Maguindanao launches program for children with special needs

• Source: http://www.philstar.com/nation/2017/09/02/1735141/maguindanao-launches-program-children-special-needs
• Sunday, September 3, 2017

By John Unson (philstar.com)

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — The provincial government has pioneered a continuing intervention program for special children and their caregivers.

The office of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu held at the capitol in Buluan town from August 29 to 31 a workshop on early interventions for children with special needs.

The activity involved more than a hundred special children, caretakers and parents as part of an effort to generate public consciousness on interventions essential to the full assimilation into mainstream society of “special kids” from Maguindanao’s 36 towns.

The project, bankrolled with a grant from the provincial government, was organized by the Maguindanao People’s Medical Team.

The team is operating under the joint control of Mangudadatu and his chief budget aide, Lynette Estandarte.

“We are thankful to all those who helped make the activity become successful,” Estandarte said on Saturday.

The special children who participated in the workshop were from Maguindanao’s Muslim, Christian and Lumad communities.

North Upi Mayor Ramon Piang, a chieftain in Maguindanao’s non-Muslim Teduray highland community, said his administration will support the provincial government’s intervention program for special children.

Vice Gov. Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, concurrent social welfare secretary of ARMM, also pledged to help push the program forward.

Maguindanao is a component province of ARMM.

Parents and caregivers of children who joined the workshop were lectured by experts on techniques on how to improve the learning capacity of “special kids.”

Estandarte said they intend to embark on another workshop after an evaluation of the progress of children who participated in their three-day activity in Buluan town.