Special kids find hope in Mandaluyong center

MANILA, Philippines—Young mother Venus Pedro was shocked when her first born, Jericho, was diagnosed with autism in 2006. Four years later, doctors found out that her second son, Jasper James, or JJ, also had a developmental disorder.

She was just as heartbroken. But unlike when Jericho was diagnosed where Pedro said she and her husband, Jonas, felt lost, she knew exactly what to do this time: Take JJ to Project TEACH Center in Mandaluyong City so he could undergo therapy education together with his elder brother.

“It’s painful to know that your children have special needs. But as a mother I have to exert efforts to help them. That’s my responsibility as a parent,” Pedro, 35, told the Inquirer in a recent interview at Mandaluyong CARES-Project TEACH Center.

Since the launch of Project Therapy, Education and Assimilation of Children with Handicap (TEACH) in 2007, the Mandaluyong City government has helped some 600 children—and their parents—cope with a lifetime of challenges.

Through the program, the city government has given indigent families access to diagnostic and therapy services, as well as to the country’s top developmental pediatricians—all for free.

The six-year-old program won for Mandaluyong City one of two Galing Pook Awards it won for 2012. Eight other local governments won the award for outstanding local governance programs.

Partnership

Project TEACH is a partnership between the city government and a private foundation called REACH, which stands for Rehabilitation and Empowerment of Adults and Children with Handicap.

In September 2007, Mandaluyong City Mayor Benhur Abalos and REACH Foundation’s Prof. Abelardo David signed the agreement that gave birth to the Mandaluyong Center for Alternative and Rehabilitation and Education Services (CARES)-Project TEACH program.

It was about that time that Pedro was struggling with Jericho’s therapy—financially, physically and emotionally.

Pedro was not seeing any sustainable progress in her son, then 3 years old. Caring for Jericho was financially difficult, as her husband’s salary was not enough to feed the family and shoulder the costs of regular therapy.

At a seminar with the Autism Society, Pedro learned that a center for children from poor families with special needs had been set up in Mandaluyong.

As a resident of Mandaluyong from a low-income family, Jericho was qualified to receive services from the Mandaluyong CARES-Project TEACH.

Pedro saw the remarkable progress made by Jericho from the extensive and daily therapy he received from the center’s caring and devoted specialists.

Jericho, whose winsome smile can melt anyone’s heart, is now ready to go to a regular school, though still with guidance from a shadow teacher.

The cost of sending her son to a private school is a challenge, Pedro said. To give him a chance to assimilate with the community and grow up a productive individual—the goals of Project TEACH—Pedro works hard to help her husband raise the money they need.

Mothers’ dedication

Karen Ballad, Mandaluyong CARES-Project TEACH Center’s head, said that more than the efforts of the therapists, it is the dedication of the mothers that help in the development of children with special needs.

“It is really because of the nurturing quality of a mother,” Ballad said, whom David invited to join him in the project soon after she graduated from the University of the Philippines in Manila in 2006.

In fact, there are mothers of the kids of Project TEACH who are now assisting the team of professional therapists at the center. Pedro is one of them. They earn P265 a day. It’s not much but more than the money, Pedro is happy being able to help other mothers and children.

According to Ballad, a physical therapist by profession, children with special needs and their parents face an uphill struggle in making society accept that there are developmental conditions that have to be handled with a lot of patience, determination and love.

It strikes her, she said, that the Mandaluyong city government and Abalos himself make sure that Project TEACH is sustained.

“It’s not even an income-generating project but you know that the mayor’s heart is in it,” Ballad, 28, said.

Other boy, too

Pedro’s second son, JJ, was already in first grade last year when his grandmother noticed that he wasn’t paying attention in school. He wouldn’t finish the work given to him by teachers.

Because she was so attuned to Jericho as well as the other children at the center, Pedro easily recognized that JJ had symptoms of a developmental disorder. She decided that JJ must be taken to the center to be diagnosed and given the therapy he needed.

But her husband and her sons’ grandparents refused to accept that JJ also needed help.

“There was a lot of crying but I finally managed to convince them that JJ had to go to the center,” Pedro said.

“I want to make sure that my sons will be capable of living [normal] lives, even after I am gone,” she said, her voice breaking.

Today, Jericho, 9, and JJ, 7, are part of the center’s music band that has already learned to play 15 pieces. The band has played at parties and other occasions. It welcomed the Galing Pook team that visited the center as part of the vetting process for the Galing Pook awards.

Others interested

Ballad said that other local governments have asked the center about the Mandaluyong CARES-Project TEACH. She said their showing interest in having their own community rehabilitation programs made her happy and proud.

This is Mandaluyong City’s second attempt to qualify for Galing Pook with the Mandaluyong CARES-Project TEACH program. Ballad said the award was an inspiration for everybody working to help the special children live quality lives, which they all deserved.

Aside from Mandaluyong CARES-Project TEACH, Mandaluyong City also received the Galing Pook Award for its Garden of Life Park, for which the local government drew up a master plan for the redevelopment of the city’s old public cemetery.

Through the program, the city government provides decent burial and affordable services for indigent families while generating additional income for the city.

Other winners

The other Galing Pook awardees for 2012 are Sarangani Province, for quality education program; Barangay Poblacion, Tupi, South Cotabato, for barangay governance; San Jose City, Nueva Ecija, for farmer entrepreneurship; Valenzuela City, 3S in public service; Muntinlupa City, “Bring your own bag” program; Dumaguete City, for septage management system; Iloilo City, for “Dinagyang: Beyond festivals”; and the Municipality of Loboc, for its improving lives through tourism project.