In virtually every community in the world, people with disabilities are among the poorest of the poor; marginalized and powerless at the best of times, they suffer acutely when war or natural disaster strike. Too often humanitarian and development organizations, with a mandate to reach those most in need, exclude disabled people from equal participation in their programs. This book's basic premise is that disabled people themselves know best what their own needs are; that they should be involved in the planning and delivery of relief and development initiatives; and that the most effective support that agencies can offer is to empower them to claim their basic human rights and their civil and legal rights.The manual is based on the experience of Oxfam staff working with a local disabled people's organization before, during, and after the recent crisis in Kosovo, but the principles that it presents, and the practical training materials that it contains, have a much wider relevance. Case studies from West Africa and South and East Asia show that the values of equality, empowerment, and autonomy promoted by "the Social Model of Disability" can translate to a wide range of political and social contexts.The manual is designed to be used by two distinct sets of readers: * Disabled people's organizations, local or national, seeking to raise awareness and put disability equality into action among their membership and in the broader community.* The humanitarian and development community (from donors to implementers), seeking to promote disability equality, both internally within their own organisations and externally with partners and beneficiaries.The text is written in clear, simple language, and the practical materials will be particularly useful to trainers working in geographically isolated areas without access to sophisticated equipment. Most of the exercises and activities can be adapted for use in groups of people with a wide range of impairments and educational levels.

"Beautifully written and refreshingly original... makes us see Paris] in a different light." -- "San Francisco Chronicle""Book Review"
Swapping his native San Francisco for the City of Light, travel writer David Downie arrived in Paris in 1986 on a one-way ticket, his head full of romantic notions. Curiosity and the legs of a cross-country runner propelled him daily from an unheated, seventh-floor walk-up garret near the Champs-Elysees to the old Montmartre haunts of the doomed painter Modigliani, the tombs of Pere-Lachaise cemetery, the luxuriant alleys of the Luxembourg Gardens and the aristocratic ile Saint-Louis midstream in the Seine.
Downie wound up living in the chic Marais district, married to the Paris-born American photographer Alison Harris, an equally incurable walker and chronicler. Ten books and a quarter-century later, he still spends several hours every day rambling through Paris, and writing about the city he loves. An irreverent, witty romp featuring thirty-one short prose sketches of people, places and daily life, "Paris, "Paris" Journey into the City of Light" ranges from the glamorous to the least-known corners and characters of the world's favorite city.
Photographs by Alison Harris.
"I loved his collection of essays and anyone who's visited Paris in the past, or plans to visit in the future, will be equally charmed as well." --David Lebovitz, author of" The Sweet Life in Paris"
" A] quirky, personal, independent view of the city, its history and its people"--Mavis Gallant
"Gives fresh poetic insight into the city... a voyage into 'the bends and recesses, the jagged edges, the secret interiors' of Paris]."-- Departures