Blessed: Raising two daughters as a single mum with a disability

The follow-up to Beyond Calamity, Esther Simbi's second book continues the story of her life journey as a woman and as a single mother with a disability from a refugee background living in Australia.

Contracting polio at the age of four, as a child Esther escaped the Sudan civil war and spent almost two decades in refugee camps in Uganda before being resettled in the suburbs of Adelaide. In this book she writes about the dangers and hardships for women in the refugee camps, finding her feet in a new country, navigating family and relationships, living with post-polio syndrome, the grief of losing a child, and raising two daughters while juggling work, study, writing and political aspirations.

Esther gives a frank account of relationships, racism, financial insecurity, the stigma of having a physical disability and being a single mother, and the practical aspects of day-to-day life, like budgeting, preparing meals and getting around.

She is an advocate for social justice, particularly for African women with disabilities, a prominent community speaker and has represented the Dignity Party in the South Australian state elections.