Leaders of Organizations of PWDs equipped to advocate for their Inclusion in Context of Crisis
Persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Cameroon like those in many developing countries have suffered marginalization, stigmatization and exclusion from many mainstream activities and services. Their situation worsened in the English-speaking part of Cameroon with the coming of the socio-political crisis that started in 2016. The deterioration of the crisis into a violent humanitarian crisis led to a response by humanitarian organisations and stakeholders. Unfortunately, many persons with disabilities have been left out from this humanitarian assistance.
While some of these organisations and actors have not been intentional in targeting and meeting the specific and diverse needs of persons with disabilities, persons with disabilities for their part have not been approaching these humanitarian stakeholders because of ignorance.
It is for this reason that the CBC Health Services Disability Inclusive Humanitarian Action (DIHA) Project, in collaboration with the Coordinating Unit of Associations of Persons with Disabilities (CUAPWD) organized 2 separate workshops for leaders of organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) in the North West region. The workshops that took place from February 4-5 at the Special Needs Entrepreneur Group (SNEG) hall, Fishpond Hill Bamenda, and February 6–9, 2022 at the Baptist Center Conference Hall respectively aimed at empowering the PWDs with knowledge on the functioning of the humanitarian system.
DIHA Project Coordinator, Asheri Ngah explained that the workshops exposed to the leaders of organisations of persons with disabilities knowledge on the functioning of the humanitarian systems and effective advocacy strategies which they will use to navigate/penetrate the sector and advocate for their effective inclusion in humanitarian response actions in their communities.
Explaining the functioning of the humanitarian sector in the North West Region within the context of the humanitarian crisis, the Humanitarian Affairs Officer of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for the Northwest Region, Theophilus Tanda told the participants that there exists United Nations Agencies, sub agencies and NGOs involved in humanitarian response actions to populations affected by the crisis.
OPD leader presenting advocacy action plan
According to NW based UN official, Humanitarian organisations are structured into clusters according to domains of intervention including Nutrition, health, protection, shelter, and food among others. The activities of these humanitarian organisations, he noted, are coordinated by OCHA which holds monthly coordination meetings with leaders of the humanitarian organisations. He revealed that persons with disabilities are represented in the coordination meetings by the Coordinator of CUAPWD. The OCHA Coordinator advised them to report any instances of discrimination and exclusion from humanitarian services to the CUAPWD Coordinator, who will inform the OCHA office to take necessary measures to ensure their inclusion.
Participants also received knowledge on humanitarian principles and core humanitarian standards, the humanitarian coordination models and mainstreaming disabilities in humanitarian response activities. Brainstorming on reasonable accommodation strategies to enhance the inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian response, persons with disabilities noted the following short-term measures to enable their inclusion;
- Adjusting activity time to enable participation by persons with disabilities,
- Putting in place accessibility features
- Adapting tasks to the needs of persons with disabilities
- Providing/involving personal assistants for persons with disabilities
After the introduction to the structure of the humanitarian system, OPD leaders transitioned into a three-day intensive workshop to equip them with effective advocacy strategies, HRH Bonanjah Richard Kings of Andek, Policy Advocacy Expert, explained to the OPD leaders that advocacy is an action directed at change. He unveiled strategies that participants should use to advocate for their inclusion by humanitarian organisations and other stakeholders in their communities within and out of the context of the ongoing socio-political crisis.
At the end of the workshop, the participants developed advocacy plans based on perceived challenges within their communities for which they will be technically supported to advocate for their inclusion by humanitarian organisations in their communities.
Some persons with disabilities disclosed that they have faced instances of exclusion and stigma during humanitarian response activities in their communities. A woman with mobility impairment and physical impairment of the arm disclosed that she was denied the opportunity to volunteer with a humanitarian organisation because of her disability despite the fact that she was capable of carrying out the tasks. “When I brought my application the focal person for the organisation said she was not sure that I will be able to navigate the community terrain with my disability to perform the tasks involved in my assignment. I explained to her that I am capable of doing everything like a person without disability but she refused to even take my application.”
Another man with physical disability said he and his group members have not been benefitting from humanitarian assistance because agents of humanitarian organisations operating in their communities do not even identify persons with disabilities. When he sought to know the reason, he was told that they know nothing about persons with disabilities.
Two others (one a lady who uses a wheelchair and another who uses crutches) disclosed that they are usually not able to benefit because the conditions set by some humanitarian organisations for affected populations are stiff. They said they have not been able to benefit because they are usually expected to be physically present but because of their disabilities and the long distance of activities they usually arrive late after the exercise had long ended. One who is deaf said she is always left out because she usually doesn’t receive information about humanitarian actions and even when she does receive and attends there is no one to interpret to her and sometimes her name is called without her knowing.
Participants didn’t only appreciate the CBC Health Services for empowering them but celebrated the presence of HRH Bonanjah Richard Kings of Andek as lead Facilitator in Advocacy. Many of them disclosed that they have never had direct access or talked directly to a Traditional leader except through a Messenger. His presence and facilitation, they noted, was a new dawn as it has psychologically removed barriers to access traditional and other stakeholders in their communities as they felt seen. They said they now felt confident to approach traditional leaders and other stakeholders to advocate for their inclusion with much confidence after this experience.
The CBC Health Services DIHA Project is aimed at facilitating disability inclusive humanitarian assistance in the North West Region, thanks to support from the German Federal Foreign Office through the Christian Blind Mission (CBM)