By Rooble  

It is normal in every country that has gone through long and disastrous civil war there is a high number of disabled people. To say this looks very narrow but going into details will ensure it is an ocean and one can never see all the sides.

Here in Somaliland, the number of the people living with disabilities is very high starting from the moment the war started until this moment a lot of people are joining the group everyday. The cause is not only one reason but comes in different shapes and sizes. Some are effected by the civil war, some are suffering the problem of an accident they had, others are disabled because of a mine they found in their residence and so on. Some lost their legs, some lost their arms, others lost their fingers, some lost their vision or hearing system, and some others lost almost everything in their physical structure.

Speaking about a growing and recovering unrecognized country like Somaliland it is very difficult to recover all those affects of the war. The social services are not up the standard and most of the time lack of funding and lack of international support would tackle the governments wishes of helping those people with disabilities.

In 1992, Handicap International, a French non-profit organization started the first rehabilitation center in Hargeysa in order to help those families and individuals affected by the war. The center is successfully working until now. It provided thousands of walking crutches, wheelchairs, artificial legs, etc. as they receive tens of patients everyday. The center also provides a physiotherapy services to the people. Although Handicap International established the center it is now independent from the management of the organization and has reached the level of sustainability.

For the moment, there are other two rehabilitation centers in Hargeysa, one is managed by ICRC and the other one is run by Hope of Doses, an international organization recently opened its office in the city.

The Ministry of Family Affairs and Social Development is struggling to fight for the rights of the disabled people in the country with the help of the international organizations involved in the issue. Somaliland National Disability Forum (SNDF) has been established as an umbrella for all those local organizations aimed to work for the disabled people.

Some organizations in the other regions receive a limited help from some international organizations in terms of capacity building and provision of monthly running cost so that they can able to do some activities.

Although there are some improvements in terms of rights of the people with disabilities but the destination is too far from the reach. This cannot be done unless those disabled people are included into the policy makers so that they will be included in the social services and other activities in the country.

The main challenge of the people with disabilities is the Accessibility. Most of the buildings, public places and services are not accessible to the disabled people. This contains the hospitals, police stations, courts, clinics, ministries, latrines, etc.

Nowadays, there is a little improvement in terms of the accessibility issue, this is because some disabled people started their own awareness program among the population so that they will have access to all the public places. Now some hospitals, schools and other places changed their access points to allow those disabled people to have the same rights of the other people.

Rooble is a journalist student from Hargeysa, the capital of Somaliland and interested in blogging about current events of the region. You may contact the blogger at rooblesaxardiid@hotmail.com

The views expressed in this blog do not represent the views of the Somaliland Times or its staff. The views are solely the blogger's.