CBR… STRATEGY for:
 Equalization of
opportunities
 Poverty reduction
and eradication
 Genuine participation
of people with
disabilities in
community
development
 CBR also focuses on:
 Eradicating negative
attitudes and physical
barriers
 Addressing the root
causes of impairment
and disability
 Rehabilitation
activities to reduce
the effects of
impairment
 • People with disabilities,
In CBR… • Local Government
Units, and the
• Whole community

 Are working together

in creating
communities
 That include everyone
 And where everyone
shares in the fruits of
development
 • Everyone in the
Why do we need
community is
to uphold CBR? important
 However, many people
are not able to
participate in
developing the
community
 In the Philippines, 4.5M
Filipino with disabilities
cannot access the
services they need
(NCDA, 2005)
  Out of 2.7M Filipino
Why do we need children with
to uphold CBR? disabilities, only 78,114
are allowed to go to
school (DepEd, 2008)

• CBR is not only for

persons with
disabilities, but for
everyone in the
community!
What are the legal bases of
Community-Based Rehabilitation?
“All Local Presidential
Government Units Executive Order 437
(LGU) are hereby (June 21, 2005)
encouraged to adopt
Community-Based
Rehabilitation (CBR)
in delivering services
to their constituents
with disabilities and
to allocate funds to
support the
program.”
“Disabled persons have Republic Act
the same rights as other 7277/9442
people to take their (April 30, 2007)
proper place in society.
They should be able to
live freely and as
independently as
possible. This must be
the concern of
everyone. Disabled
persons' rights must
never be perceived as
welfare services by the
Government.”
 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities
(Philippines ratified on April 15, 2008)
• “States Parties to the CRPD
recognize the equal right of
all persons with disabilities
to live in the community,
with choices equal to others,
and shall take effective and
appropriate measures to
facilitate full enjoyment by
persons with disabilities of
this right and their full
inclusion and participation in
the community.”
The CBR Matrix

5 MAJOR COMPONENTS
 CBR Matrix
GOAL: HUMAN RIGHTS—INCLUSIVE SOCIETY

PROMOTION EARLY SKILLS RELATIONSHIIP, COMMUNIICATION

CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT MARRIAGE, &
PREVENTION FAMILY SOCIAL
PRIMARY SELF MOBILIZATION
MEDICAL CARE EMPLOYMENT PERSONAL
SECONDARY & ASSISTANCE POLITICAL
REHABILITATION HIGHER FINANCIAL PARTICIPATION
SERVICES CULTURE/ARTS
ASSISTIVE NON-FORMAL SELF HELP
DEVICES EMPLOYMENT LEISURE/ GROUP
LIFELONG SPORTS
LEARNING SOCIAL DPOs
PROTECTION JUSTICE

HEALTH EDUCATION LIVELHOOD SOCIAL EMPOWER-

MENT

GUIDING PRINCIPLES: PARTICIPATION, INCLUSION, SUSTAINABILITY,

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES, ACCESSIBILITY, SELF ADVOCACY
HEALTH (1)
• Health is defined as “a
state of complete
physical, mental and
social well-being and not
merely the absence of
disease or infirmity.”
• This definition makes it
clear that health services
alone cannot provide for
all aspects of health. A
multi sectoral approach is
needed.
World Health Organization/ILO/UNESCO CBR Guidelines 2007
HEALTH (2)
• Purpose: CBR is
concerned with health
because:
 people with disabilities
have a right to health
which must be recognized
and protected;
 health is a precondition
for participation in life’s
activities;
 health is necessary to
combat poverty;
 all community members
benefit from awareness
of the right to health.
World Health Organization/ILO/UNESCO CBR Guidelines 2007
 EDUCATION (1)
• Education is about all
people being able to
learn what they need and
want throughout their
life, according to their
potential. It “includes
learning to know, to do,
to live together and to
be.” (Dakar Framework
for Action, 2000).

World Health Organization/ILO/UNESCO CBR Guidelines 2007

 EDUCATION (2)
• Purpose: CBR works
with the education
sector to help it
become fully inclusive
at all levels.
 Poverty and
discrimination are the
main barriers to
inclusive education
 Education for All (Dakar
Framework for Action,
2000).
World Health Organization/ILO/UNESCO CBR Guidelines 2007
 SOCIAL (1)
• CBR is concerned:
 to challenge unjust
social systems and
practices that exclude
people with disabilities
from actively
participating in and
contributing to family
and community life

World Health Organization/ILO/UNESCO CBR Guidelines 2007

SOCIAL (2)
 to develop inclusive
practices and systems
at community level
that meaningfully
support children and
adults with disabilities
to fulfill their social
and cultural
aspirations

World Health Organization/ILO/UNESCO CBR Guidelines 2007

 LIVELIHOOD (1)
• Disability needs to be
seen as part of the
total picture of poverty
affecting low income
countries. Disability
adds to the risk of
impoverishment, and
conditions of poverty
add to the risk of
disability.

World Health Organization/ILO/UNESCO CBR Guidelines 2007

LIVELIHOOD (2)
• Purpose of the livelihood
component is to facilitate
access for people with
disabilities to livelihood
opportunities leading to
their economic
empowerment, better
participation in
community life, and
enhanced self-fulfillment.

World Health Organization/ILO/UNESCO CBR Guidelines 2007

 EMPOWERMENT (1)
• Often, programmes only
addressed medical
rehabilitation of people
with disabilities. While
this has brought changes
to individuals, it has
promoted a mind-set of
giver and receiver,
perpetuating a charity
model or approach
World Health Organization/ILO/UNESCO CBR Guidelines 2007
 EMPOWERMENT (2)
• Purpose: move away from
this individualized approach
to one which is more
participatory and
sustainable in its
intervention.
• Aim: is to ensure that efforts
are part of a wider strategy
of development and poverty
reduction, done with the
active involvement of people
with disabilities.
World Health Organization/ILO/UNESCO CBR Guidelines 2007
 Persons with Disabilities, DPOs, & CBR

• Based on the
principles of SELF
ADVOCACY and
PARTICIPATION
persons with
disabilities, through
their Diasbled
Peoples’
Organizations, are at
the heart of CBR. 
 Persons with Disabilities, DPOs, & CBR

• Through their DPOs, which they organized

based on their collective goal to live life to the
full, they will work with the
government, private sector, support
institutions, and faith based organizations in
ensuring that their needs and rights under the
5 components of CBR (Health, Education,
Social, Livelihood, Empowerment) are met
and protected.
CBR Components Interlinked
HEALTH

SOCIAL EMPOWERMENT LIVELIHOOD

EDUCATION