His name is Doddy Kurniawan Kaliri from DIFAGANA DIY. DIFAGANA DIY is a disaster preparedness initiative from the community of persons with disabilities in the Indonesian province of Yogyakarta. As the leader of DIFAGANA in the region, Doddy is also spearheading an innovation partnership with YAKKUM Emergency Unit (YEU). DIFAGANA DIY is currently one of the innovators in the Community-Led Innovation Partnership (CLIP), IDEAKSI program.

As a social activist, Doddy works with DIFAGANA DIY to mainstream issues of persons with disabilities and advocate for social inclusion, particularly during disasters. Being involved in DIFAGANA DIY, Doddy has volunteered at major disaster events, such as the 2018 Central Sulawesi earthquake, tsunami, and liquefaction. Together with his peers, he has gathered data on survivors and taught communities about social inclusion for persons with disabilities. Doddy has also increased social support for disaster survivors with disabilities through a peer-to-peer approach. During the pandemic, he also led a vaccination drive for hundreds of persons with disabilities.

Doddy, as a person living with a disability, has meaningfully contributed to disaster response and community development, despite his limitations. Thanks to the training activities conducted by DIFAGANA, Doddy can contribute to disaster management efforts. He has acquired skills such as shelter and logistics management, as well as psychosocial support service. Such training activities enable many people in his group to boost the participation of persons with disabilities in disaster management.

In the past two years, Doddy has headed an innovation team representing DIFAGANA DIY for the aforementioned CLIP project. His involvement with the project as a local innovator began when YEU called local organizations to submit their ideas under a program aimed at inclusive disaster risk reduction solutions. This CLIP program is named IDEAKSI—short for “Idea Innovation Action Inclusion.”

As Team leader, Doddy and his team developed DIFGANDES (DIFAGANA Disaster Emergency Support) mobile application. The app provides information about volcanic activity in Yogyakarta, and evacuation routes, and produces information education and communication (IEC) materials accessible for persons with disabilities, older people and their caregivers. 

DIFGANDES has now been updated to version 2.0, making the user interface as inclusive, adaptive, participative, and accessible as possible. The app has been designed so that people living with disabilities, specifically those who are deaf or blind, can access life-saving information. 

Doddy is a proactive leader in advocating for the greater participation of people living with disabilities in disaster management. The Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN) wanted to acknowledge his extensive contribution to inclusive disaster response and preparedness in Yogyakarta and Indonesia. Doddy was awarded as a Local Champion at the Asian Local Leaders Forum for Disaster Resilience (ALL4DR). The forum was a side event of the 2022 Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR) in Brisbane, Australia, on Tuesday, 20 September 2022. ALL4DR was held to recognize, link, and enhance the power of local leadership, especially in areas of disaster management.

The honourable award which Doddy received was presented by Vasiti Soko, Director of the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) of Fiji. In Doddy’s speech at the event, he expressed his hope for increased exposure for persons with disabilities in disaster preparedness efforts. Their perspectives and involvement have the potential to benefit everyone. YEU shares the same ideal as Doddy, that no one should be left behind, especially in disaster management. 

Congratulations to Mr Doddy and local innovators in inclusive disaster management of Community-led Innovation Partnership for this achievement!