Newly disabled in Haiti finding new life difficult
Falling debris and collapsing building have created hundreds and perhaps thousands of disabled people. Many have have lost more than one limb, making it all but impossible to get around a country that never was very disability friendly. With few building standards to begin with, there are no ramps for wheelchairs and mass transit has no way of dealing with wheelchairs or those that use crutches or walkers to get around. Even those that are close to work or stores are finding movement to be difficult at best because of pot holes in roads and damaged sidewalks. Because Haiti is not a high tech country, most work is done with manual labor, the disabled are typically thrown aside and find that work is impossible to find. There are so many able bodied people looking for work that there is no reason for a businessman to hire a disabled person and deal with setting up a work environment to help that person. The earthquake has multiplied the problem because there are far fewer places to get work and there are now many more disabled people that are looking for work. Those that are newly disabled are running into their own problems of getting proper care in hospitals. Most hospitals have no rehab facilities at all and patients have no way to pay for prostetics, wheelchairs, walkers or even crutches. Plus significant time and effort need to be done to make sure the area of amputation is clean and properly cared for. If not the area can become infected causing sickness or the muscles in the area can become twisted making it impossible to fit a prosthesis. Haiti needs considerable help in the area of helping the disabled to get the immediate help they need, rehabilitation, and equipment to help them get around. The government was never good at helping the disabled and there was always a stigma with being disabled in a country that almost everything is done manually. With all the other help that Haiti needs, the disabled are the most at risk for not being able to take care of themselves after their injury and with no government safety net to pay for basic life items like food and water the disabled have a very poor diagnosis. (Source: Miami Herald)
The disabled are usually at the bottom of the poor, unable to pay for good medical care or housing. At least there are government programs in the United States to make sure that the disabled can take care of themselves and their families. Without these safety nets, the disabled have no way of working to take care of themselves or to pay for needed medical care or drugs. The government of Haiti will need to think about how they are going to care for people that cannot care for themselves. Just thowing the disabled to the wolves and forgetting about them is not the way to do this. Add the pubic stigma of being disabled and you have a recipe for disaster. With no government help and most companies refusing to hire the disabled and you have a group that is guaranteed to starve to death on an island that they have no way of getting off of. The United Nations has a significant group on the ground in Haiti that is used for peacekeeping but can and should be used to help the disabled. There should never be a group that is so shunned that they are allowed to starve to death with no medical help and no one cares. Especially where these people are disabled because they were the victim of a natural disaster, they did not create their problem, they are just trying to live through it. There must be rehab programs put in place to help the newly disabled to get the most out of their situation and to train them for jobs that they can do. Everyone wants to be useful and to work and take care of themselves and their family.
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