Davao mayor signs local resolution in support of World Diabetes Day

In Davao City, where Handicap International is currently implementing its diabetes project, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte signed Proclamation No. 15 declaring November 14 as World Diabetes Day, in support of UN Resolution 61/225. In the proclamation, he stated: “I encourage all Davaoeños to help fight this disease and its life-threatening complications by increasing awareness of the risk factors for diabetes, making healthy lifestyle choices, and by providing care and treatment to those suffering from diabetes.” HI had earlier requested for the said proclamation from the city mayor. HI’s diabetes project is being piloted in 10 barangays in Davao City and aims to build local capacities through an integrated approach for the prevention, control and management of complications and disabilities linked to the disease.

“NO CHILD SHOULD DIE OF DIABETES”
Celebrate the 1st World Diabetes Day on 14 November 2007

In December 2006, the General Assembly of the United Nations passed Resolution 61/225, a landmark document recognizing diabetes as a "chronic, debilitating and costly disease, associated with major complications that pose severe risks to families, countries and the entire world." It designates November 14 as World Diabetes Day, a UN day to be observed every year beginning 2007. HI joins the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization in celebrating this day through its diabetes projects in seven countries namely, the Philippines, Nicaragua, India, Kenya, Mali, Madagascar and Thailand. In the Philippines, HI’s diabetes project is organizing fora and day care center activities in Davao City.

To celebrate this year the first Diabetes Day, more than 100 monuments will be lightened up as well as human chains and group walks organized in more than 200 nations around the world. It is the first time that a non-communicable disease is recognized as a threat to global health as serious as infectious epidemics such as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS.

More than 246 million people in the world live with diabetes, about 20 to 50 percent of whom are believed to be suffering from complications that lead to disability. Without a concerted plan of fighting the disease, this figure will reach 380 million in the next generation.

This year’s theme is diabetes among children and adolescents. Both type 1 diabetes (5 to 10 percent of diabetes patients) and type 2 (90 to 95 percent) increases at an alarming rate among the demographic group. That diabetes can lead to disabling complications and that 50 percent of type 2 diabetes can be prevented highlight the importance of early detection and intervention through education and immediate access to medicines and health care.

For further details, contact Jenny Hernandez at 0917-8832789.

Handicap International joins the Davao walk for diabetes

HI started the celebration of the diabetes awareness week from 16-22 July 2007 with a group walk to campaign against this disabling disease. Spearheaded by the Davao Medical Center Diabetes Clinic, hundreds walked from Rizal Park to the DMC Compound. An opening program followed at the hospital park. There was also free diabetes screening. The Davao Sugar Multi-purpose Cooperative members, barangays Lapu-Lapu, Pampanga, 5-A, and 23-C residents, and Davao Jubilee Foundation for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled, Inc. also participated in the said activity.

HI Philippines supports advocacy project

Handicap International – Philippines Program has partnered with the National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons for conducting a series of regional media forums on disability and public hearing for the passage of Senate Bill 1375, which calls for the creation of Persons with Disability Affairs Office (PDAO) in every local government unit throughout the country. The said bill once passed will benefit the country’s estimated eight million Filipinos with disabilities as it creates a structural organization – the PDAO – that will implement the services provided in the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons to disabled persons in every province, city and municipality in the Philippines.

Hilwai concludes Southern Leyte campaign in the Visayas

Handicap International – Philippines’ mobile rehabilitation boat, Hilwai, has concluded another campaign in the Southern Leyte province in the Visayas. Hilwai assisted disabled persons in the area, as well as the victims of the landslide that happened in the province earlier this year. Hilwai provided rehabilitation assistance for persons who were left temporarily or permanently disabled by the disaster. Many of the survivors sustained fractures and even amputations. HI also assisted in providing home/community-based rehabilitation services and by providing assistive mobility devices for disabled persons (crutches, wheelchairs, and prosthetics).

A promise of hope fulfilled

Zamboanga City --- When U.S. Embassy Chargé d’ Affaires Paul W. Jones learned that Gaspar Salim’s wheelchair did not work properly when they first met in January of this year, he promised the boy that he will find him a new wheelchair. Gaspar, a fifth-grade student at the Culianan Elementary School, was born without limbs and has to use a wheelchair to move around. His old wheelchair, like most others, was not especially designed to suit his disability.

Chargé Jones went back recently to Zamboanga City to present Gaspar his brand new custom-made wheelchair, produced and assembled at the Wheelchairs for Mindanao project’s wheelchair production center in Mindanao.

It was a promise of hope fulfilled for the boy. Upon being seated on his new wheelchair, Gaspar immediately tested it and even gave Chargé Jones a small “tour” of his school. Ramps will also soon be constructed in the elementary school to improve its accessibility to PWDs, students and visitors alike.

The Wheelchairs for Mindanao project aims to integrate disabled persons in their communities by improving their mobility and access to development opportunities through the provision of mobility devices such as wheelchairs.

As a device for mobility and rehabilitation, a wheelchair should be treated like a medication prescribed for the specific infirmity of the person. Otherwise, a wheelchair that does not respond fully to a person’s needs and wants will just aggravate his/her disability or worse, be rendered useless. The wheelchairs available in the market today, more often than not, do not have this option of customization, resulting to more non-favorable conditions for the user.

