Saturday, November 05, 2005
16 hearing-impaired students find home in dormitory van
By Linette C. Ramos
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A year after they appealed to the Cebu City Government, 16 differently abled children will now live for free in a dormitory van inside their school.
Students of the Basak High School for the Hearing Impaired who live in the mountain barangays will be prioritized in the selection of project beneficiaries.
With the van, the students can save on travel expenses and avoid risks in the streets, since they will no longer have to take multiple rides in going to school and going back home.
The mayor’s wife, Margot Osmeña, said they have yet to decide whether female or male students will be housed in the van, which has eight double deck beds and study tables.
She led the symbolic turnover of the key of the van to the Cebu City Schools Division during the Fourth Cebu City Children’s Summit last week.
Results
Margot, also the vice chairperson of the Cebu City Commission for the Welfare and Protection of Children (CCWPC), thanked the private companies who helped grant the children’s request, which was one of the results of last year’s children’s summit.
“It is a clear manifestation that the Cebuanos can come together and work for the education of the children. Sometimes we don’t need a lot of money, we just need to have a lot of faith,” she said during the turnover ceremony.
With no available funds for the dormitory, the commission relied on Sulpicio Lines, which donated the unused container van.
The Hardware Association of Cebu City and Engineer Ricky Dakay of the Cebu Contractors Association also helped transform the van into comfortable sleeping quarters for the students.
The van is still at the Community Scouts compound at the North Reclamation Area but will soon be transferred to the Basak High School for the Hearing Impaired.
Aside from the dormitory van, the new waste segregation and garbage collection system of the City was also one of the suggestions from last year’s summit that was realized, CCWPC Executive Director Abeth Cuizon said.
Problems
The children had raised garbage collection and waste segregation as one of the environmental problems in the community, which the City Government immediately acted on.
Cuizon said the implementation of the Solid Waste Management Act by the City was very timely since the children appealed for it during the summit last year.
For this year’s summit, some 500 children from different sectors gathered last week. They raised new concerns and appealed to City Hall officials to address the problems of fraternity wars and Internet pornography.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña assured he will discuss the issues with the City Council and other city officials for immediate action.
(November 5, 2005 issue)
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