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World News

Protect disabled in Haiti Hurricane Matthew relief effort, urges Christian charity

by Hannah Tooley

Hurricane Matthew's killed nearly 900 people on the island alone - as well as others elsewhere.

Bridges and roads have been destroyed, there's widespread flooding, many phone systems are down and hospitals have been overflowing with people.

The storm (effects, pictured below) battered what is the poorest nation in the Americas and the West generally.

Kirsty Smith. from Christian charity CBM, told Premier: "Often the warning systems do not take account of people who are visually impaired, or hearing impaired on mentally impaired.

"It's possible people have been left in their homes, they may have severe physical impairments that prevent them from moving around easily, they may not be able to read the notices, they may not be able to hear the radio warnings."

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AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa
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Kirsty Smith went on to say that physically disabled people often have special facilities in their homes which will have been destroyed, such as "toilet and washing facilities that are appropriate for their needs, all of that is destroyed if you are evacuated and placed in a location that is not catering to the needs that you have.

"Unfortunately resources are stretched so far that they're very, very often ignored, they're rarely catered for."

She asked Christians to "pray for the people in Haiti who were already living in the poorest country of the Americas, where they were already living on the edge.

"A crisis like this will push families who are deeply vulnerable over the edge."

Listen to Premier's Hannah Tooley speak to Kirsty Smith:

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