A Bright Future For The Blind

Blind students during their RBI class session.

DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 01 Jul) - Being not able to see with your eyes is perhaps one of the most feared by many people, especially in the Philippines, where there are more than 500,000 people who are either blind or visually impaired.

Most people think that blindness or being visually impaired is the end of one's quest for a successful life.

But for the Resources for the Blind Incorporated (RBI), a private corporation that helps the blind and the visually impaired to live a normal life and become successful in the society, there is nothing to fear or lose hope if you are blind or visually impaired.

Amy Mojica, RBI branch director in Davao City, said people who are blind or visually impaired have no reason to fear and lose hope since her group can help them cope up with their situation. “We can help them become successful in this competitive world,” she said.

Mojica said RBI offers education, training and counseling to the blind and visually impaired individuals in all parts of Mindanao.

"We arrived here in Davao City in 2002 and since then RBI offered services to the blind and visually impaired," Mojica said.

She said aside from Davao City, they also have two more offices in Metro Manila and Cebu City to serve the blind and visually impaired in Luzon and Visayas regions.

"We offer free education to all blind and visually impaired and all they have to do is to visit us in our office," she said. "To those finally scrapped blind and visually impaired we also offer scholarship grant for them to avail."

Mojica said RBI started local operation by training teachers to become efficient in handling blind and visually impaired students.

"At the moment, we have already trained some 100 teachers, who are now serving blind and visually impaired students," Mojica bared.

RBI now has about 400 students all over Mindanao and some 2,500 all over the Philippines.

"We are now conducting an intensified campaign to bare our programs since we believe there are as many as 42,000 blind and visually impaired out there who needs our help," Mojica said.

She said RBI offers a range of activities for the blind and visually impaired persons.

She said they even offer computer training and counseling to ensure that the students will be well equipped in dealing the real world.

"Aside from students, we also train parents so they can learn to handle well their children suffering from blindness or those who are visually impaired," Mojica said.

Mojica said their activity center which had been inaugurated just recently offers livelihood trainings to the blind and visually impaired to help them start their own business just as a normal person would do.

"The center makes sure that the blind and visually impaired can cope up very well in the real world by teaching them the necessary things they need to succeed," Mojica said. “The blind and visually impaired are the same as normal persons who can succeed if they put hard-work in what they do.”

"RBI aims to tell the world that blind and visually impaired are capable of doing jobs ordinary people do, like call center representatives or those who takes medical transcription and other opportunities,” she said.

Honey Baula, a 30-year-old woman from Cagayan de Oro City is suffering from blindness, but despite her disability she was able to obtain education. “Now she is on her way of being a medical transcription expert,” Mojica said, adding, the owner of the medical transcription firm has recruited Baula because of her impressive skills, patience and hard work despite her disability.

“Honey Baula has become a model to the blind and visually impaired and to the sighted that having a disability is not a hindrance to obtain success in life,” Mojica said. (Romy Bwaga)