Julius Rosalinda of Tagum, Davao del Norte, a person with disability (PWD), has made the Philippines and the Filipinos proud with his winning silver in the 9th Abilympics last March 24-25 in Bordeaux, France.

Abilympics – the Olympics of Abilities – is the “world’s largest skills competition for persons with disabilities” held every four years.

The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) told the Manila Bulletin in an email message yesterday that Rosalinda won the Silver Medal and the Excellence Award in the Waste Re-use Category, his specialty.

The Davao del Norte native was the grand champion in the Philippines’ “Kakayahan 2014: National Skills Competition of Persons with Disabilities.”

Rosalinda loves to tinker with discards he can lay his creative hands on and to try to transform them into useful devices.

In the 2014 “Kakayahan” contest in the Philippines, Rosalinda won in Waste Re-use with his entry of a well-crafted candleholder.

In the two-day competition in Europe with over 600 participants from five continents, he won the Silver Medal and the Excellence Award in the Wase Re-use, lawyer Teodoro Pascua, deputy director general of TESDA, said,without, however, specifying what his entry was.

Pascua said the Excellence Award is the equivalent to the Best of Countries Award given out in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Skills Competition held every two years.

The TESDA official said Rosalinda’s eight other fellow PWD participants in the Philippine Team “did honorably well, too.” He also did not specify the honors won by the team members.

The other team mates and the category in which they competed were: Annie Rose L. Rumbaua, 22, orthopedically handicapped, cooking; Jennifer L. Garca, 38, orthopedically handicapped, word processing; Jerome F. Marzan, creating web pages; Preciosa Paz S. Quinio, hearing impaired, outdoor photography; Edmundo O. Balan, 48, orthopedically handicapped, painting and decoration; Aurora Porras, 52, orthopedically handicapped, floral arrangement; Jannet G. Saladoris, visually impaired, bakery and cake decoration; and Adam Rey L. Pantinople, orthopedically handicapped, desktop publishing.

The nine team mates are all champions in the 2014 “Kakayahan” competition.

Accompanied by Pascua, who was listed as judge in the Abilympics and other other government officials, the Philippine Team left Manila on March 21.

TESDA said the Abilympics is also called the Olympics of Abilities for Persons with Disabilities, a competition that traces its beginning in 1972 in Japan.

The Japanese Association for the Employment of the Disabled (JAED) organized the first international competition in 1981 in cooperation with Rehabilitation International (RI), following the United Nations’ declaration in that year of the International Year of Disabled Persons.

Subsequent Abilympics were held in Bogota, Colombia, in 1985; in Hong Kong in 1991, in in Perth, Australia, in 1995, in Prague, Czech Republic; 2000, in New Delhi, India, in 2003, and in Shizuoka, Japan, In 2007.

The Philippines started participating in the Abilympics in Hong Kong 1981, when and Filipino PWDs brought home bronze medals and special citations.

Pascua cited the need for the government to really push its programs for the PWDs, saying, “They should be made to feel they are not alone and that they are being taken care of.”

He called for special programs for the education and livelihood of PWDs. He suggested that the presidential candidates in the May 9 election should discuss respective programs for PWDs.

Aside from TESDA, organizers of the Philippine participation in the Abilympics were Abilympics Philippines, Inc.; the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD); and the National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA).

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Edd K. Usman

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