LISTEN TO THEIR STORY

Rotary PID scholars: (standing) Hanna Olivares,
Charles Munoz, Marjobelle Estrologo;
(sitting) JV Cielos, Kirvy Tejada, Daryl Pilotin

It’s a bright Monday morning. Elementary and high school students line up at the school grounds for the flag-raising ceremony. A young lady goes in front to conduct and leads the singing of the National Anthem while the Philippine Flag is being slowly raised on the flagpole. With right hand on chest, every pupil sings “Lupang Hinirang” with energy. This may look like a regular flag ceremony but it is not—because this kids singing in unison actually have hearing and speech problems.

They are students of the Philippine Institute for the Deaf (PID), a school founded in 1988 by the late Dr. Sergia G. Esguerra, considered as the “Mother of Special Education in the Philippines”, and her daughter Julie, an outstanding special education and speech correction teacher.

PID teaches persons with speech and auditory problems to speak and communicate like individuals with normal hearing. The system that the institution is called oral education—a training on how each sound is produced through mouth and tongue positioning, drawing of speech profile, feeling the vibration of vocal and nasal muscles, transcribing visually hard words, and hand analogy of mouth movements. It includes endless speech drills and constant feedback on how to master the everyday language through one-on-one speech therapy classes with the help of powerful hearing aids. PID also conducts auditory training activities that teach the students how to interpret, master, and respond to what they hear in their environment.

Hanna shows a sample
 of her artwork compiled
in her sketchpad

According to the World Health Organization, 360 million people (5.3 percent of the world’s population) suffer from disabling hearing loss. Thirty-two million (nine percent)  of them are children.  The report also indicated that the prevalence of hearing loss in both adults and children is greatest in the regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Asia Pacific, which includes the Philippines.

For 15 years, the Rotary Club of Makati has been helping PID with scholarships as well as donations of learning facilities, like computers, through the initiative of Cesar Campos, past club president.

Evelyn S. Cataga, PID assistant director and marketing manager, acknowledges these significant contributions of Rotary for their continued operation. There are a number of students who belong to poor families that could not afford the high cost of special education in the said institution and the school only receives minimal assistance from the government.

This is why the management, faculty, and scholars of PID are indeed grateful that Rotary is always there to hear their plea and help them.

Training Techniques

Jasmine Concepcion
and PID Acting Principal
Maricris Ibayan

Aside from the speech therapy and classes, PID teaches its students academic subjects according to the K+12  curriculum of the Department of Education in a more simplified approach.

Maricris P. Ibayan, curriculum planer and acting principal, said the institution emphasizes on helping the students live normal lives by building their confidence, an essential factor in developing their speaking skills, and to be comfortable in interacting with other individuals.

Ibayan added that they also stress upon the parents that speech development practices should not only be done in school to further the child’s progress. “We always remind the parents to constantly work out their children’s speech and confidence even at home so they won’t be discriminated against. Persons with normal hearing get harassed or bullied, how much more those who have hearing problems? So we advise them to give their child more experience and exposure to boost  their self esteem,” Ibayan said.

Whenever the PID faculty sees a potential talent in a student, they assist him to develop it. Like they are doing to grade eight student Jasmine Concepcion, 15, the girl who led the singing of the National Anthem earlier. 

Students do some exercise

Jasmine expressed her passion for music despite her congenital hearing impairment. It is really difficult for her to hear sounds. So to cope, she relies mostly on lip-reading or sign language in communicating without hearing aid. And yet, she aspires to be a music artist someday like her idol, Taylor Swift.

According to Cataga, PID is training Jasmine to further improve her talent, with the hope that someone from the music industry would notice her and help the young lady live her dream.

Normal Lives

Jasmine’s case is not a frist for PID. A former student, Denisse Lincuando, turn out to be the first deaf ballerina of Ballet Manila, the company of prima ballerina Liza Macuja-Elizalde.  (Check her
 amazing ballet performance in the video below)

Aside from Lincuando, there are other PID alumni who are now professionals and entrepreneurs, proving that they could succeed in life like normal people.

Lisa Madeja lecturing her pupils

Another alumna the institute is proud of is Lisa Madeja, 29, who now teaches math, languages, speech, reading, writing, music, arts, and physical education to kindergarten pupils at the PID.

Madeja, deaf since birth, is a graduate of computer technology and early childhood development and education at Miriam College. She shares that her hard working parents and former instructors at the PID inspired her to persevere in reaching her goals, a trait she wishes for her pupils as well.

For more information about PID and how you can help their students, please visit their website: www.pidmanila.com.

(Photos by: Carmen Dela Serna)

Originally published in Philippine Rotary magazine, December 2014