Landmine survivors a forgotten tragedy, says United Nations

Islamabad (Office of the United Nations Co-ordinator for Afghanistan), 28 April 2000 -- About 4% of Afghanistan's population of 20 million--or 800,000 children, women and men--are disabled, said Peter Coleridge today in a press briefing at the Office of the United Nations Co-ordinator for Afghanistan. Programme Manager of the Comprehensive Disabled Afghans' Programme (CDAP/UNOPS/UNDP), Coleridge added that disability in Afghanistan is due largely to the combined effect of war and poverty.
About one-quarter (200,000) of the 800,000 disabled people in Afghanistan are landmine survivors. According to the Mine Action Program for Afghanistan (MAPA), 400,000 people have been killed or injured by landmines in Afghanistan during the past ten years.

"Disability has a severe effect on the entire family," said Coleridge. "In the case of landmine survivors, many are males of working age, and are the sole breadwinners of their families. There is an enormous need among the disabled, including mine survivors, for physical, social and economic assistance to help them get back into the mainstream of society." Micro-credit and job re-training for disabled people are among the most critical services provided by CDAP.

From 1995 to 1998, CDAP, the largest programme working with disabled people in Afghanistan, which employs about 400 almost entirely Afghan staff, has been able to assist 92,000 of Afghanistan's 800,000 disabled people. It has done so, Coleridge emphasised, by employing "local solutions to local problems," which are simple, appropriate and cost effective.

The employment of women has been crucial to the success of CDAP's programme, Coleridge said. Just over 20% of field staff are women, as are one-third of the disabled beneficiaries. He noted that without employing women field workers for physiotherapy and community mobilisation, reaching disabled women would be very difficult. To a question on the Taliban's policy about women workers, Coleridge added that charity, including for disabled persons, is a central tenet of Islam, and that this tradition has fostered CDAP's work with the disabled in Afghanistan.

With a budget this year of USD 1.6 million, CDAP seeks additional donor support of USD 1.0 million this year. These funds would allow the organisation to extend assistance for rehabilitation and integration of land mine survivors to an additional 10,000 people.

"Conflict does not prevent development," Coleridge concluded.