Monday, January 07, 2008 Disabled people to bring 120T armchairs to public schools
THE Department of Education (DepEd) has again tapped persons with disability (PWDs) to make and deliver about 120,000 armchairs in selected elementary and secondary schools nationwide.
Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said the program, now on its ninth year helping PWDs, was done in partnership between the department's Physical Facilities and Schools' Engineering Division and the National Federation of Cooperatives of Persons with Disability (NFCPWD).
NFCPWD is a federation of 12 primary cooperatives in the country: seven in Luzon, two in the Visayas and three in Mindanao. These cooperatives, according to the DepEd, were established to produce various products with school chairs and desks as their main line of business.
"The DepEd is constantly working to augment the furniture and other equipment in our schools to meet the needs of our children. Through this program, we were able to meet our needs and at the same time utilize the furniture-making skills of differently-abled workers," Lapus said.
"This project will also give our differently abled workers a chance to contribute to the improvement of our school facilities and provide them with a decent livelihood," he added.
The DepEd's Desk and Armchair Program (DAP) covers selected schools in all regions in the country including the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with the schools that has the least number of desks and armchairs being prioritized.
In 2005, the cooperative produced and delivered 48,460 desks and armchairs amounting to P37.84 million and this further increased to 96,996 units worth P99.97 million in 2006.
In 2005, the General Appropriations Act has allocated 10 percent of the budget for DAP for the procurement of desks and armchairs from cooperatives organized by differently abled persons. (AH/Sunnex)
