There are no evergreen trees on the island of Bohol in the Philippines so having a traditional Christmas tree is out of the question. This means that every year the kids up at IDEA’s Bohol Deaf Academy “build”a Christmas. This year they decided to use a native grass and bamboo as the base materials. The students first built the supporting structure for the tree out of bamboo and then cover it with grass. This turned out to be a lesson in engineering because their first attempt collapsed in a heap. As you see, the second attempt is much better. Even the animals in the manger scene are made from grass. Good job kids.
Maasin City, Southern Leyte, Philippines, August 21, 2011
Hundreds of deaf children live in isolation in the mountains of Southern Leyte with no chance for an education because of distance and economics. There is only one practical solution to providing them schooling and that is to bring them down to a Special Education Center and give them a place to live while schooling. This has been the strategic starting point for an amazing collaborative effort of establishing a dormitory for deaf children in Maasin, Southern Leyte.
The partners in this project are IDEA, Maasin Department of Education, and Faith Chapel of Billings, Montana. IDEA has provided the road map, coordination and man power, the Department of Education has provided an abandoned building, and Faith Chapel donated $10,000 and sent a team of volunteers to rehab the building.
For the past two years this abandoned building has been used to grow earth worms and produce organic fertilizer. Although it is a worthwhile project, it was a waste of a very good building. It was filled to knee high with soil. On August 9th, a group of 12 Faith Chapel volunteers arrived to take on the challenge of rehabilitating the building. The first thing they did was to wade into the piles of soil, bag it up and transport it out. Some of these bags weighed over 100 pounds and this work took place during a rainstorm. With the roof leaking badly, the soil quickly turned into mud.
IDEA Philippines also sent a team of ten (10) men from its construction group to work side by side with the American volunteers. Most of the men on the IDEA team are deaf and former students under IDEA’s education program.
The entire roof and ceiling of the building needed to be replaced so a group of women on the Montana team were tasked with painting 150 sheets of plywood. With all the mud and paint flying around the work site, by the end of the second day the Montana Team had earned the title of “THE DIRTY DOZEN”.
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THE DIRTY DOZEN Chip Crees and Ron Todd
This post is being put up on August 21st and the teams are still working on the building rehab project. The work is being documented by professional videographer, Mark Hanson from Faith Chapel so additional post will be up soon on the continuing progress of the team.
The Faith Chapel team headed back to the U.S. last night leaving Manila about 10:00PM. Although they had to be exhausted after the incredible week of work they put in on the new dormitory, they were in remarkably good spirits. As Ron put it, this rather eclectic group had really become a team and he gave all the credit to Jesus.
It was unclear from the beginning of the work on the dorm as to how extensive the renovation was to be. It was only after the ceilings came down, the old roof taken off, and wall panels removed that they could see the termite damage. It turned out to be significant. Additional trusses had to be made and walls replaced. Despite these additional tasks, the team saw 2/3rds of the work on the dorm completed before they had to leave. The two bedrooms, boy’s and girl’s sides, were clearly defined as well as the kitchen / dining area and the living room area. All the ceilings and walls were in place as well as all the electrical lines were installed. Oh, and we should NOT forget the removal of nearly 8 tons of garbage and soil from the inside and out side of the building.
IDEA’s work crew will now finish up the work on the dorm in hopefully about 10 more days.
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.
For many years we have been dreaming of having a well equipped computer lab at Bohol Deaf Academy. Our attempts have been based on used computers that were outdated by the time we got them. Even so we did the best with what we had but time, humidity, and heat are not kind to electronic at our school so that 90% of those old computers have totally died.
The Consuelo Foundation has come to the rescue with not only new computers but also a whole list of e-skills modules for teaching vocational skills. This list of skills range from cooking to welding . . . from sewing to carpentry . . . . from electronic to landscaping. The manner in which these courses are presented on computer provide our deaf students with individual, independent study allowing them to progress at their own rate. Along with the computer e-skills training, the students are then put into actual environments such as kitchens, wood or metal shops, hotels, sewing rooms, etc., etc. to gain practice hands on experience.
Each May we survey the mountains on the islands of Bohol and Leyte for deaf children who have never been in school. The survey only lasts a week and is carried out by the teachers. This means they spend many hours riding on the back of motorcycles into the most remote mountain jungles in search of these children. It is a big job to convince parent to bring there handicapped children down to school.
Not all the children found during the surveys will actually report to enroll in classes. Although June 6 is the official day that the 2011 – 12 school year starts, many of the new enrollees will trickle in over a two to three week period.
From the priliminary reports from the eight elementary schools where IDEA supports classrooms for the Deaf, more than 60 children have entered our kindergarten classes last week. It is expected that this number will grow over the next two weeks.
This means that our expected enrollment of deaf children in all grades will be over 450 students this school year.
Faces of New Prep Deaf Students
These are just a few of the new prep deaf students who have just entered school for the first time in Maasin, Southern Leyte. They come with almost no language skills. This is true regardless if they are five years old like the boy on the left or 14 years old like the boy on the right. They have a tough climb ahead of them but are so excited to have the chance to attend school. IDEA is making this possible.
