'Ephpheta' (Be opened)

For a change and as a refreshing and timely respite from all the negative, disgusting, news currently saturating media, let us focus our attention and give due recognition to other more worthy and noble causes and pursuits that have been relegated to the background. Since this week or last week is supposed to be the week for the handicapped, more worthy of our attention and citation are those organizations helping the handicapped like the Ephpheta Foundation for the Blind Inc. which is celebrating its 42nd founding anniversary.

The Foundation is called Ephpheta, which is an Aramaic word meaning “Be opened”, that Jesus uttered in healing a deaf-mute man along the sea of Galillee (Mark 7:34). “Be opened” is obviously such a broad and all encompassing phrase that can also be aptly applied to and associated with the healing of the blind and visually impaired, not only physically but also spiritually that Jesus also did during His three years public ministry.

Ephpheta Foundation is a non-government social service organization with the vision-mission of helping blind persons to re-integrate themselves back to society as interactive and useful members. It maintains three major programs aimed at achieving literacy for the blind, giving them livelihood, and of course, preventing blindness. It’s spanking main office and facilities are located at the compound of the National Vocational Rehabilitation Center (NVRC), Padre Burgos Street, Barangay Escopa, Project 4, Quezon City. It also has a Seminar Center in a 500 square meter property in Hermosa, Bataan serving as perfect venue for seminars, weekend retreats and marriage encounters.

For its literacy program, the Foundation has designed a parallel alternative learning system (ALS) that provides a practical option to the existing formal education. The ALS includes both formal and non-formal sources of knowledge and skills, with teaching and learning processes and materials based on a curriculum comparable to the formal school curriculum. It reflects the set of skills and competencies that learners should develop to meet the minimum requirements of basic education. ALS learning sessions using interactive modules are usually conducted in community learning centers at schedules agreed between learners and facilitators. ALS evolved from the Rehabilitation and Skills Training Program put up by the Foundation 30 years ago which is a six months training activity, addressing the special needs of the visually impaired by using life skills and active learning approaches to enhance their social, aesthetic, cultural, recreational, spiritual and personal development. The program helps them to cope with their impairment and to overcome the challenges by giving them not just a fighting chance but a competitive edge. On its 42nd anniversary, the Foundation is updating the resources of its Braille Library and offering short courses in Computer 101.

For its community and livelihood program, the Foundation has a housing project with social hall and chapel in Bagong Nayon, Antipolo City sheltering 104 families of the homeless blind. Then a Blind Homeowners Consumers’ Cooperative was organized by the beneficiaries of the   housing project so that the members can earn extra income and avail of basic commodities at less cost. Even upon death, the Foundation also helps by providing free coffins.

Also part of its livelihood program are the review and licensure sessions in preparation for the licensure examinations conducted by the Department of Health (DOH) and the NCT. It also operates facilities providing livelihood such as the Ladies Dorm, the Sun Room, the Spa, the Coffee Shop, kitchen and the IT Training Room which will be redesigned and renovated under the project “Tanglaw” of the UP Diliman Interior Design Class of 2010. Its new program on the 42nd anniversary is to use the Spa as training facility to give trainees a comprehensive training in massage for a more conducive environment. It is also developing new technologies for IT training in collaboration with Ateneo School of Science and Engineering. Its latest economic livelihood program is the “Aklat Ulat at Panulat” sponsored by Pondong Pinoy.

Another major project is the Blindness Prevention Program that was put in place in 1993 to help Filipinos get medical eye treatment especially free cataract operations. It started through simple referral of patients with eye problems at the nearby Quirino Hospital. Now it has served over 50,000 cataract patients in 12 base hospitals with some 115 volunteer ophthalmologists continuing the program. It has also established partnership with several medical training institutions and socio-civic organizations conducting outreach missions in far flung provinces and communities that normally would not have access to ophthalmologic services. On its anniversary, the Foundation will be opening an eye center within its grounds named “Bahay Mulat Mata”.

After 42 years, Ephpheta Foundation has really grown like a tiny mustard seed into a giant tree providing “shade” in the form of needed assistance to the handicapped especially the blind and their families. It is as if it is also giving “sight” to the blind through the “balancing act of holding on to them, letting them depend on every lead, and at the same time teaching them to be independent, to find their own way and cope with everyday challenges”. Among the Foundation’s partners in pursuing its dreams for the blind are the Christian Blind Mission, Cataract Foundation of the Philippines, DSWD, Volunteer Ladies of Ephpheta, Rotary Clubs of Dasmarinas-Makati and Loyola Heights, Pagcor, PCSO and the Christian Family Movement (CFM).

But the story Ephpheta is actually tied up to is the life story of a man who is as “obsessed” in helping and serving the blind as to practically spend almost all of his life as a priest sowing the seed of the Foundation, nurturing and seeing it grow into full bloom through the years. He is Fr. Jesus V. Fernandez, S.J. who also used to write in the Phil STAR column “God’s Word Today”. He has served for many years as Chaplain in Marriage Encounter Weekends and CFM Units. Presently he is still a very active Rotarian rendering various humanitarian services. Fr. Jess, as he is fondly called, truly represents the One referred to in Isaiah 42:16: “And I shall lead the blind in a way they know not; in paths they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough spaces into level ground. These are the things I will do and I will not forsake them.” 

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