Box 3. Nadim: Inclusion in the Host Community

Nadim* is a 62-year-old man who lives with his family and some cattle on a small hill near the refugee camps. Nadim owns a shop, where he sells food items. After a stroke in 2019, which left him paralysed, he was unable to run his small business. The Centre for Disability in Development’s (CDD) mobile team of physiotherapists gave him weekly treatment and made temporary adjustments to his house, which have enabled him to leave his property and walk down the hill. Soon he will be able to start running his business again.


* Name has been changed.

The absence of OPDs in most parts of Cox’s Bazar is likely to contribute to this perception. Although Bangladesh has an active civil society with around 300 organizations working on the promotion of disability rights (Sida, 2014), there are just 12 OPDs in Cox’s Bazar. These OPDs operate from the two upazilas of Sadar and Ramu, and not in Ukhiya and Teknaf, where the refugees are currently living.22 As such, persons with disabilities who live in communities adjacent to camps have not had the opportunity to make their views and opinions heard in the humanitarian response. Disability-focused organizations have started engaging representatives from OPDs in other parts of Bangladesh as consultants to give a voice to persons with disabilities. Moreover, to ensure the active participation and empowerment of persons with disabilities, organizations have encouraged the establishment of peer-support and community network groups in Ukhiya and Teknaf (information from internal documents of disability-specific NGOs). Some progress has been made in Ukhiya, where local authorities have started to collect data on disability, set up an information help centre and closely cooperate with disability-focused NGOs to make education more inclusive.23