Vietnam: People with disabilities expect to participate in disaster risk reduction

20 Participants working on disaster risk reduction and disability excitedly discussed “how to develop and transfer an advocacy message to decision makers effectively”.

Developing effective messages and finding suitable means to convey them were two of the topics covered by the training session on “Advocacy for disability inclusive disaster risk reduction” funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Economic Development (BMZ) and Malteser International.

The training’s objective was the development of local advocacy action plans for the inclusion of people with disabilities in the implementation of the National Community-Based Disaster Risk Management and Community Awareness Raising Project (1002 project).

All of the training providers for this course are people with disabilities and members of the Quang Tri Disabled People’s Organization. They have all been trained as trainers in the past six months, and have gained knowledge and skills in training methods, disability inclusive community-based disaster risk management, and advocacy. The training lasted from 15 - 17 February 2017 in Dong Ha city, Quang Tri province.