NEWS: Disabled People Lack Assistance After Myanmar Disaster

http://wecando.wordpress.com/2008/11/23/news-disabled-people-lack-assistance-after-myanmar-disaster/

Posted on 23 November 2008. Filed under: Cross-Disability, Disaster Planning & Mitigation, East Asia Pacific Region, Inclusion, News | Tags: cyclone, Disaster, humanitarian disaster, humanitarian emergency, Myanmar |

In humanitarian disasters, people with disabilities are often more at risk and disproportionately affected by crisis situations. Yet they are persistently forgotten and left behind by most of the mainstream agencies that are supposed to help. Unfortunately, this has happened once again during and after the recent cyclones in Myanmar. (Given how often this situation occurs, it would perhaps be more accurate to term this article “Non-News” rather than “News.”)

It is reported that very little of the relief dollars sent to Myanmar has filtered down to people with disabilities in the country. Yet, despite the fact that people with disabilities are both more likely to need assistance and less likely to actually receive it, they are often not even included in most mainstream reports meant to assess the situation in Myanmar.

Read more detail about the situation for people with disabilities in post-cyclone Myanmar in the article entitled Myanmar: Disabled People Await Post-Cyclone Aid at the humanitarian news and analysis page for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.