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GOOD news continues to be under-reported. Bad news
sells because it happens out of the ordinary and the expected.
Accidents, crimes of passion and infidelity are not supposed to
happen in the scheme of things but they do happen more than the
normal events. The blind man’s chair is one good news that seems
typical enough.
Since GAA 1998, which is the
General Appropriations Act or the annual government budget, a
special provision was inserted to set aside 10 percent of the
Department of Education’s allocation for chairs and desks to the
National Federation of Cooperatives of Persons with Disability. Now
at P900 million, 10 percent of that is contracted out to persons
with various disabilities and that is just the beginning of the
story.
The chairs and desks are made
with German consultants one of whom, Peter Hammerle, a carpenter by
profession, speaks Filipino, attesting to his length of stay and
dedication. The expertise and vaunted German engineering skill even
for simple pieces go a long way—the pieces of furniture made to
last on average a good ten years making them economical, safe and
environmentally friendly. The chairs are strong enough to withstand
vandalizing.
The disabled, or if you prefer,
differently-abled, enjoy a specific competitive advantage. The wheel
chair-bound are the welders and the nuts-and-bolts guys with their
upper body strength. Once they start working, they stay put until
the task is done. The deaf do the grinding oblivious to the noise
level. With their heightened visual perception, angles are straight
and metals linear. The amputees supervise the production line much
like a commercial venture. The blind with their perfect sense of
touch do the final touches of sanding and sculpting. It is beautiful
teamwork. The empowering motto is disability does not mean
inability.
Current employment is provided
for a thousand disabled persons. The nationwide estimate is eight to
10 percent of our population are persons with disabilities. If only
business people learned more about their capacities and dedication.
I know of Cecilio Pedro of Hapee Toothpaste who regularly employs
the deaf. Another friend, Mariel, contributes anonymously to a
foundation for the deaf.
With numbers like that, a
party-list for the disabled should be in Congress for the spirit of
the Constitution to take shape in protecting the vulnerable sector.
The major causes for disability include misfortunes like road
accidents, violence and calamities the most part of which are
preventable and avoidable. Such a terrible waste of human potential
only to be uplifted by the grit of the disable workers. We don’t
do enough for our disabled brothers. Doing a good turn daily should
take a different emphasis.
The buzzing idea is for the
chairs and desks to be made by disabled students themselves in our
technical vocational schools espoused by the Department of
Education. They not only learn the skills, cultivate the values of
hard work and perseverance but earn to keep them in school. Not to
mention the pride and sense of ownership of building an important
part of your school. They will have graduated and moved on as
entrepreneurs long after they made their first chair.
Durability in furniture, sustainability
in education is the key standard. Do you realize that chairs and
desks are made to specifications for elementary, high school and
college students? We who finished all the levels look back and
recall—we fit into them squarely then that we didn’t even
notice. No wonder when we last visited our classrooms, we pointed
and laughed at the mini chairs and desks. It is time we go back to
your schools, take a nostalgic tour and donate some chairs. It might
just be the blind man’s chair.
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