On the night of 15 November 2007, cyclone SIDR swept over 16 districts of Bangladesh, devastating 710 Unions, 103 Upozillas, killing over 10,000 (Red Cross). Nearly 5 million people and property are severely affected.
Bangladesh government aided by the Armed Forces rushed from the very first day to provide food, water and essentials to the stricken people. Consequently the international community, corporate sector and NGOs have also joined in force. Food, water, shelter and medical assistance are urgently needed at the moment to save lives and prevent disabilities of the affected people.
Plight of Disabled People: In such emergency situations, persons with disabilities often face extra challenges. At least 500,000 disabled people are affected in the cyclone area. As disabled people have difficulties in moving and communicating, they are excluded even by their families and communities who are in need of help themselves. Other NGOs are not addressing the disabled people but helping their own members.
In such a situation Action on Disability and Development (ADD) has embarked on a prompt campaign “To Reduce Vulnerability of Persons with Disabilities affected by SIDR” to build their confidence and to assist them to start a new life.
ADD’s Relief and Rehabilitation: ADD is an international organization working with around 100 DPOs since 1994 supporting disabled people to promote rights and inclusion in 29 districts of the country. The main objective of ADD’s Relief and Rehabilitation programme is to support the persons with disabilities and their families to reduce their vulnerability to the affects of the cyclone SIDR by providing basic humanitarian assistance such as food, essentials, clothes and cash benefits.
With generous donations from its main donors – British organisation-CAFOD, Dutch organization -CORDAID, German organization-NETZ, ADD-staff and others totaling Tk. 2.23 crores as on date, teams of ADD staff supported by DPO members are already in the worst affected areas of Bagerhat, Pirojpur, Patuakhali and Barguna distributing essential food and non-food items to 6,000 disabled persons. The relief packets comprise rice, dal, suji, sugar, salt, edible oil, candles, matches, ORS, water purifying tablets, saris, lungis, children’s clothing, blankets etc. Some cash benefits are also being given for the treatment and prevention of disability. ADD’s relief efforts are expected to continue till mid-February 2008.
Mosharraf Hossain
Country Director
26th November 2007
John Iddi Neindoo
In 1956 when John was 16 he was badly injured during an explosion in his village and he spent several years in hospital. When he came out of hospit...
Bee keeping projectSackarla, pictured right, is a founder member of the Chipata Branch of ZNAPH (an organisation of people with physical disabilities in Zambia). ...
Community Based InterventionADD has supported the CBI project since 1995, a child centred physiotherapy and education service for disabled children, the majority of whom ...
Counterpart“Before the training I just felt like I was in a totally different world to everyone else.”
Imagine waking...
Grace OpioIt began an ordinary working day, buying and selling beans and sesame, for Grace in Uganda. The vehicle she was travelling in stopped on a la...
Removal of children from SudanIn a Joint Statement issued by over 40 international development organisations including: ADD, Save the Children, Oxfam, World Vision, Interna...
Bangladesh ratifies the UN Convention25 Nov. 2007
PRESS RELEASE
Ratification of the UN C...
Disabled women Disabled women continued to gain recognition in 2006 within the Sudanese General Women Union (SGWU) both at state and na...
“I was ...
Bangladesh women's groups In Bangladesh women do not have the same level of protection from human rights violations as men, for disabled women the situation is even worse an...
Disabled People’s organisations in Bangladesh have had many successes in their ongoing “Campaign against violence to women”. Afte...
“Parents were afraid to even show that they had disabled children. If a mother gave birth to a severely disabled child, it seemed shami...
Gawahir (meaning jewellery) is a young girl who has never walked. She had to crawl everywhere until she was seven and someone gave her a wheelchair...
Tanzania Albino Society ADD has been supporting TAS, the Tanzania Albino Society, since it was first set up in 1999. ...
On the night of 15 November 2007, cyclone SIDR swept over 16 districts of Bangladesh, devastating 710 Unions, 103 Upozillas, killing over 1...
Innocent Sombie Innocent SOMBIE lost the use of his legs after suffering from polio when he was five. His parents did not understand what had happened, or wh...
Established in 1984 ADD has been supporting (ZNAPH) since 1997. ZNAPH has a large membership with active branches in most major towns. Although it ...
On Sunday June 4th 2006, ADD’s Chief Executive Isaac Kute and ADD Bangladesh Country Representative Mosharraf Hossain were delighted to be in...
Changing attitudes is one of the most important areas of ADD's work. Although it is challenging and very hard to measure the impact of, the report ...
The Ghana Parliament passed the Persons with Disability Bill on June 23rd 2006. The Bill is aimed at enabling disabled people to “enjoy r...
The Gaoua Network and Guilluame Gaoua is a small town in Burkina Faso and the Gaoua network is made up of disabled people’s organisations including a group specifically for ...
Ibrahim was such a good and trusted worker th...
The Wakiso disabled women's group in Uganda was founded in 2003 and has about 60 members. They came together with a clear aim to achieve p...
Ntugwa was born in 1966 and first joined a disabled persons group in 1988. It was good to belong to a group but they were not organised....
Long Kunthea is 37 and has had polio since childhood, her husband is also disabled, having been shot in the leg during the civil war. Kunthea is th...
Evarist is a deaf man who feels discrimination every day. “If I go to get medical treatment, because my doctor can’t co...
Albinos threatened (New York Times June 8th 2008)
Albino killings in Tanzania (BBC World S...
First albino MP appointed in Tanzania
On April 8th, her 48th birthday, Al-Shaymaa was sworn in as an MP during a ceremony at the State House in Dodma.
At 29 life was good for Ibrahim, he was working as a shopkeeper in Chennai earning a decent salary.