The Executive Director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), Edmond Yakani, has called for the inclusion of the persons with disabilities in the floods preparedness and response.
Yakani, who was speaking on Friday during a one-day roundtable advocacy on the disability inclusion in floods preparedness and response in Juba, said he had discovered that persons with disability were not included in the action plans.
“As the country faces these flood challenges, we have a section of our society who have different types of disabilities,” Yakani asked.
He said the purpose of the roundtable was to see how the persons with disabilities could be included whenever there was flood preparedness and response.
The civil society activist identified the focus areas as including the use of the correct language and accurate data on persons with disabilities affected by floods. He said failure to capture the correct statistics in reports prevented donors from giving assistance.
“If we say we have responded to 50 people, we need a breakdown of how many were with disabilities,” he said.
He challenged partners supporting the persons with disabilities to push for their inclusion in the national action plan.
The Chairperson of the Persons with Disability, Augustino Wudu, called for extra care for them, especially during a relocation.
“The protection of persons with disabilities is necessary because they also want housing. I want to amplify my voice that extra care is required for the persons with disabilities when there is a relocation to the high grounds,” Wudu said.
According to the National Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, the number of floods displaced persons has reached 1.2 million, with 300,000 being women, children and persons with disability.