Advocacy and Campaigns
The current advocacy activities of PhilCOCHED are focused on raising PhilCOCHED’s profile and important programs of activity amongst the general public to raise general awareness of disability issues. Advocacy activities are also targeted to government agencies and other NGO sector organisations, promoting partnership and sharing our knowledge of issues related to disability in order to increase opportunities for persons with disabilities (PWDs).
Specific advocacy activities include the publication of the PhilCOCHED newsletter and its distribution to local and regional networks, using online social networks, such as Friendster and Facebook, and the promotion of PhilCOCHED’s activities even including our immediate local vicinity to make our presence known in the neighbourhood and community. We aim to involve media as much as possible to promote our significant milestones such as the recent coverage in Business World of a roundtable discussion on Inclusive Education organised in partnership by PhilCOCHED and World Bank.
Advocacy of PWD rights and dignity is at the heart of every PhilCOCHED programme, project, and activity. For example the Young Voices initiative and Inclusive Youth Center have used the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to promote issues for youth with disabilities, undertaken school-to-school campaigns or barangay festival performances, showcased basketball on wheels exhibitions, choral singing groups, cultural performances, puppet shows and dancing on wheels. In addition they have campaigned for the equal rights to education and employment of PWDs, conducting an accessibility audit of certain hotels, bus terminals, LRT and MRT stations, schools and companies. They have also conducted orientation and disability awareness seminars among non-disabled youth to raise their awareness about the capabilities and potentials of youth with disabilities in order to change their negative attitudes towards the latter and they plan to continue thinking of new creative ways to advocate for PWD rights.
The Inclusive Education Program employs various advocacy and campaign mechanisms to raise the profile of the program, reach greater audiences and obtain support from various stakeholders. This includes the gathering of Community Support Groups (CSGs) made up of government officials, school teachers and administrators and community workers to showcase best practice on Inclusive Education. In addition in collaboration with the World Bank’s Knowledge Development Centers, in various regions in the country, different stakeholders from various disciplines will conduct online video conferences, discussing various issues and trends on inclusive education.