FIRST BATCH OF MAYON STOVES

July 5, 2011

Perla Manapol (pictured at the left) is the president of an organization known as Sustainable Rural Enterprises based in Aklan, Philippines.  Her fervour to help the poor and at the same time helping the environment is contagious.  She initially infected Ambassador Benny Tan (pictured on the right) with the concept of stoves that burn waste materials giving the masses an alternative to cutting down trees for fuel.  In turn Ambassador Tan infected Dennis Drake and Juviro Hagup  (pictured in the center) of IDEA Philippines with the vision.  Now a group of deaf men working with IDEA Philippines are producing these wonderful rice hull burning stoves.  Ambassador Tan even gave a grant  for 100 stoves which will then be made available to low income people on Bohol.  IDEA hopes to introduce these stoves in Leyte and employ some of the deaf high school graduates there as well.

So here stands the team of promoters behind the first batch of Mayon stoves to come off the still crude but improving, assembly line at the IDEA Philippines shop.  It was great to have Perla to demonstrate the proper way to use the stoves and give the IDEA staff tips on marketing them.  In her demonstration of the stove and only using rice hulls as fuel, she was able to get one liter of water to a boil in only six minutes.  That’s a hot fire.

Ambassador Tan demonstrates lighting technique for the stove.

Deaf Church at Tiptip, Tagbilaran City

Missionaries Johnny and Veronica Dunnington arrived in Bohol in 1990 and after 10 years of work, opened the doors to the Tiptip Deaf Church in 2000.  Just one year later they were called back to the States and IDEA inherited the property and responsibility for its operation.  IDEA was happy to be able to bring Veronica, the founder, back as the guest speaker for the church’s anniversary this past October 3.  Veronica is also Deaf so she gave her message in sign language to the 130 person deaf congregation.

Veronica’s daughter Tiffany joined her in returning to Bohol to assist in establishing a ministry for hearing children of deaf parents.  Johnny Dunnington was gracious enough to allow Veronica to stay in Bohol for three months to reinvigorate the church and help them build a more family oriented minisitry.

Dennis Drake and two young instructors with hearing children of deaf parents.
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Dennis Drake and two young instructors with hearing children of deaf parents.

It is said that the family is the basic unit of society. It is where we first feel the sense of belongingness and love. It’s the first place where we learn the importance of acceptance and communication.

But what happens when you belong to a home where one of your parents or even both of them is deaf? Will that mean that you can never experience that moment where you can confide to your father how to court a girl? Or that mother-daughter talks on how to handle the pressures of growing up?

That may not always be the case. Because it is one of IDEA Philippines’ goals to improve family functioning and successful reintegration of the deaf into their families and communities.

Thus last October 28-30, 2010, a group of ten enthusiastic teens, from ages 11 to 19 years old, all with deaf parents, gathered at Dao Diamond Hotel for a 3-day training to enhance their sign language and interpreting skills.

The said activity was organized by IDEA through its social worker Argen Ajos and facilitated by Nueva Niña Nahial and Vera Marie Nahial, IDEA-sponsored students taking up the SPED course, to help these kids communicate more openly with their parents and to serve as interpreters when requested by the other deaf.

It is one of the organization’s plans to establish a group of interpreters who can readily assist the deaf when interacting with the hearing community especially when in the market, hospital, police or when dealing with private or government offices. This will also serve as a source of income for the children since they will be paid if they will serve as an interpreter.

Activities undertaken during the 3-day affair were lessons on sign language and re-enactment of certain scenarios where they applied their knowledge of the sign language and interpreting skills. They also had an exposure tour to hospitals and important government agencies such as the Social Security System (SSS) office, Health Insurance office (Philhealth), Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), among others. Before the culmination, an evaluation was conducted among the participants to assess whether they learned from the activity and to identify what areas they need to improve. They also had an open forum where the children shared their experiences of growing up with deaf parents and their realizations. As a conclusion to the memorable experience, the children were treated to a movie at Island City Mall, where they continued their bonding with their new-found friends and shared a few laughs.

With the success of the activity, the organizers are now planning for a possibility of holding similar trainings in the days to come. After all, IDEA believes that: “A family that signs together stays together.”