Sri Lanka has never faced a cataclysmic disaster
of this scale before. If there is to be any real difference in a
future Sri Lanka, it requires massive team effort, with
effective delegation of tasks on merit basis, devoid of party
politics and corruption in all its forms.
Management of children, the greatest asset of a
nation, is an essential need requiring different appropriate
measures. The task of playing the role of foster parents, the
best cure, is one such. Trauma management is another urgent
necessity to heal first the wound in people’s minds by
overcoming the engulfing traumatic grief and the feeling of
helplessness. Individualised effective measures are also
essential to help them to re-gain self-confidence and build back
the morale, to give the much needed inner strength to raise
their heads soon.
It’s paramount to re-build the 163
destroyed/damaged schools and also resettle an enormous number
of 441,410 people displaced, without them having to wait longer
in agony. Until permanent structures are built, temporary
shelters of cluster-camps using tents are good alternatives.
Actual requirements they need vary from town to town in each of
the twelve affected districts. We must anticipate monsoonal
rains and added hardship they will bring! In general these
include kitchen and other household utilities, all-weather
family size tents, clothing, infant items, food and medicine as
well as machinery such as water pumps and generators.
Think right, act right
However, it is neither practical nor healthy to
prolong charity based social welfare work beyond the minimum. If
not, it will create unwanted added social burdens. Assistance
and encouragement for livelihood activities which allocate
persons into normal life pattern are crucial. We must soon
finalise plans with foresight to provide the individualised
support, encouragement and morale boost to make them as much as
possible independent and productive citizens, with much better
quality of life than before.
It cannot be a meaningful reality, unless and
until we re-design and re-build physical environments that have
easy access to everyone alike, even in using a wheelchair. Their
absence will deny independence to daily living activities and
trap citizens in a vicious cycle of marginalisation and poverty
as ‘SOCIAL PRISONERS’.
We must soon capitalize on the tsunami disaster
to transform rapidly the society in which we live towards the
needs and challenges of the 21st century and also fulfil the
aspirations of a modern society. The doorway to its real success
falls through the rapid implementation and strict enforcement of
the following proposal.
"Please make it mandatory and of strict priority
that planned new physical environments and all facilities they
provide are truly architecturally accessible to all, even by
those with restricted vision and/or mobility, especially those
using wheelchairs. These should include all upcoming
condominiums, hotels (their washrooms and toilets in
particular), markets, shops, banks, sports stadia, recreational
centres and places of religious worship".
"There must also be total responsibility with
commitment for the ‘Quality Standards’ of the work done and
their satisfactory completion on agreed target dates."
The necessity of accessible construction
In designing for the 21st century, leaders
cannot forget the ‘Senior Citizens’ and the fact that we are a
rapidly ageing population. By the year 2010, 1 in every 7
persons will be over 65 years of age. About 15% of our own
brothers and sisters are already with restricted mobility and
diminished vision to varying degrees that keeps deteriorating
further. Very many of them were not born this way. These
limitations are now inevitable due to natural and man-made
disasters (that includes escalating number of road accidents,
falling trees and protracted fratricidal war), increase in
debilitating illnesses and ageing.
‘Disability’, in fact, is only a grave ‘social
problem’ and NOT a ‘medical problem’. Poor designing by
architects and civil engineers, make man to build physical
barriers to another man. Such ‘man-made’ fencing prevents social
integration, denies opportunities for continuing to be
productive, causes divisions, restricts independence of daily
activities of majority of them and hence breeds social
prisoners.
Remember, this mere 65,000 square kilometres of
precious land is all we have, to share equal amongst 20 million
of us. We must bear in mind that the STATE represents every
citizen of the land, whether he or she moves on a wheelchair or
walks with a white cane or limps on crutches.
Hence, it is a social responsibility the
government and the business community both have, to make certain
that everything newly created is truly architecturally
accessible to all. It means, not only the condominiums but all
business establishments and government institutions in each town
people need to access in daily life.
Benefits of accessible construction
1. Will provide opportunities for every person
to become as much as possible independent in attending to his or
her essential daily needs, such as shopping, banking,
recreation, gainful employment, travel, etc. and thereby none
unwantedly becomes marginalised and turns a social prisoner.
2. Will ensure equality of treatment to all
groups of people to live as much as possible independently WITH
DIGNITY, enjoying the essential basic human rights, even on a
wheelchair.
3. Will minimise or even overcome unwanted
social problems and added financial burdens that their immediate
family members and the country to face.
4. The majority of those who now suffer were not
born with any physical or sensory impairment and still remain
productive, employable and even mobile using wheelchairs.
Sensible provision for their basic needs and human rights will
provide opportunities to make the best use of such vast yet
untapped talent and earn them an income (increased financial
stability).
5. Will create a MUCH RESPECTED NAME no
advertising can buy, hence incalculable in value, as a genuinely
caring business organisation with a ‘true’ heart, that respects
equally every type of citizen, Elderly or ‘Disabled’ or even a
Wheelchair user.
6. Monetary and further benefits wait for those
working with this thinking. For example, wheelchair travellers
form a very lucrative yet untapped business for our tourism
industry. Hence essential facilities must be made mandatory at
all hotels and places of tourist interest, to welcome even
independent wheelchair travellers. As Colombo based star-hotels
continue to be lackadaisical to make available these basic
facilities, those who soon make them available will enjoy better
business and also a be a respected name.
My special appeal to you
We urgently need ‘Bridge Builders’ to implement
rapidly these measures. I kindly urge every Sri Lankan to whom
HUMANITY is a cause above all else, to actively support a
campaign for the rapid enforcement and implementation of strict
measures to ‘prevent man from constructing further barriers
to his own mankind’, GENERALLY with respect to all future
constructions in Sri Lanka and SPECIFICALLY with the
constructions you may soon undertake to build in a tsunami hit
town in Sri Lanka. Where you can be responsible for that,
please, insist on such considerations when you specify what is
to be done with your generous contributions!
