NLAB School for the Blind

By Maurice Malanes (Inquirer Northern Luzon, 2 June 2009)

TWO years ago, a US Navy retiree was looking for the Tahanang Walang Hagdanan, a house for persons with physical disabilities, in Baguio City so he could offer his help, but the driver of the cab he took brought him instead to the school of the Northern Luzon Association of the Blind (NLAB).

The man did not turn his back, however. After assessing the needs of the blind children, the retiree, who preferred not to be named, volunteered to supply the school with four sacks of rice monthly and to provide dinner every Monday for the 39 children under its care.

He has been doing this since and has pledged to continue helping when the school year opens this month.

For Dona Rosario, NLAB president and executive director, the taxi driver’s mistake was serendipity. “Who knows the retiree was led by the Holy Spirit?” she says.

Quiet benefactors

An Indian couple has been doing the same thing, providing snacks or lunch once a week for the children.

This breed of quiet benefactors has kept afloat northern Luzon’s only school for the blind, especially at a time when its overseas donors had reduced their funding, says Rosario.

The school offers free elementary education to visually impaired children in northern and central Luzon and continues to encourage parents to enroll their blind children there.

Graduates cross into regular high schools and later pursue university or college education, or technical or vocational courses, such as health massage.

Economic crisis

The NLAB’s future, Rosario says, is at stake because its donors are also affected by the global economic crisis. The school is supported by the Christoffel Blinden Mission (CBM), a church-based German donor; Heinz Woelke Foundation; the Diocese of Baguio-Benguet; and other local civic, educational and religious groups and individuals.

Last year, the CBM provided nearly half of the needs of the pupils. This school year, it pledged only 33 percent, saying the current economic crunch affected its supporters among the low-income European parishioners, says Rosario.

The NLAB spends P6,500 for each child monthly or P253,500 for the 39 pupils enrolled last school year. With the reduced funding, it has to initiate fund drives to sustain its mission.

Rosario is hoping that more people will follow the examples set by the Navy retiree and the Indian couple. “Many people in both government and the private sector have yet to appreciate that if these visually impaired are educated they can become productive [members of society],” she says.

She cites blind couple Rolando and Martha Bitaga, who teach academic subjects, including music, at the NLAB school. Both are graduates of the school.

Other graduates have established their own massage clinics, helping reduce the number of beggars in the city, says Rosario.

The NLAB faces another difficulty this school year. Its lease on the lot along the Marcos Highway, where its two-story school has stood since 1985, will expire this month, forcing the school to relocate to a smaller house on Bokawkan Road.

Repair work of the practically dilapidated house is not Rosario’s only concern. She also has to face complaints of neighbors who claim that the front fence mended by the NLAB workers was illegal because it was not covered by a building permit.

The irony of it, says Rosario, is that the complainants are encroaching on parts of the NLAB property.

Rosario did her homework. Citing a historical document showing the original fence, she explained to city authorities that the NLAB was just involved in restoration work.

At times, Rosario feels like giving up. A former nun who refused to get paid for her services, she says her difficulties and trials sometimes stress her out, giving her hypertension.

“I cannot just abandon these children,” she says. “They are my inspiration.”

Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20090602-208499/Donors-help-keep-school-for-blind-afloat