From talking together to taking charge: women with disabilities lead in Vanuatu crisis response
Above: WITTT members outside the WITTT Sunshine economic hub. Photo: ActionAid Vanuatu.
In 2018, ActionAid brought together women with disability in Vanuatu for the first time to discuss the impact that increasing disasters and climate change were having on their lives.
“It was a heat wave of emotional storytelling”, recalls Flora Vano, Country Manager of ActionAid Vanuatu.
“It’s like everybody was coming out of their darkest place and were now able to communicate what they had been holding for too long. Some of them 30 years, some of them 40 years. Some of them more,” said Flora.
For many of these women, this was the first time they had been asked to share their stories, needs and experiences as women living with disabilities in Vanuatu. It was the first time they had felt safe enough to voice their concerns.
Women reported falling through the cracks of humanitarian response efforts. When disasters hit, they were often unable to flee on their own. If they were able to reach safety, their specific needs were largely overlooked: shelters were not always accessible, and many shared experiences of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
Crisis as an opportunity for change
A crisis can provide an opening to drive gender transformative change over the longer term, building back better in ways that work for women.
For ActionAid, this was the motivation for establishing the Women I Tok Tok Tugeta (WITTT) Network in Vanuatu in the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Pam in 2015. As a locally-led network, it supports Ni-Vanuatu women to prepare for disasters, strengthen their understanding of their rights, and engage with provincial and national stakeholders to ensure that their needs are met.
Three years later, in 2018, WITTT Sunshine emerged as a branch of the network focusing on the unique needs of women with disability, and supporting their collective efforts to ensure inclusive humanitarian responses that protects their rights and respond to their needs.
“One of the main goals is to build the leadership of women and girls with disabilities during humanitarian action or disasters. It also presents itself as a safe space for us women to give our thoughts and views,” says Linda Martha, WITTT Sunshine Community Mobiliser.
The Australian Humanitarian Partnership’s Disaster READY program, funded by the Australian Government, has supported the growing involvement of WITTT on Women-Led Community-Based Protection Assessments and preparedness training, while increasing members’ skills on hazard identification.
For WITTT Sunshine, Disaster READY has supported dialogues with members to understand their issues, as well as capacity development on leadership and preparedness.
ActionAid Vanuatu is an integral member of the Vanuatu Disaster READY Country Committee, which led to WITTT, including WITTT Sunshine, playing an important role in the recent AHP activation after twin Cyclones Judy and Kevin.
Women’s leadership in action during twin cyclone response
When twin Cyclones Judy and Kevin hit Vanuatu in March 2023, Ellen Tamata, Winnie Tovo and Linda Martha, members of the WITTT Sunshine Network Executive Team, initiated a women-led response to ensure that women with disability were not left behind.
“When the twin cyclones hit, [WITTT Sunshine] all went out to the community, they did the distribution [of relief supplies] … Even though they themselves were affected, they were at the frontline,” said Ginette Morris, from the Disability Desk at the Ministry of Justice in Vanuatu.
Ellen, who uses a wheelchair, said that when the WITTT Sunshine emergency response team arrived with relief items to support other people with disability, many of them cried.
“They told us that it was the first time they were receiving any support in a cyclone and that they were shocked to see women like them leading the response," Ellen said.
In the lead up to the cyclones, ActionAid Vanuatu worked with members of WITTT Sunshine to facilitate disability leadership dialogues and disaster preparedness and response training. WITTT Sunshine leaders also joined the core team leading Women Wetem Weta (Women’s Weather Watch, or WWW), a women-led communications platform that provides early warning of disasters through SMS, reaching more than 40% of the population on the Digicel network. It also operates a phone tree network on five islands.
Complemented by their understanding of the diverse needs of women with disability, this training equipped Ellen, Winnie and Linda with the resources and skills to ensure that when the cyclones struck, women with disability were located, transported to a safe space, and had their needs prioritised in relief efforts.
“We must understand every area of a woman with disability's life. For example, their status, environment, life skills… There is a directory at the office that acquires all this information,” says Ellen. The directory, which includes health and support needs, was vital in getting targeted support to women in the Port Vila area in the aftermath of the twin cyclones.
Above: Ellen Tamata. Photo: ActionAid Vanuatu
Ellen Tamata is now a prominent voice for women with disability in Vanuatu, leading the activities and response efforts of WITTT Sunshine. But this was not always the case.
“At first, I was shy to speak in a crowd but now I can boldly speak,” says Ellen. “Through ActionAid, I can now boldly speak in public, in my community. I can communicate clearly with the members in the community, especially women and girls with disability and widows.”
“When food was not given to us [after the cyclone], I spoke up with confidence through my rights saying, ‘Why is it that you received the supplies, but those with disability do not have any? We are all equally the same.’”
A growing movement
When WITTT Sunshine was established in 2018, there were only three members, Now, across Vanuatu, there are now some 600 women with disability in the network, who are learning about their rights, developing new livelihood skills, influencing government policy, and ensuring women with disability are not left behind when disaster strikes. This year, the group was recognised by the Government of Vanuatu in the formal Standard Operating Procedures in Emergencies.
“What the WITTT Sunshine network has achieved is incredible, and women in the broader WITTT network are now walking alongside with women with disability. They know what disability inclusion is, and they know how they can best support and involve them in our broader programs on the islands,” says Flora.
ActionAid is working alongside Ni-Vanuatu women with disability as they voice their concerns, protect their safety and their rights, and meaningfully participate in decisions that affect their lives and communities.
“What ActionAid has contributed to the lives of women and girls [with disability] in Vanuatu is a big achievement. It’s a very great program that helps the government to move forward, and implement and achieve their policies as well,” says Ginette.
“The difference we are seeing now, is that within the bigger plan for the government, there’s a space provided for people with disability. And that’s when their voices and their concerns can be captured - because the government takes that initiative to include them inside the bigger plan. And it trickles down to the national sectoral policies, and then from the sectoral policies, down to the NGOs, the schools and the churches, then down to the provincial and the community as well.”
Through meaningful consultation and engagement, ActionAid has used crisis as an opportunity to build back better in ways that work for women, including women with disabilities. The 9000-strong WITTT network, including WITTT Sunshine, is a growing movement inclusive of diverse women with the vision of building a resilient future for all women.
ActionAid Vanuatu and WITTT Sunshine acknowledge the support of Australian Humanitarian Partnership funding through Disaster READY, which supported the start-up of WITTT Sunshine, and some of its continuing preparedness, response and inclusion work.