Manila, Philippines – To strengthen the capacity of social work practitioners in member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in implementing quality social services for persons with disabilities (PWDS), the Philippines, through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), will host the ASEAN Program Evaluation and Planning Conference for  PWDs on April 2 to 4, 2014.

Around 40 participants from Brunei Darrusalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, , Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam will attend the conference.

For three days, participants will share and exchange good practices on the provision of social services to PWDs. They will also evaluate existing programs as well as develop new strategies to improve service delivery.

Social services for PWDs include assistance in the acquisition of prosthetic devices and medical intervention of specialty services, provision of specialized training activities, counseling, family care services, after care services and day care services for disabled children of pre-school age.

DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman emphasized that there is a need for closer collaboration among ASEAN member-countries to share information, knowledge, skills, experiences, and expertise to effectively and efficiently implement social services for PWDs.

In the Philippines,  DSWD is the main government agency tasked to implement social services for PWDs such as the Early Detection, Prevention, and Intervention of Disability (EDPID); Social and Vocational Rehabilitation Program; Tuloy Aral Walang Sagabal (TAWAG) Project; Community-Based Day Care for Children with Autism; and, Work Center/Sheltered Workshop for upper trainable clients.

In close partnership with its attached agency, the National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA), DSWD also implements the Non-Handicapping Environment (NHE) Project where PWDs are integrated into the mainstream of the community allowing them to fully participate in all community activities.

Moreover, the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer (MCCT) includes families with children with disabilities aged 0-14 as beneficiaries of the program.

The Philippines also enforces laws  that provide for the rights, benefits, and privileges of PWDs such as the Magna Carta for Persons with Disabilities (Republic Act 9442) and the Accessibility Law (Batas Pambansa Bilang 344), among others. ###