We can better protect the vulnerable when we include them - Bangladesh
Above: A Protection Committee meeting in Cox’s Bazar. Image: Lisa Ritchie AHP Support Unit.
Disability inclusion continues to challenge the humanitarian sector. It is gaining traction, but in some contexts more than others. Within the context of the AHP Rohingya Response in Bangladesh, it has proven challenging due to a mix of organisational capacity and community attitudes.
World Vision has partnered with CBM and the Bangladesh Centre for Disability in Development (CDD) to deliver their AHP Rohingya Response activities. Part of the remit of CDD and CBM has been to build the capacity of World Vision in Bangladesh to ensure that staff intentionally included targeted strategies to reach, support and include people with disabilities in all response activities.
World Vision’s strengthened approach to disability inclusion is demonstrated in the membership of Women’s Watch committees.
Above: Twenty-five year-old Sufia* is the Vice-President of a Protection Committee in Cox's Bazar. Sufia is honoured to be able to represent her community and women in this role. “I have learnt so much about violence through the committee, particularly gender based violence, and it is an honour to be able to stand up in front of men and women and share my knowledge with the community,” she said. Image: Lisa Ritchie, AHP Support Unit.
Women’s Watch committees aim for disability representation
World Vision has established 40 Women’s Watch Committees in two of the camps in Cox’s Bazar. The committees sit under Protection Committees and are staffed by Rohingya community volunteers. Their purpose is to support the safety and security of all women, including those with disabilities and other vulnerable groups in the camps through awareness raising, and providing pathways to channels support and referrals.
Each Women’s Watch committee has 11 members (male and female) and includes people with disabilities.
Building staff capability to be disability inclusive
When World Vision first set up the Women’s Watch committees, staff struggled to identify people with disabilities beyond obvious physical impairments. This issue is not unique to World Vision, nor to the Rohingya Response. Intentional strategies to find men and women, boys and girls with other impairments are needed across humanitarian and development contexts globally.
In 2019, CBM and CDD trained World Vision staff in the use of the Washington Group Short Set of Questions. The Washington Questions are recognised as a tool that can support the identification of people with disabilities.
World Vision staff used the Washington Questions in a household survey to gain a better understanding of the prevalence of the camp population living with disabilities. The survey found significantly different findings to a previous household survey that did not use the Washington Questions.
Improvements in disability inclusion extend beyond identifying people with a disability, which is the first step to inclusion. World Vision adjusted activities and plans to ensure people with disabilities could actively participate, and community advocacy and awareness activities more specifically targeted barriers to disability inclusion.
Staff proactively encouraged people with a disability to join the Women’s Watch committees, but were met with opposition – from the community, from the already appointed committee members and from people with disabilities themselves.
World Vision Gender-Based Violence Coordinator, Ms Shahida, explained the response they received.
“When we began establishing the committees, people with disabilities did not appear interested and community members (including community leaders) as well as the already-appointed committee members discouraged the inclusion of people with disabilities. All of these people doubted that people with disabilities could contribute or perform the role as expected.”
“With time, and with the support and training from CBM and CDD, we learnt how to begin to change these attitudes,” Ms Shahida explained.
World Vision and CDD staff ensured Women’s Watch committee members supported those with a disability. This translated into practical adjustments, such as not assigning those with physical impairments to households visits located up steep hills and encouraging people with disabilities to contribute, and to be heard.
Above: Saiful is a Women’s Watch Committee member in Cox’s Bazar. As a person with a disability he advocates for the needs of people with disabilities, and also actively encourages other people with disabilities to be involved in committee activities. Image: Lisa Ritchie, AHP Support Unit.
What does being included mean for a person with a disability?
Each Women’s Watch committee currently has one or two people with disabilities as members who ensure people with disabilities can contribute and communicate to protection issues, talk to others in the community and have their voices heard and needs accounted for.
Saiful* is a Women’s Watch committee member and shares what this means for him.
He joined the Women’s Watch committee in his camp block because he was aware that information about violence and protecting women was being shared and he wanted to better understand these issues. He also had his own ideas about how these issues could be addressed, but he did not have a means of communicating these.
“Before I joined this committee I had many thoughts that I wanted to share with my community, but I was always overlooked because I am disabled.”
“But now, I have a voice and I can share my ideas and they are heard by the community.”
“I like that I can work for other people with disabilities. I can’t walk, but I still come to the meetings and I still visit other households because I want other people with disabilities to have a voice.
“I say to people like me, people with disabilities, you can do what I am doing. Look at me. I have a disability and I am participating in activities, and I am being heard. You can also do this.”
Above: Jafar* feels he can contribute on equal terms with other Women’s Watch committee members, and contributes this to the proactive inclusion of people with disabilities. Image: Ayesha Akter Monni, CDD.
Jafar* also sits on a Women’s Watch committee as a person with a disability representative, and he noted that the attitudes of the other committee members has changed over time and that he is treated as an equal.
“Now we are all equal. This has become possible through the Women’s Watch Committee,” he said.
By building staff capacity and making a space for people with disabilities in the Women’s Watch committees, World Vision, CBM and CDD are building awareness and changing community attitudes toward people with disabilities. They are supporting people with disabilities to find their voice, to be heard and to become involved in community activities.
*Names have been changed