Handicap International experience in Afghanistan - CBM

706050• Landmine/UXO Survivors• Other War Survivors• Other Causes: Disease, Accident...403020100The Same as Today Better than Today Worse than TodayDon’t KnowThe feeling of abetter future ismore widespreadamong warsurvivors thanamong otherpersons withdisabilityFear of the Future or Scope for Optimism?All together, Afghans were, in 2005, rather optimistic about the future: a massive majority (69.9%) expectstheir personal situation to improve in the next 5 years. However, only 47.5% of persons with disability believetheir situation will improve in the next 5 years, while 70.7% non-disabled persons believe so. This revealsthat persons with disability have a general feeling of distrust, or at least of scepticism, in the capacity of theAfghan society to give them an equal place.Women are globally more pessimistic than men when it comes to considering ones situation in the nearfuture: 73.7% of non-disabled men believe their situation will get better, compared to 66.5% of nondisabledwomen. Persons with disability are overall less optimistic than the non-disabled. Moreover, only46.6% of women with disability believe their situation will improve and 20.2% of women with disabilitybelieve their situation will be worse, while 16.0% don’t make any forecast and 17.2% think nothing willchange for them. This feeling that the situation will not improve is far more widespread in rural areas thanurban areas. Yet, there is no significant difference by region. Only the people in the Western region seem to bemore optimistic than the others. 78% believe that their situation will improve.Again, the feeling of a better future is more widespread among war survivors than among other persons withdisability. 54.2% landmine survivors and 57.5% other war survivors are optimistic for the future, whereas45.3% persons with disability due to another causes (accident, disease, etc.) think their situation will getbetter one way or another. The rest of this last category is almost equally split between the idea of statusquo (19.3%), the belief that the situation will deteriorate (20.3%) or the absence of any forecast for thefuture (15.3%). There are a series of reasons for this. The most important one is the social valorisation of theFigure 55: Distribution of Persons with Disability and Non-Disabled According toReasons Why they Believe the Future Looks Better3025• Persons with Disability• Non-Disabled20151050MoreMoneyOwnPropertyBeMarriedBetterHealthServicesBetterEducationBetterSecurityBetterEconomicSituationBetterInternationalHelp70 Understanding the Challenge Ahead