By Foday Moriba Conteh
As part of their efforts in raising awareness related to the inclusion of disability issues at all stages of disaster management process and especially during planning and preparedness in the country, the One Family People, in collaboration with Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDS), has on Friday 11th June, 2021 held a familiarization engagement with the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) on their disaster preparedness and Response Strategy for persons living with disability across the country. The one day engagement was held at the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) Office at Aberdeen in Freetown.
Speaking during the event, the Director-General of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), Lt. General (Rtd.) Brima Bureh Sesay, expressed profound gratitude to the One Family People for the move geared towards engaging them on their disaster preparedness and Response Strategy for persons living with disability, describing such as a laudable venture.
He noted that the issue of disaster management started in 2002 adding that they discovered that there is a need to have an effectively coordinated mechanism to handle issues related to human and environmental security and its challenges.
The Director General of NDMA disclosed that His Excellency President Dr. Julius Maada Bio, out of his wisdom in trying to deal with disaster management issues in the country launched the National Disaster Management Agency during which he expressed hope that the Agency will use science, innovation and data to predict, anticipate, plan for and report on full disaster management cycles in the country.
He maintained that while disasters threaten the well-being of people from all walks of life in the country, the few that are disproportionately affected when such instances occur are persons living with disabilities, adding that whenever there is heavy down pour flooding do occur and persons living with disability suffer the most.
The NDMA Director General said that Sierra Leone has experienced flash floods whenever there is heavy down pour of which he said they have been working relentlessly to ensure that they put mechanisms in place to handle such occurrences.
He assured the One Family People that they will work with them in order to enhance disaster preparedness and Response Strategy for persons living with disability across the country.
In his statement, the Programme Manager of One Family People, Samuel P.O.V Macaulay noted that their organization is a disability focused organization that has been working assiduously to create a conducive environment for persons living with disability across the country.
Edward Emmanuel, the Director of One Family People intimated that theirs is a human rights based organization working to build resilience as well as to break barriers for persons with disabilities through capacity building, advocacy, partnership, development and leveraging resources.
He stated that several studies have shown that including the needs and voices of persons with disability at all stages of the disaster management process and especially during planning and preparedness, can significantly reduce their vulnerability and increase the effectiveness of Government’s response and recovery efforts in the country. He added that it against such a backdrop that they decided to engage the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) on their disaster preparedness and Response Strategy for persons living with disability across the country.
He stated that despite an increasing worldwide focus on disaster risk reduction as opposed to mere disaster response, many cities and related Government agencies fail to adequately plan for or include persons living with disability in their disaster management activities.
Edward further disclosed that Persons living with disability are especially vulnerable when disaster strikes not only due to aspects of their disabilities, but also because they are more likely, on average, to experience adverse socio-economic outcomes than persons without disability, including higher poverty rates furthering that disasters and poorly planned disaster response and recovery efforts can exacerbate those disparities, leaving persons with disability struggling to cope even more both during and after emergencies.
He pointed out that Persons living with disability and Disabled Persons’ Organizations (DPOs) have invaluable knowledge, experience, and expertise about how to make disaster risk management activities responsive to their needs of which he said it is vital to include them in the design, implementation, and monitoring of activities.
He ended by appealing to the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) to consider having a Disable Desk in their organization in order to include persons living with disability in the designing, implementation, and monitoring of activities implemented by the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) in order for them to be fully involved and have a robust Response Strategy.
The event was climaxed by a Question and Answer Session with the adoption of recommendations.
