People with disabilities need to speak up
People with disabilities affected by earthquake need to
speak up, says
head of cbm
Darren Ward, CEO of
disability organisation cbm, says people with
a
disability who need help in Christchurch need to speak
up. Mr Ward and a
team of three experts in disability
have spent the last five days in
Christchurch helping to
coordinate and facilitate relief for people
with
disabilities in the earthquake-devastated
city.
"We are seeing people with physical and intellectual
disabilities who
have been left to their own devices, not
through cruelty or neglect, but
because people and
organisations are just overwhelmed."
Christchurch's
networks of disability service providers still exist
and
are reaching out to their constituents, Mr Ward says,
but in this time
of extreme crisis there is a need for
additional coordination and
communication capacity to
connect individuals with specialised services.
cbm is
working to offer this support capacity.
"If you are a
person with a disability, or know a person with
a
disability who is in need of special assistance please
call the
Government's Earthquake Helpline on 0800 779 997
and alert the relief
services to the issue," says Mr
Ward.
Since the Canterbury earthquake cbm has been
working alongside the
Ministry of Health serving as a
conduit between agencies such as CCS
Disability Action,
the Royal NZ Foundation of the Blind and the
Salvation
Army to assess individual situations and match
individuals'
needs with the right services.
"Once the
problem has been reported the organisation's health
and
welfare teams on the ground will make contact to
assess how best they
can start supporting that
individual's needs immediately. cbm is used to
working in
crisis areas overseas, such as the Haiti earthquake,
and
we're using our understanding of disability in
emergency situations, to
help coordinate and facilitate
in Christchurch."
Mr Ward says, "At this stage, it's all
about man power, coordination and
understanding the issue
of disability in emergency. It's about getting
people
with disabilities back in contact with their
pre-existing
networks and services."
cbm New Zealand is
part of an international aid organisation dedicated
to
improving the life of people with disabilities in the
poorest
countries of the
world.
ENDS