Aid agencies and the government are being urged to “actively and purposefully” include lgbti people in their responses to the devastating earthquake in Nepal. “It’s as clear as the daylight that lgbtis in Nepal are equally affected if not more,” says advocate Sunil Babu Pant, a former MP and founder of Nepalese lgbti support service the Blue Diamond Society. “When disrepair hits marginalised, excluded and vulnerable communities suffer the most.” Pant says the needs are enormous in Nepal and different aid agencies and government have their own priorities. “But these priorities should be based on facts, needs and urgency rather than based up on cultural/social bias or your own agencies traditional approach that has usually overlooked lgbits so far. “For example we have seen some of the toilets that are constructed around relief camps are only based on binary gender mechanisms excluding third gender propitiation. Queue for "Rashan" and other aid kits are the same, based on binary genders,” Pant says. “We call Nepal government, USAID, DFID, Norad, UNDP, GIZ, Oxfam and the other aid agencies to actively and purposefully include glbti into their response and rehab programmes. “We also call our follow lgbti rights orgs in the world to join forces to encourage USAID, DFID, Norad, UNDP, GIZ, Oxfam and the other aid agencies to actively and purposefully include lgbti into their response and rehab programmes. This might mean a joint communique or a statement.” Pant has thanked all those who have offered kind thoughts, generosity and solidarity.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 1st May 2015 - 10:50am