On 12th January the Caribbean country of Haiti was hit by an earthquake which devastated the capital city, Port-au-Prince, killing around 150,000 people, although the final numbers are still not known. Rescue and relief efforts began almost immediately, with Irish and international aid agencies providing emergency relief on the ground. At this stage we have seen and heard reports from the country, outlining the scale of this tragedy, but how does a disaster of this magnitude affect people with disabilities, especially in a country as poor as Haiti?
Haiti is one of the least developed countries in the world, with a population of 8.3 million people, three out of four of whom live on less than $2 per day (just over €1). Children regularly die from simple lack of food and life for the general population is a constant struggle. In this society, people with disabilities are on the bottom rung of the ladder.
“Disasters have a massive and devastating effect on the entire population but people with disabilities are at an even greater disadvantage”, according to Ron Nabors, chief executive of Christian Blind Mission in the US, an organisation which worked with around 5,000 people with disabilities in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, before January’s earthquake.
“The earthquake has been especially devastating to people with disabilities. In disasters like this earthquake, persons with disability are often the first to die. For those who do survive, they most likely have their wheelchairs, canes, and artificial limbs lost or demolished. They are existing in inhumane conditions with limited support from family, church, or community. They will be helpless to provide for themselves, making them highly vulnerable in the disaster’s aftermath, which can bring infectious diseases and malnutrition. Typically, very little relief aid is accessible to those with disabilities. They often fall to the end of the line for the world’s limited aid response.”
This is no surprise, given the starting point of people with disabilities in developing countries, as outlined in a White Paper on Irish Aid, published in 2006. “People with disabilities are among the most vulnerable or marginalised in developing countries. Disabled children are the least likely to go to school and the mortality rate of children with disabilities in developing countries is comparatively much higher than non disabled children. Much of disability in developing countries is preventable and is closely related to malnutrition, poor sanitation, disease, poverty and conflict.”
Immediately following a disaster the emergency response is in the acute phase, focusing on getting medical attention, food, water, shelter and sanitation to those worst affected. But people with disabilities may find it more difficult to register with emergency relief providers, or may have lost the support needed to access response efforts, leaving them without their basic needs and entitlements.
This problem is only exacerbated in Haiti, where people with disabilities are often shunned and live isolated lives, hidden from mainstream society. According to the Centre for International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange, disabilities are thought of as mysterious and dangerous in Haiti.
“Typically, disabilities are perceived as having origins in the interaction of the natural and supernatural worlds, rather than being a medical issue. For example, a disability may be the result of a curse from a lwa who is upset. Disability is a punishment – a sign that a lwa was not obeyed. While lwa are voodoo in nature, the same type of explanation holds true within the framework of Christianity. Haitian Christians believe that going against God is the same as going against the lwa. God punishes those who do not obey…Most Haitians are afraid of disabilities and are uneasy around people with disabilities, who may be called ‘crazy’, ‘stupid’, or ‘possessed’. They may also be labelled ‘non–functional’ or ‘worthless’.”
Similar barriers
Those working in areas affected by the tsunami in 2006 found that similar barriers existed when it came to helping people with disabilities, as outlined by the International Disability Rights Monitor. In the hardest hit areas of countries affected by the tsunami, people with disabilities fared worse than the rest of the population in terms of survival. In other areas, where fatality rates were lower the situation of people with disabilities tended to be dependent upon identification or registration systems. For example, Thailand maintains a register of people with disabilities and was able to use this to provide appropriate and timely assistance to registered individuals. However, people with disabilities who are outside those formal systems of identification were largely excluded from aid.
In the days and weeks following a disaster like the earthquake in Haiti, when essential infrastructure has been destroyed and the people are living in inhumane conditions, struggling just to survive, it is easy to see how the specific needs of people with disabilities may unintentionally, but also unavoidably in many situations, become secondary to the immediate needs of the wider population. The true extent of the damage to Haiti’s capital and to its population will only become obvious in the coming weeks but it is clear that there will be few people who remain unaffected by this tragedy.