Attachments
It has been six months since Typhoon Haiyan swept across the Philippines, killing over 6,000 people and affecting more than 14 million. Since then, CBM and partners have been working to ensure that persons with disabilities are included at all levels of relief, recovery and rehabilitation.
People with disabilities actively involved
The central feature of CBM's approach is that Disabled Persons’ Organisations (DPOs) are instrumental in emergency response – the active participation of persons with disabilities is essential in identifying, addressing and overcoming the heightened vulnerabilities caused by disaster.
Persons with disabilities were actively involved in organising emergency relief distributions, and are now running ‘Aging and Disability Focal Points’ (ADFPs) to link people with mainstream services. One DPO has been producing school furniture for mainstream schools.
As well as these initiatives, CBM:
- is an integral partner in an Ageing and Disability Task Force (ADTF)
- is working with partners rebuilding destroyed schools, repairing damaged houses planning the building of new - more accessible - homes
- with partners, has started a Community Mental Health (CMH) project in two provinces
- helped finance, and participated in, a national summit on Disability inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (DiDRR)
- provided training on universal accessibility to six partner organisations