PWDs identify need for therapy

HAPPY WEEKEND

Gina Dizon

SAGADA Mountain Province -- Persons with disabilities in this tourist town need help, like those from doctors for psychiatric, neurologic, orthopedic including hearing and sight therapy.

Republic Act 10070 provides establishing an institutional mechanism to ensure the implementation of programs and services for persons with disabilities in every province, city and municipality passed in 2010.  

This same law amended RA 7277 otherwise known as the "Magna Carta for Disabled persons" passed in 1992 providing for the rehabilitation, self-development and self-reliance of disabled persons and their integration into the mainstream of society. 

But despite this, support services from government are inadequate. So the PWDs, their parents and guardians recently met in a general assembly to discuss their concerns and update status on their organization  the  Association of  Differently Abled Persons and Caregivers (ADAPC).
Nearly a hundred PWDs with mental and physical defects in this town are spread out in the town’s 19 barangays.

Blankets were distribute to  PWD  member/representatives during the meeting with funds sourced from solicitations.

The ADAPC would like to relay its thanks to all donors which include businesspersons, officials, concerned individuals, and institutions who donated P14,700 for  the purchase of  blankets and  goodies given to the PWDs.     

The Municipal Social Welfare and Development led by Esther Palaoay provided  lunch and snacks along with an update on the beginnings of the  PWDs organization.

The ADAPC was organized March this year and with its constitution  ratified having been revised  from an earlier  constitution and by-laws of the then  Sagada  Handicapped Organization organized in the early 1990s.

In their general assembly, participants were urged to become members of the ADAPC and pay membership and annual dues including a mortuary assistance fund with zonal representatives to do the collection of fees.

PWDs are not qualified to become members of cooperatives nor insurance companies setting the basis for the MAF service. The MSWD facilitates the national program on discounted rates for medicine for PWDs.  

An update on  the livelihood program of ADAPC  identified assistance from  the Dept. of  Agriculture  (DA) where an initial 25 piglets are given to the first 25  PWD beneficiaries who shall  in turn pass on  the next 25  piglets  to other members  when the piglets  are  mature for sale or have given birth.

Another P100,000  support for special children was  provided by  the DSWD from  Bottom up Budgetting (BuB) listing for 2014 with the construction of a Special Education (SPED) center. The amount however was not enough for construction of a building with the eventual change of support on the purchase of  swine feeds as a livelihood project for the PWDs.

Also, a  BuB meeting  among civil society organizations (CSOs) November this year identified a SPED center supposedly to be housed within  the identified  evacuation center basing on BuB menu for 2017 and to be  funded by  DILG.  A current problem is the site where the building shall be built.

This writer who heads ADAPC cited during said assembly need of PWDs for psychiatric, neurologic, orthopedic including hearing and sight therapy.

Except for very few cases, it has been noted during the general assembly that PWDs don’t have regular therapy for their children or members of their family hit with mental, neurological, orthopedic, opthalmic or hearing defect cases.

Even the LGU does not have the necessary health services on mental and neurological cases for PWDs for quite a period of time until now.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Penelope Domogo told this writer to reach out to the  municipal health officer for support.

Municipal health officer  Dr. Evelyn Capuyan said psychiatrists and neurologists have difficulty  getting out from their city bases considering their regular patients and  heavy expense that go along with this when they leave their clinics.

Kind souls are starting to attend to educational and health needs of PWDs in this town.

For one, with intervention of Manila tourist Ed Formoso,  Manila-based Center for Possibilities(CFP) recently  set up  a SPED center with the partnership of the  LGU who provides free rides to  12 special  children in going to school  daily. CFP with Manila-based  Reach Foundation provides the salary of the  SPED  teacher Sarah Calang-ad.  The Church of St Mary the Virgin (CSMV) provides the old parish building as  SPED classroom.