CBM Equips Media Professionals to Mainstream Disabilities in Crisis Reporting
The ongoing socio-political crisis in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon has led to an increase in persons with disabilities (PWDs) left at the crossroads. Violent gun battles with targeted or stray bullets have led to amputated limbs, blindness, deafness and other disabilities resulting from inability to access health care due to closure of health facilities or road blockages and gun battles. Worse, babies are acquiring disabilities at birth or are born with disabling conditions because of deliveries at home or in the bushes.
These gaps, identified by key disability stakeholders in mainstreaming disabilities in the two regions were the subject of a workshop that took place in Douala on November 24 -25, 2021, organized by CBM, to school some 30 media practitioners drawn from 13 media organs in the crisis hit regions with skills to mainstream disability in reporting in crisis zones
Opening the workshop, CBM Country Director, Julius Fon told the participants that the exclusion of persons with disabilities is generally accentuated during crisis as they are usually the last people to be reached with humanitarian response. “Their exclusion from humanitarian actions in the socio-political crisis in Cameroon is dire as the crisis is least funded, reason why CBM developed the Disability Inclusive Humanitarian Response (DIHA) Project geared towards providing a response directed to persons with disabilities and ensuring that all humanitarian actors in the crisis context include persons with disabilities in their response,” Mr. Fon disclosed.
Mr. Fon Julius told the journalists that one important aspect of the project is communication about the crisis and the needs of the affected groups to the entire world. He noted that it has been observed that communication about humanitarian actions does not reach persons with disabilities, indicating that the media has the responsibility to be inclusive in their communication, reason why participants have been invited for the training. He called on them to seize the opportunity of the training and mainstream disability in their communication so that the humanitarian response in the crisis hit regions should be inclusive.
Statistics from Office for the Coordination of humanitarian Affair (OCHA) site report, the 2020 Cameroon Humanitarian response plan and Needs overview, other findings and stakeholder consultation and planning workshops involving local, national and international humanitarian organizations, UNHCR, local authorities and representatives of OPDs, in 2020 all exposed the following gaps;
- Unavailable primary data
- Unreliable secondary data
- Data not disaggregated by disability type
- Sectorial analysis not considering the specific risk on people with disabilities.
- Overall lack of consultation of people with disability at every stage of humanitarian programming.
Presenting on CBM strategy on inclusive Humanitarian action, the CBM Country Humanitarian Coordinator, Emmanuel Mouti told participants that during crisis the rate of disabilities increases by more than the normal 15% statistics. He added that about 10million of the World’s internally displaced persons are people with disabilities, reason why disabilities need to be mainstreamed in actions and reporting. He explained that disability needs to be mainstreamed because persons with disabilities are discriminated against in humanitarian actions with only 1% of humanitarian funds allocated to persons with disabilities and the elderly. In addition to their rights not protected, they also face barriers that hinder them from accessing humanitarian aid.
A few journalists who dared to mainstream disabilities in their practice in Cameroon have often unintentionally, used language that either stigmatizes or dehumanizes persons with disabilities. It is for this reason that after being exposed to knowledge on appropriate language and terminology in disability reporting, the journalists pledged to henceforth use disability friendly language in their messaging and programs.
The CBM Field Communication officer, Comfort Musa told the participants that they can mainstream disability in crisis reporting by making their websites and other contents accessible, including persons with disabilities in programs and media outlets, using disability sensitive language, collecting and using disability specific data, and considering persons with disabilities at all levels of news and content production.
The CBM funded Disability Inclusive Humanitarian Action Project (DIHA) is implemented by the CBCHS and PCC in the NW and SW Regions respectively. Reason why among the participants were the Communication Officers of the project from these organisations as well as a PWD from the CUAPWDs in the NW and a student journalist with disability from the SW Region.
The journalists also gained knowledge on online reporting and visibility for web stories, developing unique story angles, using data and other multimedia tools to cover the crisis and humanitarian photography.
In his closing remarks, the CBM Humanitarian Coordinator said he hoped the training was the beginning of collaboration between the media and CBM to foster mainstreaming of disabilities in humanitarian crisis calling on them to be ambassadors of inclusion of persons with disabilities. He thanked the participants for their commitment and dedication throughout the training.