Would you like to be the subject of humiliation or to be turned away when you badly need help, especially during an emergency?
I don’t.
And I hope nobody goes through this traumatic experience.
But in 2013, in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, a group of marginalized Filipinos went through this experience — the Deaf community in Tacloban.
Left Behind
March 2014. Tacloban, Leyte, Philippines. The blazing sun is already poised to kiss the horizon on this humid afternoon. People are hurrying to finish their errands and to reach their destination as they try to make the most of daylight in the still power-less island post-Typhoon Haiyan. When night arrives, the island will once again be enveloped by darkness, except for the few establishments running on generator to serve the needs of the teeming groups of humanitarian workers.
At the GreenBoxx Café on Paterno Street, just a stone’s throw away from Hotel Alejandro-headquarters of the United Nations operations in Tacloban-my colleague and I sip on mugs of instant coffee as we transition and try to recover from a grueling four-day trauma workshop we conducted with the Pedagogy Response Team in Palo, Leyte.
It’s at the GreenBoxx Café where we met Deaf mom Neola, a friend of GreenBoxx owner Patrick who was one of the two Deaf participants in the workshop. Neola told us that her months old baby boy Gerald is sick with cough and colds.
We asked in Filipino Sign Language:
“How long has he been sick? Was he already seen by a doctor?”
Neola said that Gerald got sick after Typhoon Haiyan struck in November 2013, and though he was brought to a doctor, she couldn’t understand the doctor’s prognosis because there was no sign language interpreter.
Worried that Gerald’s health could’ve worsened since he’s been sick for months, we asked:
“Did the doctor give a prescription?”
We were hoping to at least know Gerald’s condition, and if there’s a scheduled follow-up appointment with the doctor, or a need to replenish the prescribed medicines.
This may sound like a scene from a zombie apocalypse movie, but it’s not.
Neola recounts their ordeal trying to escape from the riot which broke out near the public market where they were temporarily living after the typhoon. In the rush to get to a safe place, they left behind some of their valuables, the doctor’s prescription included.
I glanced at my watch to check if there’s still time for Neola to fetch Gerald at home and, together with my colleague, we could make the most of the remaining daylight and hopefully have the baby checked in any of the makeshift clinics of humanitarian aid organizations.
Neola shakes her head, looking at the now grayish sky as the night is beginning to set in. I secretly started to panic.
I encouraged Neola to bring her baby to any of the tents operating as clinics and offering free healthcare service. Neola’s eyes twinkled as she learned that her baby could be checked by a doctor for free, but quickly shifts to a look of helplessness as she tells me she has no interpreter to help facilitate communication.
Not the type to be easily fazed by obstacles, I tore a page from my notebook and scribbled a short spiel which Neola could show to a healthcare professional to introduce herself and Gerald’s health concern. I also wrote the names of humanitarian organizations providing free healthcare to help Neola find them on her own.
We could not accompany her the next day. We’ll be leaving early to catch our flight home to Manila.
Before finally bidding her goodbye, we brought her to a drugstore to buy vitamins for Gerald, hoping it could tide him over until a doctor gets to see him.
Here’s the Problem
Five months after meeting Neola, I met other Deaf people in Tacloban while filming the documentary “After Haiyan”, in partnership with Cinemedical, ABCs for Global Health, and with support from Stanford School of Medicine Traveling Scholars Program.
Neola’s experience resonates with them.
Most suffered from stomach pain. One was due to unsanitary water and surroundings, and the other was due to eating a dead cow which his cousin cooked when they had no other source of food supply. In both cases, they tried to line up at a social welfare desk to ask for help, but went home empty handed since no one could understand them.
Qualitative interviews done for “After Haiyan” revealed problems that Deaf people encounter in the Philippines, which were further magnified in the context of a disaster area:
1.There is poor communication between the Deaf and hearing communities
2. There is a need for appropriate training of service providers on communicating with Deaf people in disaster relief, public health and other basic services
3. Deaf individuals and other Persons With Disabilities (PWD), such as those with mobility problem, are more likely to be excluded by the standard neighborhood-based distribution of aid
4. Women with disabilities and the elderly are more prone to exclusion and their exclusion most likely affects a dependent family member and/or child/ren.
Inclusion should not just be a lofty dream for persons with disabilities because it is a requirement of international law as stated in the United Nations Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
Ironically, these accessibility problems continue to exist even though the Philippines is a signatory of the UNCRPD.
Ann-Marit Sæbønes, Special Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on Disability, says, “An understanding of disability issues and the needs of persons with disabilities must be an integral part of both humanitarian actions in emergencies and long-term development planning to reduce poverty and reach the MDGs.”
Hope for the Future: Google Local Guides Network
With my recent discovery of Google Local Guides, it is my hope that through Google Maps, we can create a team of Accessibility champions who will identify healthcare providers that are truly accessible to Deaf people and PWD. This way, we can replace the great accessibility hoax with a Deaf and PWD-friendly healthcare system especially during emergencies. Using the Google Maps platform and the Google Local Guides network, we can integrate the issues and needs of not just Deaf people, but other vulnerable groups such as persons with disabilities, the elderly, women and children, and indigenous peoples, in humanitarian action and long-term development planning.
