Working with Vulnerable Groups
Supporting communities to be resilient begins with working with people directly affected by disasters
The B-Ready approach
Involving the vulnerable
Involving vulnerable groups from the start of disaster planning fosters an approach that is inclusive, practical and centred on the experiences of people who are the most impacted. B-READY works with climate vulnerable communities as active partners.
People experience disasters differently. Groups such as women, children, people with disabilities, displaced people, and the elderly are some of the most heavily impacted and bear the toughest burdens in their communities.
Paying close attention to the needs of different groups will help prepare them for disaster, making actions specific to how they react and the difficulties they face. This ensures that as many people as possible can rebuild their lives in a more secure situation, but even better – build their own preparedness so that they can address the impacts of disaster on their own.
Description of the type vulnerable
Pregnant women
Pregnant women are vulnerable due to their situation, might have advance childbirth due to shock, trauma during the evacuation and while in evacuation centres. In the project, they are involved in the training and their vulnerability is highly considered in the family disaster preparedness planning. Their needs are also included in the priority for the pre-emptive cash transfer assistance.
Senior Citizens
Senior Citizens are vulnerable due to their current condition including health and mobility concerns. They may also be living alone or be unaccompanied at certain times of the day when the other household members are out working, and children are in school. In the project, family members are assigned to look for their welfare and needs, and protection monitors list them so that when there are incoming emergencies, they can be prioritised for the evacuation and other planned assistance.
Children
Children are particularly vulnerable during disaster because at an early age. They experience the traumatic situation brought by different catastrophe and have limited knowledge on how to overcome the situation. Their basic needs are not being met, and development is affected. In terms of their health, it worsens as they become malnourished because the economic activities of the parents were lost/damaged.
Women
Women face the double whammy of rising burden of gender roles and rising community roles as they are expected to fulfil all at the same time: community roles without or little recognition of their different situations and realities such as whether the woman is responsible of the burden of caring for elderly parents, adding it up to taking care of children and/or grandchildren, or not to mention intra household conflicts or power struggle.
Youth
The youth are key actors in households to help communities on technology, particularly on digital cash disbursements. During disaster, basic services are not functional and not accessible. Education as well has a big impact because classes are suspended during and after disasters and schools are used as evacuation centres and eventually destroyed/damage by disaster.
Persons with disabilities
Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) are vulnerable due to their physical and mental condition, difficulty to move, walk and communicate. In B-ready project, the protection monitors those people, the DRRMCs are oriented on their special needs and a family member is assigned to look after their needs.
