Partners

Life Giving Forest e.V. (LGF)

Foundation for These-Abled Persons Inc. (FTI) and Life Giving Forest e.V. (LGF) formed a partnership starting in 2012 up to now to have successfully implemented activities in the Philippines where persons with disabilities were knowledgeable and empowered to engage in reforestation, natural farming, and environmental protection. They combine their resources and efforts to reach out to emerging and existing organizations for persons with disabilities by providing capacity development, technical support, and financial resources to build and strengthen local organizations capable of making a difference in acting while addressing global issues of social injustice, environmental degradation, diversity loss and changing climate. In this journey, they are working on jointly agreed plans to develop considering local needs, sustainable practices, and available resources. This partnership would like to continue and possibly expand activities where persons with disabilities take a leading role in the restoration of nature of degraded land, environmental education of local societies, and applying sustainable practices in agriculture and forestry for income and resource generation while recreating diverse and healthy ecosystems. FTI and LGF respond to emergencies caused by natural disasters and provide reasonable accommodation to staff and stakeholders to participate and contribute to the activities within the means available. A total of 298,438.08 euros was supplied for the partnership grant to the project to engage persons with disabilities in Hindang and Sta. Fe, Leyte, Cateel, Davao Oriental and Agusan del Sur. Nowadays, persons with disabilities in those areas actively participate in reforestation, organic farming, and committing to their community.

CBM

CBM (Christian Blind Mission in Germany) & FTI partnership in 12 years from 2009 to 2021 benefited 2,225 individual people with disabilities and granted total amount of 593,000 euros.

The CBM is the founding partner of Foundation for Theseabled Persons Inc in 2009, funded the initial operation cost and the bond requirements for the registration in Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).

CBM supported projects and programs are as follows:

Purchased the 329 sqm residential lot and constructed 2 storey, accessible building with roof deck for persons with disability facility for capacity training and accommodation in Cainta, Rizal, Philippines

Post disaster rehabilitation, sustainable livelihood and model Inclusive Community with Persons with Disabilities in Cagayan De Oro, Mindanao. Constructed 50 houses and workshop for the persons with disabilities affected by Tropical Storm Washi or locally known as “Bagyong Sendong”

New Zealand Disaster Response Partnership with CBM and FTI constructed Permanent Shelter for Vulnerable People Affected by Typhoon Bopha or locally known as “ Bagyong Pablo” in Cateel Davao Oriental, Mindanao. Out of the 50 housing beneficiaries, fifty percent (50%) are women and fifty percent are men. Constructions of 50 shelters were completed, 7PWDs with wheelchairs were provided with accessible ramps

Social Enterprise and Economic Empowerment for Persons With Disabilities

CBM partly covers the start-up capital of organized DPO’s as well as the product exhibit and bazaar that will promote the livelihood of persons with disabilities.

Partnership with government agencies and FTI’s active participation in the coalition of Social Enterprise (SE) to lobby in the Congress the law that will benefit persons with disabilities on social enterprose is highly encouraged. Networking and partnership with the private agencies and organizations are essential that could contribute awareness to the public about employment of personswith disabilities as well as support for the bill

CBM Philippine Livelihood and Social Enterprise Programme to complement CBR/DID Programmes in partnership with Adaptive Technology for Rehabilitation, Integration and Empowerment of the Visually Impaired (ATRIEV), De La Salle College of St. Benilde (DLS-CSB), Foundation for These-Abled Persons Inc. (FTI), Leonard Cheshire Disability Philippines Foundation Inc. (LCDPFI). Overall objective: Economically independent and productive persons with disability who are contributing to the growth of the country:

Facilitate employment and livelihood of persons with disability towards economically independent and productive persons with disability who are contributing to the growth of the country:

Through the cooperative approach, around 400 ( 575 FTI target) persons with disability were provided job and livelihood opportunities and projects that are income generating.

b. The strong networking and partnership efforts done by FTI provided resources and funding equipment for the livelihood projects of persons with disability such partnership with DOLE, DSWD (SLP), Metrobank Foundation, BPI foundation, BDO Foundation and other partners that provided funds and equipment for persons with disability, Life Giving Forest etc.

c. Around 300 persons with disability were trained on various Entrepreneurship trainings for Cooperatives to enhance their capacity for business management. Such training have improved the sales and productivity of the social enterprises and cooperatives for persons with disability

d. Positive receptions of lawmakers on the Social Enterprise Bill as a result of the active lobbying of FTI along with the members of the coalition. Once enacted into a law, the social enterprise will create positive impact and benefits to the cooperatives of persons with disability

e. Initial engagement with mainstream employers such as Telus, ANZ etc were initiated to help facilitate the employment of persons with disability through Sensitivity Trainings and job referrals.

