It is normal in
every country that has gone through long and disastrous civil war
there is a high number of disabled people. To say this looks very
narrow but going into details will ensure it is an ocean and one can
never see all the sides.
Here in
Somaliland, the number of the people living with disabilities is
very high starting from the moment the war started until this moment
a lot of people are joining the group everyday. The cause is not
only one reason but comes in different shapes and sizes. Some are
effected by the civil war, some are suffering the problem of an
accident they had, others are disabled because of a mine they found
in their residence and so on. Some lost their legs, some lost their
arms, others lost their fingers, some lost their vision or hearing
system, some others lost almost everything in their physical
structure.
Speaking about a
growing and recovering unrecognized country like Somaliland it is
very difficult to recover all those affects of the war. The social
services are not up the standard and most of the time lack of
funding and lack of international support would tackle the
governments wishes of helping those people with disabilities.
In 1992, Handicap
International, a French non-profit organization started the first
rehabilitation center in Hargeisa in order to help those families
and individuals affected by the war. The center is successfully
working until now. It provided thousands of walking crutches,
wheelchairs, artificial legs, etc. as they receive tens of patients
everyday. The center also provides a physiotherapy services to the
people. Although Handicap International established the center it is
now independent from the management of the organization and has
reached the level of sustainability.
For the moment,
there are other two rehabilitation centers in Hargeisa, one is
managed by ICRC and the other one is run by Hope of Doses, an
international organization recently opened its office in the city.
The Ministry of
Family Affairs and Social Development is struggling to fight for the
rights of the disabled people in the country with the help of the
international organizations involved in the issue. Somaliland
National Disability Forum (SNDF) has been established as an umbrella
for all those local organizations aimed to work for the disabled
people.
Some organizations
in the other regions receive a limited help from some international
organizations in terms of capacity building and provision of monthly
running cost so that they can able to do some activities.
Although there are
some improvements in terms of rights of the people with disabilities
but the destination is too far from the reach. This cannot be done
unless those disabled people are included into the policy makers so
that they will be included in the social services and other
activities in the country.
The main challenge
of the people with disabilities is the Accessibility. Most of
the buildings, public places and services are not accessible to the
disabled people. This contains the hospitals, police stations,
courts, clinics, ministries, latrines, etc.
Nowadays, there is
a little improvement in terms of the accessibility issue, this is
because some disabled people started their own awareness program
among the population so that they will have access to all the public
places. Now some hospitals, schools and other places changed their
access points to allow those disabled people to have the same rights
of the other people.
