Ecuador Earthquake

General situation

On Saturday 16 April 2016 a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck northern Ecuador at 6:58 pm local time. The epicentre was 27 kilometres from the small coastal town of Muisne (west of the Province of Esmeraldas), with a depth of 20 kilometres.
The worst damage was reported in the canton of Pedernales, which was declared a "disaster zone". Access has been limited due to damages to infrastructure. The Government declared a “State of Exception” for 6 provinces: Esmeraldas, Manabí, Santa Elena, Guayas, Santo Domingo and Los Ríos.

CBM and partners

CBM currently works with four partner in Ecuador, focused on empowerment of persons with disabilities in Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR), and mainstreaming disability, and located in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Guayas, and Loja.

The CBM Emergency Response Unit and our Regional Office (RO), based in Quito verified within the first two days that all CBM and partner staff are safe, and conducted a needs assessment in some of the most affected areas.

Response

CBM response will aim to ensure that persons with disabilities (and other more at-risk people in the affected communities) can access mainstream relief and recovery services and, simultaneously, that any specific needs are met.

We are working with three partners (long-term CBM partner OVCI, national DPO network CONADIS and SETEDIS (Ecuador Govt. Technical Secretariat of Disability), and our initial intervention will aim to include the following activities over three months:

• Immediate Psychological First Aid (PFA) for different stakeholders (partner staff, beneficiaries, government staff etc.)
• Setting up focal points at community level
• Distribution of food and non-food items to affected community including persons with disabilities
• Distribution of assistive devices
• Neurological evaluation and physiotherapy to affected people
• Recreation activities for children in shelters