On the 29th of June in Belgrade was held the workshop Disaster Risk Reduction: Persons with disabilities in emergency situations, organized by Caritas, the Sector for Emergency Management of the Republic of Serbia and the National Training Center, with the support of the National Organization of Persons with Disabilities of Serbia (NOOIS). The workshop was also attended by the representatives of NOOIS, the Red Cross and the Center for social work Krupanj.

The introductory welcome was given by Aleksandar Lazarević, from the National Training Center, Jelena Ankić from Caritas Serbia and Ivanka Jovanović from the National Organization of Persons with Disabilities of Serbia.

In the first part of the workshop Mr. Baras introduced the participants with the work of the Sector for Emergency Management of the Republic of Serbia, from their work organization to the explanation of different responsibilities of the Sector, through different types of risks present on the territory of the Republic of Serbia. He also presented the activities and projects implemented so far, together with the educational materials that the Sector prepared, printed and distributed to target groups.

Aleksandar Lazarevic introduced the participants with the organization of the National Training Center. The aim of the Center is to increase the preparedness and protection of all the citizens of Serbia, through trainings and organization of simulation exercises on different levels. He also pointed out that the National Strategy for Protection and Rescue dedicates has a part dedicated to persons with disabilities.

The second part of the workshop was opened by Ivanka Jovanovic, the representative of NOOIS, who spoke about the work of this organization and the legal framework related to problems of persons with disabilities. She said that the laws in Serbia are only talking about problems of persons with disabilities in general, but that they are not being specified through further plans of activities. The non existence of evacuation plans and the weak or limited availability of information are problems that persons with disabilities face in emergency situations.

The last part of the workshop was organized through group work, giving concrete suggestions to resolve the problems that people with disabilities face in emergency situations. Some of the conclusions are that it’s necessary to create a network of organization of people with disabilities and representatives of local authorities; create a database of people with disabilities on the local level in order to organize more efficient measures of protection and rescue; organize trainings of persons with disabilities adapted to their needs; have available information on alerting in emergency situations in public media, adapted to persons with disabilities and the necessity of greater engagement of persons with disabilities in the systems of protection and rescue, firstly as consultants, because they know best the problems they face during emergency situations.

Download the conclusions from the workshop: Conclusions_Workshop DRR – Persons with disabilities