I’m Dr. Michel A. Pean, and I am the Secretary of State for the inclusion of
persons with disabilities (Secrétairerie d’Etat à l’Intégration des
Personnes Handicapées) and the National Coordinator of the Haitian Society
for the support of people with visual impairment (SHAA).
I have received information that there are concerns about the involvement of
DPOs, the Haitian government and persons with disabilities in relation to
the emergency response and recovery efforts in Haiti. I greatly appreciate
the advocacy effort made to ensure the inclusion of persons with
disabilities in this process.
As a person with disability myself, I would like to share some information
on the actual situation here in Haiti. In Haiti, the Secretary of State for
the inclusion of persons with disabilities is responsible to ensure
inclusion of persons with disabilities within all the government policies
and ministries; the Secretary has a team of 40 people to achieve this
objective.
During this emergency time, the Secretary has an expanded role to spearhead
all activities related to disability whether it concerns persons with
existing disabilities or those with new impairments as a result of the
earthquake.
There are two main networks of DPOs and local organisations working with/for
persons with disabilities in Haiti that encompass approximately 45 DPOs.
Most of the DPOs have lost structures or members during the earthquake, but
are actively tracking their members and linking them to available services
and recovery efforts. For example, the Haitienne Society for support of
people with visual impairment has already done a few food and non food items
distributions towards their members.
We greatly appreciate the generosity of the international community and your
offers of material and human resources support. As you can imagine
coordinating all of this goodwill is a challenge for our government. To help
with the task of understanding who is doing what the government is working
closely with Handicap International and CBM in establishing and
strengthening a working group to help coordinate the activities related to
injuries, rehabilitation and broader disability issues.
I would like to invite you to join us. Please send us any questions and
inform us of your offers for support. We are working hard to identify the
needs in our country and will share that with you as soon as possible.
We thank you for your dedication to Haiti and please send all your comments
and questions to:
readaptationhaiti@gmail.com with a Cc. – to
shaveugles@yahoo.com; info@seiph.gouv.ht; dard276@yahoo.com
Sincerely yours
Dr. Michel A. PEAN
Secretary of State
Haiti
