PGO-NGO
Partnership to Address
Disability Issues
The Misamis
Occidental Provincial Government, headed by Governor Loreto Leo Ocampos,
acknowledges the value of forming partnerships with civil society
in the advancement of certain issues in the province. One such issue
is disability.
The UN Standard Rules and the Philippine Magna Carta for Disabled
Persons has stressed the importance of rehabilitation as a pre-condition
for equal participation of people with disabilities (PWD) in social
development. Likewise, rehabilitation, when undertaken early on in
the process, can be an important factor in the prevention of disability.
The Provincial Government, recognizing this, has entered into a Memorandum
of Agreement with the Great Physician Rehabilitation Foundation, Inc.
(GPRehab), a non-governmental organization concerned with the plight
of PWD in the province, to establish a Provincial Medical Rehabilitation
Center at the Misamis Occidental Provincial Hospital (MOPH).
The Center shall be located at the former Malnutrition Ward of the
said hospital. The Provincial Government shall undertake the renovation
of the said building, the cost of which has been estimated to run
about P220,000. GPRehab on the other hand, will extend rehabilitation
services to hospital in or out patients referred to the Center for
rehabilitation.
This Rehabilitation Center, is a perfect model of how government agencies
and civil society can work together to provide basic needs, not only
to the disabled sector but to all sectors as well. Efforts are presently
made to secure rehabilitation equipment from different sources. NDCF,
the GPRehab partner organization, has pledged to donate some equipment
including parallel bars and Terapi Master – the latest European
gadget in rehabilitation.
Negotiations are also being done to tap the assistance of local organization,
the MOEMCO being one, to ensure that the Rehab Center will be fully
equipped with the necessary treatment modalities and supplies. In
short, this Rehab Center shall be a multi-agency endeavor, undertaken
to respond to the health and rehabilitation needs of the people of
Misamis Occidental.
Aside from the establishment of the Rehabilitation Center, the Provincial
Government has also made other supportive measures towards the development
of persons with disabilities. For one, the Provincial Governor's Office
has purchased twenty (20) crutches from GPRehab in coordination with
the social workers of the MOPH, the Strategic Alliance for Networking
on Disability (STAND), a disabled peoples’ organization, and
some of the MSWDOs.
Likewise, the Provincial Governor's Office, in coordination with,
GPRehab and the Misamis Occidental Technological Institute (MOTI),
has three (3) PWDs, two of whom are wheelchair users, currently under
its college scholarship program.
