Refugees with disabilities do not have access to services

WIN | SIRI | PWDs

From October 19, New Vision began publishing stories highlighting the plight of Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) and compliance of public facilities with laws governing this disadvantaged group in Uganda. 

In today’s article, Andrew Masinde explores the discomfort of refugees with disabilities, especially in camps and settlements.

Grace Lutua, 24, is one of the several refugees living with a disability in Imvepi refugee settlement. 

As a toddler, she suffered from polio, which impaired her spinal cord. She is able to move, but with a lot of difficulty. Lutua was married back in South Sudan. 

However, in 2018, when fighting broke out in her area, she escaped to Uganda with her seven-year-old daughter with the help of friends. When the fighting started, her husband was away and she has not set eyes on him since. 

“I don’t know if he is alive or not. He was the sole provider of the family, but when I came to Uganda, all that stopped. My daughter and I have been depending on relief aid, especially for food,” she says. 

With no other source of income and with her daughter being a minor looking to her for survival, Lutua feels stressed. 

“My living conditions are dire. I cannot do casual jobs like other refugees do to get money. We depend on our food rations, which are meagre, to survive,” Lutua says. 

She adds that living with a disability in the settlement is challenging, particularly when one has a child to provide for. 

She says taking her to the health facility is not easy, yet services such as reproductive health cannot reach her. 

John is a 17-year-old boy living with a hearing impairment. He lives in Omugo refugee settlement in Terego district. He was separated from his parents in 2017 during the civil war in South Sudan. 

Luckily, he was rescued by his uncle, who brought him to Uganda. Not only does he have a hearing defect, but part of his right arm and leg are weak. 

However, it is hard to tell that John has such defects at first sight. He looks healthy, vibrant and jolly. John says he was born with the hearing impairment, but the rest of his body was okay. 

Children living with disabilities in the refugee settlements are taken care of by good Samaritans.

“Growing up was challenging. I never got a chance to splay with other children. I was indoors most of the time,” he says. 

Coupled with being a refugee, life is not easy. He relies on other people to pick food rations for him and if he fails, he does not eat. He has never gone to school. 

Even the people around rebuke John when he tries to socialise with them. Meanwhile, Gertrude Amazu, 36, is a physically handicapped mother of four living in Bidi bidi refugee settlement. 

Her husband died while they were still in South Sudan. 

“My parents were drunkards and they never cared much about me. At a young age, I got polio and my legs started getting tiny. They abandoned me and I went to live with my grandmother. When she passed on, I started staying with my aunt, who tortured me as well,” she says. 

Amazu’s childhood was miserable. She never went to school because she had no assistive devices to enable her to walk. And being a mother with a disability, her journey to Uganda was not easy for her children. Amazu says she was helped by friends, who carried her since they were also fleeing, as the children walked. 

“As a refugee, many people have always branded me all sorts of names. They say I am useless and that I cannot do much. They never considered that I would have children. These statements always hurt, but there is nothing I can do,” Amazu says. 

Access to services, such as food rations, is always hard. She sends her children, who at times return with nothing after people dupe them. These are among the many challenges refugees living with disabilities face. Refugee persons with disabilities are among the most marginalised, excluded and neglected of all displaced persons. 

Article One of the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities clarifies that “persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments, which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society.” 

Uganda has been hosting refugees and asylum seekers since achieving independence in 1962. 

The country has been internationally recognised for having one of the most progressive and generous refugee laws and policy regimes in the world. 

These legislations allow refugees freedom of movement, the right to work, establish a business, own property and access national services, including primary and secondary education and health care. 

Despite these efforts, there are still a lot of issues that affect refugees living with disabilities. 

These include schools lacking the capacity to identify learners with non-physical impairments and a lack of teachers with adequate special needs training, lack of assistive devices, inadequate technical support to schools from districts, inadequate instruction and scholastic learning materials and low uptake or use of assistive devices, among others.

These conditions are likely to be worse, especially for private VTIs in the settlements that may not yet be benefiting from support from humanitarian actors, as it is with primary and secondary schools. 

Many gaps to fill  

Titus Jogo, the refugee desk officer in the Office of the Prime Minister, says in refugee settlements, few children and youth with special educational needs are able to access education compared to the nationals. 

When it comes to inclusive education, especially in existing primary and secondary schools, apart from altering physical structures to allow access, there are still many gaps. 

He reveals that despite many humanitarian organisations constructing classroom blocks and latrines with ramps, there are other disabilities, such as hearing and visual impairments, mental illness, among others.

“Worst of it is that few persons with disabilities can access the refugees’ schools. And those who struggle to access them are stigmatised by fellow refugees, who brand them negative names. Moreover, the schools lack specialised teachers,” he says. 

According to Jogo, during registration, sometimes children with disabilities are not effectively identified and documented due to a lack of the requisite capacity in the schools. 

And yet, as per the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) dashboard 2021, Uganda has the third-highest number of refugees globally and the highest number in Africa, with more than 1,450,317 refugees and 132,100 refugees living with disabilities. 

“Most disabilities are among females and they are associated with the risks they face in the advent of confl ict which include torture, rape, sexual abuse, violence and trauma,” he says. 

