Africa food shortage warnings: persons with disabilities at risk?

Food is a basic necessity for everyone; but for some, it is a daily issue for survival. For those living in conflict situations in developing countries with little means to provide for their family, the struggle each day is to find sufficient food just to live. The United Nations has warned that poor harvests due to lack of rain, combined with worsening conflict and the El Nino climatic effect could leave millions more people in east Africa facing food shortages this year.

The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) warns that from Uganda to Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia a drop in cereal production is likely to increase the nearly 20 million people already dependent on food assistance in one of the world's poorest regions. Up to half of the population in Somalia is at risk of shortages, with crop failures in neighbouring Ethiopia and Kenya and a poor harvest and conflict affecting northern Uganda.

Meanwhile cuts in funding for food aid could threaten the more than 100 million people living with a disability in the world’s poorest countries with poverty and starvation. In a crisis, the needs of persons with disabilities may be overlooked by society as priorities switch to survival of the fittest.

In a food crisis, the general vulnerability to disability increases, as malnourished mothers are more likely to give birth to impaired children, and malnourished infants and children are more likely to acquire an impairment that could develop later into a disability.

CBM president Professor Allen Foster said: “The needs of people with disability can often be forgotten in a crisis. When food is scarce and expensive, how does a blind person find the food, how does the deaf person hear about it, how does the person who cannot walk access food?”

It is these often forgotten people that cbm is trying to support, but what can cbm do?

Professor Allen Foster explained: “Work by cbm in countries in Africa and Asia shows that families with a person blind from cataract have $0.60-0.75 to spend per person per day on food. This is significantly less than families in the same society without a person with disability. However, after sight restoring surgery, the expenditure ability of these families has been shown to increase by more than 30%, releasing them from extreme poverty and enabling them to have more money to buy food and avoid starvation.” cbm is working with partners around the world to prevent and treat the diseases that can lead to disability, poverty and starvation. Last year CBM partners performed over 670,000 cataract surgeries to restore sight.

CBM also works to advocate for the rights of persons with disability. Disability is a crosscutting issue that has to be addressed in mainstream development if the Millennium Development Goals of eradicating poverty and hunger worldwide are to be achieved. Persons with disabilities have an equal right to education, health, employment and livelihood programmes that can increase their income and have a real impact on their quality of life. Therefore, cbm is working to ensure that persons with disabilities are included in food programmes and can gain access to vital health and education services.

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