Wheelchairs for Mindanao produces customized wheelchairs which are built to detailed specifications unique to each person’s clinical needs. This way, the wheelchair will be most appropriate to a person’s condition and natural living environment to ensure the device’s maximum functionality.

Handicap International Joins the Celebration of the 28th National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Week

Disasters resulting from environmental degradation are alarmingly increasing in magnitude in recent years, bringing greater damage to properties, livelihood, and loss of lives and increasing disabling physical conditions. The theme of the 2006 National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation (NDPR) Week’s celebration, “Kalikasan Pangalagaan: Kapansanan Maaiwasan”, calls on the public and persons with disabilities (PWDs) to actively take part in the heightened call for environmental protection and preservation for disability prevention.

Deforestation due to illegal logging, mining activities, and geothermal exploration, land development projects for industrial and commercial purposes, and dynamite fishing are just among the many environmental problems that have claimed thousands of lives and have caused, and increased the risks of, temporary and/or permanent disability among affected populations.

The NDPR Week, celebrated on July 17-23 of each year, is spearheaded by the National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons (NCWDP) and culminates on the birthdate of Apolinario Mabini, the Sublime Paralytic who became one of the heroes of the Philippine Revolution of 1896 despite his disability.

Handicap International (HI) - Philippines joined the nationwide NDPR celebration through various activities carried out in its key areas of operation in Visayas and Mindanao, a major part of which was a tree planting activity in each area to be participated in by PWDs themselves. Information and awareness activities were also held in schools, major malls and establishments on the importance of environmental protection and preservation to prevent disability and the occurrence of disabling situations.

In Southern Leyte in the Visayas, where HI – Philippines is currently implementing a post-emergency project for the mud/landslide victims, an open house of the Hilwai Mobile Rehabilitation Boat was among the highlights of the NDPR celebration. Students and other visitors were oriented on Hilwai and its services, the different mobility devices the HI Team provides and how prostheses are made. The tree-planting activity was done around the Gawad Kalinga and Habitat for Humanity resettlement areas for the landslide victims. Photo and art exhibit was held at the lobby of the municipal hall in Liloan from July 17-21, along with school awareness activities.

In Mindanao, wheelchair exhibits were held in major malls in the cities of Cotabato, Cagayan de Oro and Davao, showcasing Freedom Technology, the brand of custom-built wheelchairs developed by the Wheelchairs for Mindanao project of HI – Philippines through a funding from the Sen. Leahy War Victims Fund administered by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Moreover, the Wheelchairs for Mindanao project held a forum on disability and an exhibit in SM Mall – Davao City showcasing the project’s impacts in the developmental work for PWDs. The event was attended by around 300 people, led by Robert Barnes, USAID Philippines’ Economic Advisor, along with Representatives from the Office of Congressman Prospero Nograles, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, and other officials from local government agencies and private organizations.

In addition to the tree planting and ornamental gardening done by a group of prosthesis users and the wheelchair exhibit at the South Seas Mall, HI’s Cotabato Team also conducted bloodletting, ear and cataract screening, poster-making and slogan contest among students of the special education class of Canizares High School, and also a sportsfest for the disabled.

Liberty, Equality Disability Exhibition

Taking off from the success of the “Liberty, Equality, Disability” Exhibition by Handicap International’s headquarters in France, the Philippine mission ran the same exhibit at the European International School – French School in Parañaque City from April 3-6, 2006.

The “Liberty, Equality, Disability” Exhibition was first held simultaneously in 18 towns in France from December 2005-January 2006. Handicap International commissioned the artist of a popular cartoon character in France to depict serious disability issues and concerns in a “light” manner, that is, through the use of cartoon characters. Seemingly funny but equally, if not more, serious, the exhibit raises the most important issues and emphasizing the rights of all people, including persons with disabilities: right to work, health, security, education, health care, freedom of movement, personal life, freedom of expression, assistance, and leisure. The exhibit, though “light” in presentation, aims for people not only to discover or reinforce their awareness on disability issues but also to motivate them into action to help improve the lives of persons with disabilities.

Handicap International – Philippines partnered with the European International School – French School to stage the exhibit for four days. Aside from enhancing the students’ awareness through the 21-panel colorful exhibit panels, they were given the chance to “experience” disability through different activities and games. Activities for each day highlighted different physical disabilities like mobility, visual, and hearing impairments and muteness. From its wheelchair production center in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, Handicap International – Philippines brought in four wheelchairs to the school and students were given the chance to experience how it is to move around in and do things on a wheelchair. Students also experienced “blindness” where they were blindfolded and asked to go around a track with only a cane guiding them.

Students (who were mostly in the elementary level) said they know now how difficult it is to be disabled after “experiencing” them even for just a few moments. Many of them said they realize how serious disability is and why it should not be taken for granted nor be made fun of.

With the enthusiastic participation from the European International School and good feedback from the students themselves, Handicap International – Philippines plans to repeat the exhibit in other schools in Manila and in other parts of the country to strengthen its social awareness campaign on disability issues.