One for All: Embracing the Least and the Littlest

CEBU, Philippines - While the average, every day twenty-something is driven to leap into a world of corporate madness and respond to the siren call of big bucks in big city jobs owned by society's few movers and shakers, Rolando Villamero Jr., 24, has chosen instead to commit his life to the moved and the shaken. While the average, every day twenty-something dreams of being one of the world's few have-lots, Junjun, as he is more popularly known in the community and among his circle of friends, dreams of providing inclusive education to many of the world's have-nots.

Come to think of it, Junjun is not the average, everyday twenty-something and his journey as a staunch advocate of inclusive education for persons with disabilities has been anything but average and every day. In one word, one would have to say that his five-year stint as the coordinator for inclusive education and advocacy programs at the Great Physician Rehabilitation Center in Dumaguete City has been serendipitous.

" The reason why I took up secondary education with a major in English back in 2008 was because I really didn't have the patience to deal with children; much more, children with disabilities," Junjun recalled. " I told my classmates before that I would never go into that kind of work. When my teacher, Mr. Jaruvic Raffols, talked to me about this opportunity to work at GPRehab in March of the same year, I clearly had second thoughts about it."

Life, however, started to take an unexpected turn for Junjun the moment he found himself at GPRehab on his first day as a teacher to children with disabilities. Despite the flurry of trying to figure out if he had made the right decision, he was assigned to teach a child with cerebral palsy, another one with an intellectual disability, and yet another who had Downe's Syndrome. 

With absolutely no background in special education, his first close encounter with persons with disabilities left him in fits of utter frustration. It wasn't until this same close encounter opened him up to their personal stories that fuelled him to seek a deeper understanding and eventually sow the seeds of love for the very same people he used to believe he had no patience and time for.

More than changing people's hearts and minds on persons with disabilities, Junjun's lifetime commitment is to make education available to everyone and to make sure that persons with disabilities are given equal opportunities to be enrolled in regular schools and to stay in school until they graduate.

With help from equally passionate advocates, teachers, and support systems, the drop-out rates of children with disabilities in regular elementary schools have shrank significantly. This and other efforts to set the agenda for persons with disabilities in Dumaguete City churned out a couple of possibilities that have slowly made the University Town a better place to live in for persons with disabilities, despite the notion that persons with disabilities comprise a stark minority of the population.

"It's not about the numbers. It's about the rights," Junjun asserted. "Besides, disabilities can be seen or unseen. Persons with disabilities are not just the people lacking an arm or a leg. Persons with disabilities could also be those who are suffering from depression or any other psycho-social problems. Disabilities can be inborn, but other times, they can be acquired later on in life. This means that you and I have the potential to be persons with disabilities at one point or another and this alone is enough reason for fighting for this advocacy."

Efforts have actually started to pay off with PWDs already becoming a mainstay on the agenda of Dumaguete's local government. In fact, not only is Dumaguete one of the first cities to have hired interpreters for the deaf; but a PWD Affairs Office has also been established.

" In the community level, it has been very rewarding to witness the raised awareness for PWDs. For example, in pedicabs, parents no longer complain because they are well accommodated by the drivers. In the buses, PWDs are already afforded the discounts they deserve," he said.

Although opening the hearts and the minds of teachers, parents, and the community on teaching and embracing children with disabilities has been a gargantuan task in itself, another bigger challenge looms ahead. Junjun however, is not balking.

"One of our struggles has been to change the attitudes of PWDs about themselves and their capabilities and potential to inspire change. Unlike the senior citizens and the LGBT community whose members take in the reigns to fight for their advocacies, it is a totally different case for PWDs. We want to put PWDs at the frontline on fighting for inclusive education and integration into society because they are the best people who can talk about what they are going through," Junjun surmised.

According to Junjun, the challenge is much more complicated than we think because poverty and the lack of resources also come into play, resulting in lack of opportunities for education, which eventually turns the wheel of this vicious cycle.

"More than 80% of PWDs are not professionals because they are products of no education, no jobs, and no opportunities. Education is empowerment. If you lack education, it is difficult to fight for your rights," said Junjun. " Apart from that, PWDs have many issues about themselves that need to be resolved because of all the negative comments that tend to pull down their self-esteem."

This realization led Junjun and GPRehab to launch the Outstanding Persons with Disabilities program in 2009 to recognize PWDs who have gone beyond the limitations of their disabilities and the dire circumstances in life, and who are living inspirations to others. There is absolutely no excuse from creating a positive change in society. The program eventually led to a core group of 35 members, empowering PWDs to fight for their rights.

Junjun's desire to take leaps and bounds to change the world for persons with disabilities saw him through opportunities to learn more about inclusive education and persons with disabilities through a scholarship in Europe. Apart from that, he is one of 15 young people in the United Nations Youth Advocacy Group who are working towards education for all.

Junjun admits though, that advocacy work in itself is hardly financially rewarding. Without any heart for the job, the average person would probably pack his or her things to be off for better opportunities. But he is no stranger to adversity and poverty, having come from a poor family from the hinterlands of Negros and having worked his way from Elementary School through College on scholarships and with barely enough to fill his stomach or pay the rent.

" I would say though, that there is no particular instance that became my turning point for going into this kind of advocacy because every day has given me a reason to stay," said Junjun, who believes that what his work lacks in terms of financial rewards, it makes up handsomely in terms of personal meaning and fulfilment.

Junjun believes that behind his advocacy is really the call to boost the morality of the nation as he looked back on Cardinal Roger Malhony's words. " He said that if we missed out on the marginalized, we are not a rich nation. Any society, any nation is judged based on how it treats its weakest members-the last, the least, the littlest."

" Sometimes, the problem lies in the fact that we are so negative and anxious on the abilities of the PWDs. It is not the disability or the impairment of the person that makes him a person with disabilities. It is the negative perception that disables the person and forfeits his opportunities," he concluded.

True enough, Junjun has always believed in one thing that so many other average, every day twenty-somethings tend to miss out on: that disabilities and poverty are simply just states of mind. (FREEMAN)