Special Projects
WDFP had established three social projects which may be considered as an Outreach Project, designed to help as any persons with disability as well as college students with disability who are intellectually capable of pursuing tertiary education at the University of the Philippines. These special projects are Wheelers On The Go, Showcase For Products of PWD'S and WDFP Scholarship Endowment Fund.
- Wheelers On the Go
- Showcase For Products of PWD's
- WDFP Scholarship Endowment Fund.
- Operation Wheelchair
This is a wheelchair rental project started in 1992 to provide wheelchair service to shoppers at SM Megamall who are physically weak to shop around the length and breath of the vast shopping center complex. Customers include not only those with physical disability but also pregnant women, the elderly and those with cardiac problem. A minimum rental of P60.00 per hour is charged. This project, the first of its kind in the country, was made possible thru the donation of fifteen (15) wheelchairs by Miss Eulalia Lim, WDFP Vice-President for Programs.
Along side with Wheeler On the Go, WDFP also opened a Showcase For Products of PWD's at the ground floor of Building B of SM Megamall shopping center. This projet show cases the products produced by PWD's at Tahanang Walang Hagdanan in Cainta, Bahay Pangarap and Bahay Kakayahan in Novaliches. WDFP does not make any profit out of this sale except the satisfation that it has help persons with disability sell their products.
For PWD's who are intellectually capable of pursuing tertiary education especially those coming from familes witout adequate financial resources, WDFP has set-up in 1991 a Scholarship Endowment Fund at the University of the Philippines where it has estbalished a scholarship program since 1976. This Endowment Fund is held in trust by the UP Foundation and only the acrued annual interest in spent for the scholarship of two or three students with disability. The Scholarship grant is administered by the Scholarship Division of the Office of Student Affairs of the university.
Operation Wheelchair is a strategy to drum-up public support and sympathy for physically handicapped school children needing a wheelchair especially those in the rural areas of the country. It is a vision to provide every physcilly handicapped school child with a wheelchair, so he/she may have access to education. It is also a movement that hopes to generate and mobikize people and resources to help the poorest of the poor attain a level of education that will equip a physically handicapped child with appropriate scaled that will enable him/her to become economically productive and socially integrated individual.
Elementary and high school physically handicapped students will be the major recipient of this project which will be undertaken in cooperation with the number of cooperating agencies.
The DECS shall make a survey of the physically handicapped children who are of school age as well as those already attending schools to determine the number of those who are wheelchair bound. It will identify the recipients by school division and by region. It shall also provide a stockroom for the Wheelchair Bank which willb e managed jointly by WDFP and DECS.
The DFA, thru its embassies in London, Singapore, and Tokyo and consulates in Frankfurt, San Francisco and Los Angeles where there are PAL direct flights, shall assist in the campaign for wheelchair donation among the Filipino communities in these areas. It shall also arrange a meeting with the civic professionals and community leaders of the Filipinio community with any member of the WDFP board as the main speaker to appraise its audience with the problems and needs of disabled children and youth in the Philippines.
The PAL shall provide free transportation of wheelchairs collectedf in these places to be brought to Manila to te stockroom of the wheelchair bank at DECS. Not more than five (5) wheelchairs will be sent thru PAL in a single trip.
Mass media thru KBP, TV news and newspaper reports and columns shall assist to disseminate the information to make the public aware of the problems and needs of the physically handicapped.
Tha campaign for donation of wheelchair shall be done both locally and abroad. On the local level, individual pledges shall be solicited from prospective donors. Other possible sources of donations shall be explored among congressmen and senators thru their CDF funds.
On the international level, campaign for donation shall be undertakenoby WDFP Board Members who regularly travel outside the country thru speaking engagement at the Philippines Embassy or consulates in the countries visited.
A press conference will be held a day before the launching of the project in cooperation with DECS, DFA and PAL on Dec. 2, 1996 to coincide with the International Day of Persons With Disability. Five (5) wheelchairs shall be distributed to physically handicapped school children identified by DECS in five (5) regions.