Including disaster preparedness in Guatemala

The lives of many families with children and young people with disabilities in Guatemala are marked by shame and fear; often the children are hidden or even tied up," reports Karin Eder, office manager of AWO International in Guatemala. People with disabilities in Guatemala already have a hard time in everyday life. However, they are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters, as hardly any attention is paid to their needs. And yet natural disasters are not uncommon in Guatemala: Earthquakes, droughts, volcanic eruptions and also landslides and floods occur regularly. The World Risk Report lists Guatemala in 4th place among the most vulnerable countries.

Sololá, one of the 22 departments in Guatemala, is particularly threatened by natural disasters due to its geographical location. Around 90 percent of Sololá's population is in danger of becoming the victim of an extreme natural event. Lake Atitlán lies in the centre of the department, surrounded by volcanoes and mountains, where landslides and earthquakes are the greatest danger for the population. For this reason, AWO International and its project partner ACOPEDIS have been carrying out a disaster prevention project at Lake Atitlán since January 2015. The aim is to help children and young people with disabilities and their families to be better prepared for extreme natural events. The local network works together with its 14 grassroots organisations to achieve this. The common goal of all organisations is the inclusion of people with disabilities in all areas of society. However, the individual organisations set different priorities in their inclusion work: while (early childhood) rehabilitation and physiotherapy are offered for people with disabilities in the state-approved school ADISA, for example, adolescents and young adults with disabilities produce handicrafts in the workshop of the association Artesanos de ADISA.

In order to counter the dangers for people with disabilities, ACOPEDIS put together training teams in the first two project phases from January 2015 to December 2017. These teams are made up of specialists from various fields, such as psychologists, social workers and physiotherapists. In close consultation with the families, they developed training and further training materials adapted to the needs of children and young people with disabilities. In the training courses it then became concrete: In groups they worked out emergency plans and practised how to react adequately in emergency situations.

In order to also increase the local authorities' awareness of the vulnerability of children and young people with disabilities in disaster situations, the state institutions for disaster management at the local and municipal level (COLRED and COMRED) and the municipal representatives were trained in crisis management with people with disabilities. Together with the authorities, ACOPEDIS developed instruments to better respond to the needs of children and young people and adapted local disaster plans.

This is because the risk of people with disabilities becoming victims in the event of a natural disaster is particularly high. It is often not easy for people with intellectual disabilities to recognise dangerous situations and to know how to behave correctly in such situations. Although people with visual impairments understand what is happening around them, they have problems finding their way to a safe place. People with a physical disability lack the necessary mobility to move to a safe place. Deaf people, on the other hand, know what to do but cannot hear the warning signals. For this reason, the state authorities need adapted instruments for children and young people with disabilities in order to be able to provide adequate help in emergency situations.