Inclusive Disaster Response: Evacuation Sites after Mount Merapi’s Volcanic Activity

Stories | March 10, 2021

Inclusive Disaster Response: Evacuation sites after Mount Merapi’s volcanic activity

In addition to dealing with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the locals around Mount Merapi in Indonesia faced a new challenge in the eruption of Mount Merapi. CBM has been supporting an Inclusive Merapi Response after the recent spate of volcanic activity, which intensified late last year. The response has focused on the needs of people with disability who were evacuated when the volcano began to erupt.

CBM has been active in supporting the needs of people with disabilities in the four nearby evacuation sites. The project has involved identifying the most-at-risk groups, including people living with disabilities who were also affected by COVID-19; improving people identified as most-at-risk to access inclusive health services while in the evacuation sites; and cover the basic needs of people of most-at-risk people at the evacuation sites. This has included supporting access to shelter, WASH needs, health services and mental health support.

Since December, CBM has assisted in securing 320 beds and providing health services to people in need at the Glagaharjo evacuation site. The next challenge will be to construct inclusive toilets for the evacuation facilities and accessibility ramps. The plan will be to renovate the four existing toilets to meet the needs of older people and people with disabilities. The new design will also create a women’s toilet and provide accessible hand rails for people with limited mobility.

The Mount Merapi inclusive response is part of CBM’s broader agenda to ensure that people with disability are adequately represented in humanitarian response. Given the urgency and scale of humanitarian and disaster reduction programs, the needs of people with disability are often overshadowed. CBM works with local government bodies and organisations to ensure this is not the case.

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https://www.cbm.org.au/stories/inclusive-disaster-response-evacuation-sites-after-mount-merapis-volcanic-activity

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