Some Facts and Misconceptions about People with Disabilities

Recently, I participated in a training with my local Red Cross about emergency preparedness for people with disability. I found the facts in US quite surprising, some are listed below:

• People with disabilities compromise more than 19% of the population
• Among those who are 65 years old, 52% have a disabilities
• 6% of the population use a wheelchair or ambulatory aid
• Nearly 6.5% of the population have a sensory disabilities
• 7% of the total population have problems with cognitive, mental or emotional functional.

Before we move further with the emergency preparedness for people with disability, it is probably interesting to expose some misconception about people with disabilities. Among many of them are the following:

• Society must take care of people with disabilities
• People with disabilities are brave
• People with disabilities undergo a sad life and we should feel sorry for them
• People with disabilities are sick, hurting, fragile and unintelligent
• People with disabilities are sensitive and do not like to talk about their disabilities.

The attitudinal barriers can lead to some attitudes that people display when they encounter people with disability such as:

•  Discrimination
• Prejudice
• Tension
• Fear
• Ignorance
• Intolerance
• Stereotyping
• Insensitivity
• Discomfort 
• Shame

Maybe not all of us sure what to do when we encounter people with disability. Through the training I learned some tips that can be useful for example:

• Avoid using the term "handicapped" , "cripple", "victim", "invalid", "special" instead use the person first langguage "person with disability"
• Instead of using the term normal people use the term people without disability
• Instead of using the term "deaf and dumb, mute use the term Hearing impaired, person who is deaf
• Name the disability rather than called it diseases.

So what do we do when we encounter one? Here are some general considerations:

• Don't panic
• Do not assume or segregate
• Treat as intelligent person
• Speak directly to the individual with disability
• Identify your self
• Offer or ask if the person need assistance
• Respect personal property and space
• Be patient and polite.

For further information visits : www.wid.org

Seeing is believing through a new picture of health.

I have been quite fortunate that on the last minute a friend of mine forwarded an invitation to a film screening " A New Picture of Health" held at the National Geographic down town DC.

The program went well, it was host by UN Foundation with several key speakers; including Ms. Joy Phumaphi, the executive secretary of African Leaders for Malaria Alliance, Mr Timothy Wirth, the president of UNF, Ms Natasha Bilimoria, the president of the Global Fight.

Perhaps what is so appealing about the event to me is that this kind of documentary will be a new way of reporting in near future. Reporting is sometimes not only about graphs and charts and number but also about seeing what is actually happening in the field, not necessarily from the eyes of the program implementer but also from the eyes of the beneficiaries. Especially to answer the question (1) Does the program relevant with their needs, (2) Does the program help them to change their situation thus contributed to achieve whatever they decided to achieve and (3) most important is does it enable them to help themselves at the end of the chain?

I came up to the screening with those 3 questions in my mind. More precisely what has been the impact of the work of the Global Funds to the live of the people that are affected by malaria, HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis ( three top diseases that also inclusive to the MDG's)

The movie captured the stories from three (3) countries; Rwanda, Eithopia and Indonesia. In Adama Eithopia, where a health clinic is treated HIV/AIDS patients, the movie captured the activities of some men, they are are putting up a construction. The treatment that they received enabled them to be healthy enough to go about their daily business; make furniture, tends farms and raising stock. Certain amount of income that they earned is shared to the clinic.

In Rwanda more than a thousands doctors treating 79.000 patients at 400 clinics across the nation. The integration of treatment of this three diseases seemed to be effective in a way that the patients tends to acquired more than one diseases at the same time.

While in Indonesia, Ketut Budiarsini who was diagnosed with HIV while she was pregnant gave birth to a healthy child and she is healthy enough to be able to raise her and continue received treatment from the clinic.

These view immediately answers my previous questions. The global funds program in a way has restored the dignity of human lives. What is so special about the global funds is unlike most programs of which the funding resources is 100% from donors, this program make the participating countries invest 30% of the total funds. This allows greater share of responsibilities among the stakeholders. Overall the Global funds has achieved three important outcomes (1) Rising economies, (2) Healthier Communities and (3) Building partnerships.

At the end I agree with Ms Phumaphi remarks about development program. It is about people, it is about improving the quality of life and it's improved when they owned the development process.