Last month tropical storm Washi forced Joshua (10) to leave his home and to seek shelter in an evacuation center at the local school. Being disabled, Joshua struggles even more than the other refugees. To ensure his safety and alleviate his health concerns, Handicap International has replaced his old big wheelchair with a new one.
Almost two years after Haiti was hit by a major earthquake, Handicap International is preparing to wind down its emergency operations to refocus its efforts on its specialist development teams. We look back at the work accomplished so far. When Haiti was struck by an earthquake in January 2010, Handicap International launched an unprecedented emergency response to provide immediate aid to the...
Gillian Fergusson is Scottish. She arrived in Haiti with the first Handicap International emergency teams nearly two years ago. A trained physiotherapist, she implemented and facilitated rehabilitation activities at the Functional Rehabilitation Centre (FRC) in Port-au-Prince. Here, she reflects on her experience and the work Handicap International is performing with the families of disabled...
Handicap International’s goal is to create and coordinate the country’s long-term capacity to provide rehabilitation and fitting services. That’s why the organisation is training its Haitian staff to ensure the sustainability of its services. Specialists from our organisation are currently developing a diploma-based training programme to enhance the transfer of skills and the...
Handicap International’s health activities are performed in coordination with the Haitian government and other key national and international operators in the health sector. The Haitian staff recruited are mainly rehabilitation professionals and community workers. Between the opening of the centre in early March 2010 and 1 September 2011, 1,409 patients were registered, 531 of whom were...
Faced with a population deprived of its very means of existence, Handicap International provided logistical support to organise and coordinate the relief effort and meet the population’s basic needs as part of its mandate to help the most vulnerable members of society. Meeting the day-to-day needs of earthquake victims included the distribution of aid, the organisation of “cash for...
Natural disasters often tell us a lot about a country’s social inequalities . That’s why Handicap International is keen to not only ensure people with disabilities are taken into account during emergency humanitarian operations but also included in the country’s education, health and economic policies over the long-term.
Interview with Patrick Senia, development operations director of Handicap International in Haïti.
The magnitude of the humanitarian crisis caused by typhoon Washi on Mindanao Island – in the South of the Philippines – caught everybody off guard, killing over 1,000 people. Handicap International teams present on site are responding to the emergency.
A group of 13 Ban Advocates and support staff from Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam were involved in the 11th meeting of State Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, organized in Phnom Penh from 28th November till 2d December 2011. Moreover, Umarbek Pulodov, a Ban Advocate from Tajikistan had a chance in the same week in Phnom Penh to follow the Mine Action Canada’s youth leader programme with around...