2020 & 2021 has been a challenging year for all of us due to COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in the delay of project implementation and shifted the livelihood, employment and training activities to digital platforms. With the new normal situation, livelihood partners have maximized the various social media platforms to continue the project activities. Livelihood partners revisited the training modules and adapted the online delivery of training to respond to the pressing needs of persons with disabilities, public and private organizations. In spite of the difficulties of online activities, livelihood partners were able to expand their coverage and reach more persons with disabilities to participate in online training, livelihood and employment activities. The downside of online platforms is some of the persons with disabilities do not have gadgets, lack or limited internet access and insufficient knowledge which impeded them to take the opportunity to hone their skills and be employed or start/continue their business venture. On the other hand, there’s a change of priorities of some of existing partners from government, academic institutions, civil society

CBM & FTI partnership ended December 31, 2021

Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Deutschland e.V. (ASB)

Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Deutschland e.V. (ASB) in partnership with Foundation for These-Abled Persons Inc. under the ASB Philippines Community Resilience Programme over the grant period starting on 2015 and ending last May 2022 with a total of three phases. The project-specific objective is that Empowered persons with disabilities are leaders and equal participants in socio-economic activities leading to increasingly resilient inclusive communities. The expected vital outcomes of understanding disability rights and issues among local government and civil society actors are improved, and Improved skills and capacities allow persons with disabilities to better contribute and participate in increasingly inclusive socio-economic activities.

The project aims to contribute to building resilient communities, and this can only happen if there is an inclusion of people with disabilities and a change in the mindset of people with disabilities and their communities. The project will facilitate diverse livelihood opportunities for people with disability as a strategy for their inclusion or participation. Along with this, the project continues to embark on capacity building for people with disabilities so that they will be the ones to lead the transformation process. FTI continues to implement various activities to reach the targets for the project. Capacity-building training in the 18 barangays in 9 municipalities was implemented in Leyte, with specific exercises on budget preparations for local government and disability rights awareness-raising training.

Organizing persons with disability into associations is one of the significant activities which started already since such is an important undertaken to ensure the sustainability of empowerment efforts FTI continues to facilitate business support to the six existing cooperatives and the formation of new groups of cooperatives or livelihood groups. The community savings mechanisms are used as the entry point in organizing persons with disability towards the construction of livelihood groups or cooperatives. The six existing cooperatives, although they were experiencing challenges, they were able to revive operations based on current capacity after challenges had been addressed. Before the partnership ended, ASB provided emergency response to the victims of Typhoon Rai (Bagyong Odette) a total of 26,667 euros. A total of 833,333.33 euros was supplied for the partnership grant to the project to help persons with disabilities in Leyte. As of now, persons with disabilities in Leyte are actively participating in various topics in their community.

SM Foundation and BDO Foundation

SM Foundation

SM Foundation is a partner of Foundation for These-Abled Persons Inc. for so many years. SM Foundation have been providing opportunity to FTI through purchase orders on making the student’s school chairs, teacher’s table and chair. Purchase order were made by Persons with Disabilities that was supported by FTI. All the cooperatives of Persons with Disabilities nationwide was making this purchase order from scrap to the finish product. This Partnership helps the Persons with Disabilities and their families to provide income to sustain their everyday lives and be economically independent.

BDO Foundation

When Typhoon Hayan strikes the Philippines, Foundation for These-Abled Persons Inc and BDO Foundation held its partnership to help Persons with Disabilities who are affected by the typhoon. Most of the houses were destroyed due to the power of the said typhoon. BDO Foundation donated 15,680,800.00 Pesos to be exact to help on building and constructing new houses of the victims and survivors of the typhoon. The construction of One hundred (100) shelter units.

Tuklas

In times of disaster, vulnerable groups such as persons with disability face much greater risk than others. They have higher vulnerability because of the various barriers they face in responding to disasters due to their functional limitations. Despite this higher risk and exposure on the part of persons with disability, many existing disaster risk reduction strategies remain unresponsive to the needs of persons with disability to this date. A related project is being implemented by the Foundation for These Abled Persons Inc. (FTI) in Barangay BakodBayan, Cabanatuan City Nueva Ecija, titled Engage and Empower Persons with Disability in Mainstreaming Disability Inclusive DRRM, which Tuklas Innovation Lab, CSL support. The purpose of the project is to provide capacity to persons with disability to engage and mainstream disability inclusion in DRRM, specifically in barangay Bakodbayan, towards increasing their power and reducing their vulnerabilities in times of disaster. Capacity-building activities through training were done with the partner community organization Nueva Ecija Association of Persons with Disability (NEAP) and with other members of the persons with disability association at Barangay Bakodbayan. A total of Php 775,350 was funded for the implementation of this project.