"The only thing worse than being blind is having sight and no vision.” - Helen Keller
HIS name is Valentine “Val” Manginga, 53, born in Bauko, Mountain Province. A learned man with a big heart. When Val was about 10 years old, he suffered a head injury that was left medically untreated for almost a week. This resulted in a severe wound infection, prompting him to be brought to the hospital. According to Val, this mishap might have started the problems with his vision in the early years of his high school life at the age of 13.
He soon could not see what was written on the board. His teachers would make him sit in the front row. His progressing visual impairment and special treatment by his teachers has caused him to be discriminated against by his classmates.
Moving on to his fourth year in high school, he had special assistance during the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE). A proctor stayed beside him to read the questions and even write for him. Diagnosed with Macular Degeneration, Val had an eye operation when he was 20 years old to prevent total blindness. He has lost his central vision, but he can sparingly see at the periphery.
Though his condition was difficult to accept, he was was grateful that he was still blessed and gifted with other senses, unlike the others. He later had vocational studies at the National Vocational Rehabilitation Center (NVRC) for skills development of persons with disabilities (PWDs). Meeting a visually impaired social worker helping others with disabilities inspired him, even more, to think that nothing is impossible. He then attended a regular college with his professional fees to cope up with school expenses. Val’s optimism pushed him to pursue and finish a degree in AB Political Science in Manila despite his disability.
Val then decided to move to Baguio to settle down. He and his wife Merly, a former classmate in college, rented quarters then moved to a resettlement project in Tadiangan Tuba, Benguet. They are blessed with four children, one of them in his 3rd-year college studying Accountancy. Merly presently works as a bookkeeper for their cooperative. They are both excited for the cooperative’s laboratory where volunteer teachers come to help the children in the community. Lessons on values and personality development, leadership training, skills development in music (choir and instruments) and the arts can be learned. However, teacher’s allowance, instruments and other needs have been a challenge.
Val may not have the sight, but surely, he has a vision. He was instrumental in organizing the massage therapist group Vismar (Visually Impaired Scientific Massage and Reflexology), the Women’s with Disability Organization of Baguio, also the Baguio Federation of Organizations of Visually Impaired Persons (BFOVIP) and the Baguio City Federation of PWDs (BCPWDs). He is currently the chairman of the board of the Good Care Multipurpose Cooperative. Val is also happy to say that the Baguio City local government unit has been very responsive to their causes, especially with the creation of the Persons with Disability Affairs Office (PDAO) under Councilor Arthur Alad-iw. PDAO is directly under the Mayor’s Office, hence, making communication and assistance easier and faster, he says.
The community is looking forward to partner organizations that can offer educational scholarships. Val’s message to the visually impaired is to participate, unite and cooperate into one organization for a better, dignified and formal representation in the city. He dreams of the upliftment of life socio-economically and spiritually. He envisions that all the families are intact and that they always instill in each other the wonders of faith.
Meanwhile, a total of 50 sacks of 10 kilograms each were given to the visually impaired massage therapists of Vismar and Good Care massage centers in Baguio City by the Rotary Club of Baguio Summer Capital (RCBSC) headed by Chairman Wendell Aplaten.