An assessment by the World Vision in 2019 found that if a refugee household has a member with a disability, the entire household is affected socially, psychologically and economically. 

The report further shows that 46% of the families with a person with a disability have to stay home, instead of going to school or work to support the affected PWD. 

In addition, 90% of the families with a person with a disability struggle to engage in income-generating activities and spend most of their income on health-related costs, including consultation fees, medicine, clinic charges, fees from traditional healers and transportation costs. 

Results from the same study imply that the majority of persons with disabilities are vulnerable to shocks and are likely to fall into poverty at some point. 

In addition to that, isolation caused by the loss of family members or caregivers leaves them vulnerable to physical and sexual violence, exploitation, human traffi cking, harassment and discrimination. In general, refugees with disabilities suffer from a lack of adequate care and social services. 

According to Jogo, many of the refugees with disabilities, who move alone and leave families back in their countries of origin, get lost along the way, leaving them more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. 

The UNHCR estimates that 1.9 million out of the 65.3 million persons of concern, including asylum seekers, refugees and internally displaced persons, have severe disabilities. 

Some refugees with disabilities have to depend on others to acquire food rations.

However, establishing the exact number of refugees living with disabilities in Uganda remains a huge task.

Lack of support system, data 

Despite the fact that refugee-hosting countries have pledged a commitment to protecting refugees, the support systems do not take the needs of people with disabilities into account. 

Jolly Acen, the executive director of the National Union of Women with Disabilities of Uganda (NUWODU), says many refugees with disabilities are left behind. 

She notes that there are those with hearing and visual impairments, those with albinism and people with psychosocial disabilities. Sadly, Acen adds, there is little data regarding their lives and the challenges they must overcome to survive.

“There is no data on numbers of refugees with disabilities, yet they are the most marginalised among refugees,” she states. 

Acen adds that refugee with disabilities living in urban settings are also on the edge of survival; they face challenges in accessing services that are available to other refugees because of inaccessible environments and discriminatory attitudes from the communities they live in. 

Joshua Opolot, the executive director Youth Sport Uganda, says the living conditions for refugees living with disabilities are worsened since many remain hidden, neglected and are often socially excluded. 

Opolot adds that during the refugee registration process, many are often excluded during data collection as the registration documents do not have disability as one of the key variables of identifying the needs of refugees. 

“Very often, many are overlooked and their potential is rarely recognised and harnessed into productive work opportunities. They are not even given an opportunity to seek employment,” he says. 

Robert Dima, the Adjumani education offi cer, says life as a refugee with disabilities is challenging. This is because on many occasions they are socially excluded and it is worse for school-going children. 

Adjumani hosts about 207,500 refugees, Dima notes many refugees with disabilities are not supported by their parents to attend schools set up in the camps, they are not given the requirements to attend school, and, worst of all, the hunger in the homes hits them most.

“This is because some, especially those with physical disabilities, cannot move to search for food like their able-bodied counterparts do. Some do not have supportive devices, such as wheelchairs, or walking sticks,” he adds.

What needs to be done 

The 2030 Development Agenda recognises the importance of empowering people in vulnerable situations, including persons with disabilities, refugees and internally displaced persons. 

Goal 10 on reducing inequalities embraces two separate targets to empower persons with disabilities and to facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people. 

As global attention to intersectionality issues has been increasing, it is essential to enhance the linkage between disability and migration in future international dialogue. 

Joshua Opolot, the executive director Youth Sport Uganda, advises government and NGOs to ensure that they identify refugees with disabilities, build more specialised health centres to help refugees suffering from mental health problems and employ specialists to deal with such cases. 

There is also need to provide safe and quiet areas in the camps, where autistic refugees can live, train cadres in the camps on how to communicate effectively with them and also increase the number of interpreters. 

He adds that there is need to create awareness materials among the local population, especially in schools, to mobilise sympathy for refugees with disabilities. 

John Oyambi, the principal national guidance offi cer in the Offi ce of the Prime Minister, says there is need to guarantee equal and accessible education by building inclusive learning environments and providing the needed assistance for persons with disabilities in all refugee settlements. Oyambi explains that there is need to promote inclusive economic growth and full and productive employment, allowing refugee persons with disabilities to fully access the job market, while stressing the importance of data collection, with emphasis on disability disaggregated data.

What is being done 

Titus Jogo, the refugee desk officer in the Office of the Prime Minister, says they are working with NGOs to ensure that they invest in facilities that support the refugees with disabilities; such as the provision of learning aids and supporting teachers, especially in private schools they establish in the settlements, among others. 

As OPM, they also carry out guidance and counselling of refugees that have disabilities. 

“We let them know that having a disability is not a curse like many assume. We also call on the communities to desist from harassing refugees with disabilities,” Jogo says. 

He adds that working with NGOs, they have supported some refugees with disabilities with income-generating activities, such as goat and pigs rearing and seeds, to help them have some income to support themselves and their children. 

Jogo notes that they also introduced vocational training for persons with disabilities and many have been connected to vocational institutions located in or near refugee settlements.

This article was produced with support from WAN-IFRA Women in News, Social Impact Reporting Initiative grant. However, the views expressed are not those of WAN-IFRA Women in News

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