Introducing Difagana in International Forum, Indonesia Involves Person with Disability in Handling Disaster

Dug dug dug. My heart beats like a drum beating fast. But the breath must still be normal. The focus is on the dynamics in the shelter and finding a safe place.

That is illustrated by Doddy Kaliri's story when he was a volunteer for the earthquake disaster in Palu and felt the aftershocks.

For the Head of Disability Disaster Preparedness (Difagana), being a disaster response volunteer is truly an extraordinary thing. The limitations of persons with disabilities as members of Difagana do not hinder the spirit of social willingness.

Difagana is one of the volunteers of the Ministry of Social Affairs. They were formed in 2017 at the initiation of the Provincial Government of D.I. Yogyakarta. Difagana became the implementation of the mandate of Law No. 8 of 2016 on Persons with Disabilities Article 109 paragraph 3 that persons with disabilities can participate in disaster management.

The participation of persons with disabilities is also mandated in Government Regulation Number 42 of 2020 Article 22 paragraph 1 that disaster management as referred to in Article 21 paragraph (2) can involve persons with disabilities and other parties.

Difagana is also known as the Friend of the Disaster Voluntary Worker (Tagana). In practice, Difagana carries out disaster response humanitarian tasks to collect data on persons with disabilities in disaster locations, collect data on the need for aid, shelter management, logistics management, public kitchens, psychosocial support services, and education.

"For example, in public kitchens, we are trained to manage the logistics needed for a number of victims. So we focus on managing the shelters, including building tents," said Doddy at the Sentra Terpadu Inten Soeweno Bogor, recently.

His presence at this exhibition is part of a series of events at the High-Level Meeting for Persons with Disabilities in Asia-Pacific under the name High-level Intergovernmental Meeting on the Final Review of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities (HLIGM-APDPD) which was held at the Fairmont Hotel, Jakarta on 19-21 October 2022.

Doddy said, as many as 121 Difagana members who have been recruited since 2017 received direct training from Tagana as Social Pillars under the Ministry of Social Affairs.

"This difagana are mentored by Tagana. They can set up a tent for 7 minutes. This demonstration was held on Tagana's birthday in Kebumen," said Sigit Alifianto, Head of Social Protection and Security Division of the D.I Provincial Social Service. Yogyakarta.

Difagana underwent its first humanitarian mission during the earthquake in Lombok in July 2018 and the earthquake and tsunami in Palu in September 2018 for 40 days.

Difagana's presence was appreciated. Handling persons with disabilities in disaster conditions becomes effective when using the concept of peer-to-peer (two-way communication).

Difagana has also been introduced in the international world. Doddy became Indonesia's representative at The Asian Local Leaders Forum for Disaster Resilience (ALL4DR) in Brisbane, Australia on September 20, 2022.

In this international forum, Doddy became a speaker about the efforts made by Difagana, introducing the Difagana Disaster Emergency Support (Difgandes) application and Difagana's hopes for the future.

This Difgandes has a function to facilitate information access for people with visual and deaf disabilities related to disasters. This application also provides data on vulnerable people in an area and their physical characteristics and medical records in general, so that when they are evacuated, the data is available and makes it easier to fulfill their needs.

In addition to being a speaker, Doddy also received a surprise award as a Local Champion. This award was given for his courage, passion, and unrelenting determination to work in disaster resilience in the community.

"Hopefully, this step by Difagana can change people's mindset that people with disabilities are subjects, not objects. In the future, it is necessary to jointly discuss building disability-friendly policies," said Doddy.

On the other hand, Sigit expressed his hope that the number of Difagana would increase. "We have hope that we can increase the number of Difagana, especially in DIY. This is done by requiring every Disaster Alert Village (KSB) team to have a person with a disability. This will become the next Difagana embryo," said Sigit.**

Public Relation Bureau

Ministry of Social Affairs