School for the blind gets support of city on education program

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu Braille Center Inc., a school for the blind that provides free Braille instruction for the visually impaired here, is set to receive P250,000 cash aid from the city government after the council approved last week the resolution authorizing the release of the fund.

The financial assistance will be charged from the city’s 2010 General Fund Annual Budget.

The assistance was requested by CBCI to defray the costs for the conduct of its new project, “Educating the Visually Impaired in Cebu City,” which aims to teach literacy to the visually impaired individuals in the city that will later enable them to be mainstreamed into the regular school system.

The city approved the request for funding as the Local Government Code allows a local government unit to provide assistance, financial or otherwise, to non-government organizations and other groups for economic, socially-oriented, environmental or cultural projects.

The project will cost P609,000, but CBCI only requested P250,000 from the city and plans to source out funds from other sponsors.

The “Educating the Visually Impaired in Cebu City” has various component programs, including the computerized Braille book transcription, educational program for higher and elementary education, tutorial program, computer literacy program and the personality and social development program.

These programs shall facilitate the learning of the visually impaired students to enable them to cope with the demands of the regular school system.

“Integrating visually impaired students to higher education has been beneficial to them. This is to enhance professional career opportunities for the visually impaired who remain marginalized due to their disability,” the program proposal reads.

Aside from tutorial in math, science and other difficult subject areas, the beneficiaries will be taught self-help skills in preparation for the inclusion.

They must also gain computer proficiency at the end of the program to increase their chances for employment. — THE FREEMAN