Provision of integrated protection, functional rehabilitation, mental health and psycho-social support services for vulnerable populations in Yei, Morobo, Kajo Keji, Rubkona and Raga. The proposed intervention aims to address the immediate and long-term protection, functional rehabilitation and MHPSS needs of vulnerable groups (with and without disabilities) in Yei, Morobo, Kejo Keji, Rubkona and Raga through a field-based roving response model based from HI’s offices in Yei. The project will be comprised of two core components – the first to identify and address immediate protection risks and needs in target locations, and the second to promote risk mitigation, social cohesion and resilience among vulnerable populations through direct provision of protection, functional rehabilitation and mental health services. In the first component, continuous protection and needs assessment, protection monitoring, and vulnerability screenings will be conducted with support from partners to understand the gaps and issues affecting vulnerable communities and triangulating these gaps/issues into suitable responses and referrals. HI will then provide functional rehabilitation and IPA in the form of assistive devices to address the immediate protection needs of people with disabilities.  This will alleviate the vulnerabilities many people with disabilities encounter as a result of their impairment by removing key barriers to humanitarian services and material assistance. The intervention will be complimented by MHPSS support services to address high-levels of trauma, post-traumatic stress and other mental health conditions of beneficiaries, through psychological first aid and peer group support sessions. HI shall work closely with health facilities and other service providers, Humanitarian Partners in the health and protection sectors, County Health Department and the State Ministry of Health for the targeted locations more importantly in the various training on MHPSS, Functional Rehabilitation and Disability Inclusion which shall be conducted by HI for Health Workers and Humanitarian Partners.

The second project component will seek to support resilience, social cohesion, mitigate risks and address the exclusion of vulnerable groups (with and without disabilities) in humanitarian response efforts. Firstly, participatory mapping exercises will help to identify and elaborate beneficiary-led responses to protection risks and barriers to services, which will be supported through local actors – NNGOs, disabled people’s organizations (DPOs), local leaders, and community and religious groups. Community-based protection and MHPSS interventions will allow women and girls, and vulnerable groups with and without disabilities to become more resilient to the effects of adversity, stigmatization and violence in their communities, while addressing exclusion mechanisms in the humanitarian response. Such groups will also promote positive coping mechanisms among sub-sections of the population, and promote social cohesion, understanding and social integration through activities which link groups from different ethnicities, genders and persons with/without disabilities. Such activities will also promote safe returns and the social integration of newly settled groups to each location. Lastly, the intervention will include a strong cross-cutting element aimed at promoting disability inclusion and safe and dignified access to essential humanitarian services for all. This will include joint-response efforts with INGOs, NNGOs and DPOs to provide guidance and support, but also direct capacity building, monitoring and follow-up activities to embed inclusion. As a result, an increased number of people in the intervention areas will be able to access disability-inclusive material assistance based on their specific needs. Service providers will also be able to address the barriers hindering equitable inclusion of people with disabilities within the strategies and operations of partners thereby making humanitarian services more inclusive, as well as promoting the empowerment of people with disabilities.