Mandaluyong’s Project: Teach now includes day care centers

MANDALUYONG has just added another feather to its cap with the city’s selection as pilot area for the National Council for Disability Affairs’ (NCDA) program called Recharged Modules for the Training of Day Care Workers on Inclusive Education.

The ceremonial turn-over of the modules was witnessed by Mandaluyong Mayor Benhur Abalos and NCDA Executive Director Carmen Reyes-Subiaga and deputy director Mateo Lee Jr. and other city officials.

But more than its selection as a pilot area for a program that aims to make the day care system of the country capable of handling and addressing the needs of children with special needs, the new program provides Mandaluyong with another useful component that would contribute to the evolution of its Project: Teach program.

With the new training module, the day care centers of Mandaluyong can now be used as a monitoring arm of Project:Teach-the city’s program that helps provide  the complete assistance to help children with special needs who come from the poorest families in the city in joining and living with the rest of the mainstream population.

Project: Teach started in 2007 includes physical, occupational and speech therapy and special education (SPED) tutorials and SPED education itself among others.

The program aside from being named as one of two Mandaluyong projects that made it to the finals of the prestigious “Galing Pook” Awards wherein it is now competing with programs of other local government units for the top plum, have also helped hundreds of children with special needs and their poor families not just by providing therapy but also in providing livelihood.

The inclusion of the day care centers in the program, Abalos noted, have resulted in the detection of 18 new cases of children with special needs who are all now under the care of Project: Teach.

“This development is a very good one. Providing the day care center workers the capability with addressing and helping in the needs of these children with special needs is a great boost in our bid to ensure that these children will be provided the service they need in order to equip them with enough to run the race of life like regular people,” Abalos pointed out.

The mayor added, that these children are usually not accepted in regular public schools because teachers do not know how to deal with them.

“Project: Teach is continuously evolving and this is part of that evolution that would continue to boost its capabilities of helping, nurturing and boosting the chances of children with special needs together with their families in improving their lot in life,” Abalos stressed.