When natural disasters strike, people with disabilities are often most affected. End the Cycle met Kazol Rekha from Bangladesh, who talks about what happens when floods hit and how her community is addressing this.

I’ve always thought a good plan goes a long way. When I plan, I normally just start brainstorming ideas and options, think about timing, people and resources, and then map it all out with key milestones that show me I’m on track.

And I think this kind of planning also applies to emergency situations: with good planning the impact on people and communities can be reduced.

CARE’s global emergency response not only meets the immediate needs of people affected, but CARE works with poor communities to help them prepare and plan for emergencies; by helping develop evacuation plans in the event of a tsunami, cyclone or flooding, for example.

So, let me introduce you to 20-year-old Kazol Rekha from Bangladesh.

Kazol uses a wheelchair to get around in an area that is prone to annual flooding. Kazol says about emergencies: ‘When it comes to floods and other disasters, people with disabilities are particularly vulnerable; in many cases a person with a disability is forgotten and left behind.’

As Kazol knows, there is a link between poverty and disability – which is especially evident when natural disasters occur. People living in poverty are more likely to acquire a permanent disability, and people with disabilities are especially vulnerable in emergencies if they haven’t been included in plans and preparations for emergency food or water supply, evacuation and other measures.

In her powerful story, Kazol talks about how she made a real difference through disaster preparedness. With her local group she put plans in place to improve emergency preparedness for people with disabilities.

Watch as Kazol tells her full story and see how the cycle of poverty and disability can be ended when people with disabilities are empowered and included.

CARE Australia recently partnered with End the Cycle. We’re a campaign aimed to educate more and more Australians about this link between poverty and disability. We just launched a new website featuring powerful stories, like Kazol’s, that illustrate how the cycle of poverty and disability can be ended.

We’re proud to have CARE Australia as an endorsing partner of End the Cycle.

To find out more about End the Cycle and sign the pledge, visit www.endthecycle.org.au and check out our Facebook page.

Below is a crop of the image.  You can see how shallow the depth of field is.

The technique is actually quite simple and all it involves is using a telephoto lens with a wide aperture (I used the Canon 100m f2) and the Photoshop Photomerge function.

1) Focus and photograph your main subject.

2) Photograph the area around the subject without changing the focus, exposure or white balance.

3) Select the images and merge them in Photoshop (File > Automate > Photomerge)

Voilà! You now have a photograph with incredible subject isolation due to the shallow depth of field while retaining a large portion of the environment in a panoramic format.  It’s actually quite a quick process if you do it right and worth trying out even if you are out shooting a job.  It’s worth mentioning that I shot on a medium resolution setting and the resulting image was still a 51 megapixel file!  You have been warned.

Christoph is also a photographer / photojournalist and writer.  You can check his stuff out on his website featuring his beautiful photography and articles on creativity and journalism.