DISABILITY INCLUSION: THE CHALLENGES FACING

IDPS WITH DISABILITIES NIGERIA AND SOLUTIONS

By SRHIN AFRICA
Nigeria already has 3.2 million people displaced, with 684,000 IDPs in
Cameroon, Chad, and Niger and 304,000 refugees in the four countries. Home
to 2.9 million IDPs at the end of 2020, making it one of the countries most affected
by internally displaced worldwide. We do not know how many IDPs are living
with disabilities, but it has been estimated according to the World Health
Organization's 2011 World Disability Report, about 15 percent of Nigeria's
population, or at least 25 million people, have a disability. Many of them face
many human rights waves of abuse including stigma, discrimination, violence, and
lack of access to healthcare, housing, and education.

COMPOUNDING CHALLENGES
Physical, financial and educational barriers often make it harder for IDPs with
disabilities to leave their homes safely and access support. Indeed, most of the
IDPs with disabilities surveyed by IDMC faced challenges when forced to abandon
their homes, including moving to another area, finding a place to stay, and
accessing assistance available to other IDPs. They also had to struggle to access
food availability and also take part in community life.
Although displacement can affect the health of all IDPs, the impacts are even
worse for IDPS with disabilities. In fact, 70 per cent of IDPs with disabilities
surveyed by IDMC said their physical health had deteriorated since they were
displaced from their homes, compared with 43 per cent of IDPs without
disabilities. And study have shown that almost all surveyed IDPs with disabilities
said they barely receive assistance adapted to their difficulties, including
specialized healthcare.
While the availability of quality education for displaced children remains A
vison with a minute visibility in general, disability-inclusive educational support is
even harder to come by. Percentage of Schools available are frequently
inaccessible for children with physical disabilities and often teachers lack training
on how to best support children with intellectual disabilities. An Inadequate of
inclusive learning materials, such as braille for children with visual impairments,
pose further barriers to learning.
The challenges IDPs with disabilities face, accessing healthcare and education, are
few out of the enormous challenges they are expose to, in finding durable
solutions.

SOLUTIONS TO BARRIERS IN DISABILITY

INCLUSION
People with disabilities should be able to articulate their concerns and participate
in finding solutions to their own displacement. Favorable policy reforms and
inclusive local development should also be carried out.
Although we don’t know exactly how many IDPs have disabilities, we have
accepted that some proportion of the displaced population has a disability. Our
Integrated Development Peace Project is to ensure no internally displaced persons
that is disable would be denied access to facilities and services that have been
made available to everyone. While some projects are still underway to build more
inclusive infrastructure for IDPs, mobile services and safe spaces have been
created in providing psychosocial support, health referrals and protection services
to IDPs with disabilities who are unable to move around.