Last November 3, the Board Meeting of GMEFI was held. Part of the agenda was Philippine Federation of the Deaf’s [PFD] report about the status of their GMEFI-funded project undertaken at Susano Elementary School in Novaliches. Carol Dagani and Yvette Apurado, PFD president and Vice-President respectively came with Bibo Perey, one of the project implementors. Their accomplishment report is still being readied by Raphael Domingo, former PFD president, and will be submitted as soon as possible. As a consequence of PFD’s effort to teach Filipino Sign Language, they were asked to submit another proposal to teach FSL as an elective course to interested hearing Education students of Metro Manila College. Mirana Medina, GMEFI Board member / Community and Educational Funds Assistance Program Head interpreted for the Deaf. When already confused because of limited knowledge of FSL, visual-gestural communication and writing on paper greatly helped.
Before the PFD officers came, Ms. Nina Liganor of Mano Amiga Academy introduced their school to us. Mano Amiga [Helping Hand] is a unique school model that provides international quality basic education to children from low-income families. GMEFI, aligned with their goal to support and assist indigent students was impressed and got interested in their school as a possible partner. GMEFI asked if Persons with Disability are accepted in their school. Currently, they have none but they are open to accepting PWDs in the school. It is of interest and has become one of the thrusts of GMEFI to support PWDs, not only regular students. In fact, all three recipients of GMEFI’s Community and Educational Funds Assistance Program are NGO’s from the PWD sector: Autism Society Philippines, Philippine Federation of the Deaf, and CBR-SMILE, Payatas, Inc.
