Inclusive education in the Philippines
01 March 2004
- Country:
- Philippines
- Organisations involved:
-
- CBM Germany
- International Deaf Education Association (IDEA)
- Synopsis:
- With a friendly smile, Sheila Agnes Amores welcomes me to the Garden Café and shows me to a seat in the shade. I order a light midday meal – making use of a small writing pad on which I jot down the dish I have chosen. With the aid of gesticulations there is no problem between Sheila Agnes and me in conversation – though the young woman is deaf. This is in the small town of Jagna on Bohol Island in the Philippines. I went there to visit a project of the International Deaf Education Association supported by the CBM. The purpose of IDEA is to integrate deaf persons successfully into society. That is one of the things it achieves in Jagna’s Garden Café, where deaf and hearing people work side by side.
From learning the ABC to secretary
The project begins integrating the deaf at school age. Special teachers are trained in close cooperation with the authorities, and they later teach deaf children in state schools. After leaving school, students can complete further courses in the project suited to their needs, to train for instance as cooks or secretaries. That qualifies them for a “normal” job in industry and commerce. I was amazed to hear there are already six training centers with 265 deaf students in this island. This development is only possible with support from organizations like the CBM. To complete their scheme, IDEA established over a period of time three successful restaurants and hotels, so they would in future be more independent of outside aid. They employed both deaf and hearing people on the staff.
Head cook instead of casual worker
At the Jagna Garden Café, I was allowed a glance at the gastronomy of the kitchen by Pascual Lumagod, who has been chief cook the past four years. He was born deaf and in earlier years had to find a livelihood by doing casual jobs, before he trained in cooking at one of the deaf training centers. Speaking with one of his staff who acted as interpretor, Pascual told me he is very happy to work in this café, not only because he enjoyed doing it, but he added with a rather shy smile, because of Jennifer Bautro. She is also deaf due to an illness during infancy and now works as a bookkeeper for IDEA – and she is Pascual’s fiancée. Like him, she was helped through school and career training by the project. She also qualified for high school, but preferred to work in the Garden Café in order to be near Pascual. Smiling happily at one another they told me their wedding takes place soon. The couple will then move into a small apartment that the project rents to the deaf, and if children arrive later, they can take a larger palm bungalow called a “nipa”, owned by the project.
Difficulty in bringing up children
These nipas are sought after, and I was invited around to visit one by Regina and Pablito Salinasal. Pablito, deaf from birth like four of his brothers, never was admitted to school so worked on a fruit plantation. But luckily he was later offered a place in a deaf class and finally trained in carpentry with IDEA. On the other hand his wife Regina did not lose her hearing till she was 16, so can speak and understand others more easily, especially her daughters Joanna Christine, age 6, and Aileen Jane, 3, who can both hear. I could not talk directly with Regina because I do not understand her local Tagalog language, but through our interpretor she told me how difficult it had been to care for her first baby. While she and her husband were asleep at nights they did not always notice Joanna Christine crying. It was left to their hearing neighbors to wake them. By the time their second child arrived they had settled the problem by developing a good “inner clock”, and the elder child also helped.
Acceptance instead of segregation
When the two little girls start school they will go into mixed classes of deaf and hearing children. This is successful integration. I was deeply impressed by the way the deaf and hearing live together harmoniously in Bohol, because I know from my own experience how difficult integration of the handicapped is. Therefore I hope the success story of this project will be an example and an encouragement to assist deaf and otherwise handicapped people.
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