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Analysis : how to make disasters less deadly for the disabled

INTEGRATED REGIONAL INFORMATION NETWORKS (IRIN)
September 2013

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This article highlights research that has shown that in disasters, people with disabilities are among the most vulnerable. If their impairment affects their ability to move or communicate, they are not only at greater risk of death, injury and isolation, but may also struggle to access humanitarian assistance and information about relief services available. In addition, communities and governments lack information about the needs and capacities of persons with disabilities, and therefore frequently exclude them from disaster plans and protocols.  The paper aims to assist initiatives that enable people with disabilities in disaster to understand ways of becoming more “resilient” as well as proposing risk reduction practices and services

Africa : memory boxes help to say goodbye

INTEGRATED REGIONAL INFORMATION NETWORKS (IRIN)
October 2003

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The article emphasises the principal use of memory boxes as a means for parents living with HIV to leave personal mementos, advice and small tokens for their children as a means of helping them overcome their loss and foster a sense of resilience, so they may approach the future more confidently. Memory boxes are shown to be a generic, replicable, low cost tool for community participation which help to create family/community psychosocial networks, effectively providing counselling on a large scale. This community approach gives participants a sense of ownership of the project and allows it to be adapted to local needs, which is important to its overall success

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