Disability in Cambodia Is Not a Priority
Open letter to organisations that don’t fund disability projects
Sep 24, 2014Dear Funding Body Rep,Thank you for your reply to our expression of interest. In rejecting our submission, the main reason you gave was, “ Disability in Cambodia is not our priority area.” I’d like to explain why it has to be.There are over one billion people with disabilities in the world. And in the poor countries where you work, up to 20% of the population has a disability. If you ignore 20% of your target group, you’re not really working to help the most vulnerable.You say, “Our focus is health. Disability is not our priority area.” But the two are inextricably linked.Of those with disabilities, 98% do not have access to basic health care services. However, because of complications that arise from disability, and the fact that they’re usually poorer than most, people with disabilities are usually in greater need of health services. Amongst the people that need services the most, they are often the most excluded.You say, “Our focus is education. Disability is not our priority area.” But the two are inextricably linked.This is Ouk Ling. He’s a child I met recently who lives outside Siem Reap, a town in the north of Cambodia. From looking at him, most of the people in Ling’s village thought that he was stupid. After receiving a basic health care service, speech therapy, he has been able to show that he isn’t stupid, he just has a communication problem. After some simple therapy, he’s now going to school and has worked his way to become second in his class. Hopefully, one day he will use his education to be a contributing member of society.
Ling is one of the lucky ones. 90% of children with disabilities will never go to school. If we want to reach universal primary education, Millennium Development Goal Number Two, then we all need to do something about this.
Of course, getting children to school is not enough. We also need them to learn. Statistics from around the world have shown that funds, controlled by people such as yourself, have helped an enormous number of people. Currently, 84% of adults in the world are literate. This is a great achievement.However, the global literacy rate for adults with disabilities doesn’t make for pretty reading. 97% are non-literate. For women, it’s even worse: 99% of women with disabilities are non-literate.You say, “Our programs must be gender-inclusive. Disability is not our priority area.” But the two are inextricably linked.Is your work inclusive of one of the most marginalised groups of women in the world? Women and girls with disabilities face triple discrimination: they’re female, they have a disability, and they’re often poor.If we really want to improve the lives of the women in this world, let’s start with the ones who are the most vulnerable.Here’s what one woman had to say about her own experiences:“I think the outside world does not really understand what the real difficulty is for women with a disability. I repeat again and again, for women with disability, it is really hard to live, so please include us.”
Would you be comfortable telling this woman, “Disability is not our priority area?”
There is a wealth of information out there on how to better include people with disabilities in development and healthcare programs. This is not to say that including them in mainstream programs is the panacea. We also need resources to do disability-specific work.However, it’s not a lack of resources that’s the problem. It’s the will. There are over 1 billion people in the world who must become our priority.Yours sincerely,Weh YeohFirst Published in WhyDev.