Fiji: Disability inclusive disaster toolkit way forward for disaster resilience
Disability Inclusive Disaster Toolkit way forward for disaster resilience
New disability inclusive community based disaster risk management toolkit is the way forward for Fiji to become resilient to disasters. According to Ms Taina Naivalu, Community disaster risk reduction trainer with Pacific Community-focused Integrated Disaster Risk Reduction (PCIDRR) said that this was an eye opener and a possible solution toward disaster resilience.
“In my six years of doing community disaster training, this is the first time I have done training on in-depth disability inclusive community disaster training.” She said. “By replicating this training in all communities will ensure that Fiji is becoming more resilient to disasters.” Ms Naivalu was the lead trainer for the 4 day training at Buretu village in Tailevu that brought in more than 25 representatives from surrounding villages and were made up of turaga-ni-koros, different village nurses, elders, women and youth groups.
Fiji Disabled Peoples Federation (FDPF) is adamant that the Government will take on board this toolkit to ensure that other communities around the country can be more disability inclusive in their disaster preparation.
“This is a good opportunity for us to work in partnership with stakeholder like the PCIDRR to come up with this new toolkit and advocate for Government to implement in other communities.” said Mr. Sumasafu Vilisoni, Coordinator for the Fiji Disabled Persons Federation. He went on to say that persons with disability should not be left out in any planning work
as they have a lot to contribute to our communities.
“We are experts in disabilities as we lived experience and we would like to share this valuable information to stakeholders so they are better prepared especially in disasters.”
The workshop enabled participants to be informed on how to work with different impairments such as physical, visual and
hearing impairments through important tips from representatives from Disabled Persons Organisation in Fiji.