Philippine Federation of the Deaf - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

**Philippine Federation of the Deaf**

Short Name:	PFD
Organized:	May 18, 1997
President (2007–2009):	Racquel Estiller-Corpuz
Location:	27 – C Masikap St., Bgy. Piñahan, V. Luna,1100 Quezon City Quezon City Quezon City is the former capital and the most populous city in the Philippines. Located on the island of Luzon, Quezon City is one of the cities and municipalities that make up Metro Manila, the National Capital Region. The city was named after Manuel L... , Philippines Philippines The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
Postal Address:	P.O. Box 2805, Quezon City Quezon City Quezon City is the former capital and the most populous city in the Philippines. Located on the island of Luzon, Quezon City is one of the cities and municipalities that make up Metro Manila, the National Capital Region. The city was named after Manuel L...
Website:
Email:	philfedeaf@yahoo.com

The Philippine Federation of the Deaf, Inc. (PFD) is a non-stock. non-profit national federation of Deaf organization in the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. PFD's existence was legitimized upon its registration with the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Securities and Exchange Commission (Philippines)

The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission is a Philippine state commission responsible for securities laws and regulating the securities industry. The SEC is an agency within the Philippine Department of Finance....

on June 26, 1997.

PFD is a national member of the World Federation of the Deaf

World Federation of the Deaf

The World Federation of the Deaf is an international non-governmental organization that acts as a peak body for national associations of Deaf people, with a focus on Deaf people who use sign language and their family and friends...

. The group was founded on October 19, 1996 in a meeting held at the Philippine School for the Deaf where 17 leaders of different Deaf organizations nationwide participated. It was formally established during its 1st General Assembly held at the Ateneo de Manila University

Ateneo de Manila University

The Ateneo de Manila University is a private teaching and research university run by the Society of Jesus in the Philippines. It began in 1859 when the City of Manila handed control of the Escuela Municipal de Manila in Intramuros, Manila, to the Jesuits...

, Quezon City

Quezon City

Quezon City is the former capital and the most populous city in the Philippines. Located on the island of Luzon, Quezon City is one of the cities and municipalities that make up Metro Manila, the National Capital Region. The city was named after Manuel L...

on May 19, 1997. Members of the assembly, composed of 100 Deaf leaders and Deaf representatives from 15 regions of the country elected its eleven Executive Board composed of Deaf persons for a term of two years from 1997-1999.

PFD's vision list, among other things, empowerment of Deaf people to make them become independent, united, equal and productive members of society; to represent the Deaf groups in national and international meetings/forum and legislative bodies. PFD likewise aims to provide training to its grass-roots self-help Deaf member-organizations specifically on organizational management, community organization, advocacy techniques, leadership training, values formation and other skills necessary for their development.

PFD's activities include close monitoring with government/non-government agencies on the implementation of their basic rights and equalization of opportunities especially on employment to ensure that they are given just and equitable treatment.

Since its inception, PFD has 24 recognized deaf member-organizations within Metro Manila and provinces and expects to increase in number once the requirements for membership have been complied with by other Deaf groups requesting to affiliate with PFD.

Mission/Vision

PFD aims to establish good rapport and partnership among, and between, the member of the Federation, paving the way for their integration into the mainstream society and full equality and participation on all aspects of human endeavor.

It also visualizes improvement of the quality of life among the members of the Federation through self-help and self-reliance in order to become productive citizens and partners in the nation building under the aegis of new horizon and social justice in the future.

Objectives

Serving the Deaf community regardless of creed, socio-economic class, sexual orientation, age, and/or ethnic background, PFD aims to promote the following:

Equal opportunities in employment and access to quality education as vocational rehabilitation services, to telecommunication systems and mass media from the government and the private sectors, on social services and in the public/mass transport system;

Filipino Sign Language
Filipino Sign Language
Filipino Sign Language or Philippine Sign Language, is a form of manual and visual communication that utilize hand gestures. FSL is used by deaf individuals, people unable to communicate verbally and people who are FSL interpreters in the Philippines.FSL has a very strong influence from American...

(FSL) as the preferred language of the Filipino
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....

Deaf people and support its research and development programs/project;

Public awareness of the Deaf in Philippine society and support efforts towards its propagation;

Support the training of qualified interpreters for Deaf people.

Activities

Philippine Federation for the Deaf has already made:

Representation of the Deaf in national and international meetings/fora;

Nomination of Deaf individuals for annual local and international scholarships and training;

Advocacy campaigns with national government agencies, committees and legislative bodies;

Training on organizational management, community organization, advocacy techniques, leadership training, values formation and other skills necessary for their development;

Monitoring of implementation of government policy specially on employment;

PFD is also responsible for organizing the following:

National Congress of the Deaf (biennial)

PFD General Assembly

International Deaf Awareness Week (IDAW) (triennial)

Deaf Education Weekend Seminar

Sports Development Seminars for the Deaf

Accomplishments

During its existence, PFD has already accomplished the following:

Deaf Gender Awareness and Sensitivity Training Workshops

Deaf Women and Gender Awareness and Sensitivity Conference

Leadership training workshops for Deaf Organizations

Deaf Comedy Show

Representation in:

National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC)
National Anti-Poverty Commission (Philippines)
The National Anti-Poverty Commission is a government agency of the Republic of the Philippines. It coordinates poverty reduction programs by national and local governments and ensures that marginalized sectors participate in government decision-making processes.NAPC was created by virtue of ,...
National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA)
National Council on Disability Affairs (Philippines)
The Philippines National Council on Disability Affairs is the national government agency mandated to formulate policies and coordinate the activities of all agencies, whether public or private, concerning disability issues and concerns...
National Youth Commission (NYC)
National Youth Commission (Philippines)
The National Youth Commission , also known as the NYC, is a government agency in the Philippines that specifically addresses issues surrounding the Filipino youth...

Sign Language training workshops

Current projects

Among PFD's ongoing projects are:

Preparation of the "Status Report on the Use of Sign Language" through the National Sign Language Committee (NSLC)
Documentation of Filipino Sign Language
Production of practical dictionaries and materials for Filipino Sign Language (parallel partnership with Hong Kong, Vietnam and Cambodia)

Filipino Sign Language Book Project

The National Sign Language Committee (NSLC) began collecting sign language data from the three main islands in the Philippines (Luzon

Luzon

Luzon is the largest island in the Philippines. It is located in the northernmost region of the archipelago, and is also the name for one of the three primary island groups in the country centered on the Island of Luzon...

, Visayas

Visayas

The Visayas or Visayan Islands and locally known as Kabisay-an gid, is one of the three principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, along with Mindanao and Luzon. It consists of several islands, primarily surrounding the Visayan Sea, although the Visayas are considered the northeast...

and Mindanao

Mindanao

Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three island groups in the country, which consists of the island of Mindanao and smaller surrounding islands. The other two are Luzon and the Visayas. The island of Mindanao is called The...

) in 2001. The NSLC through the publication of the "Status Report on the use of Sign Language in the Philippines" by 2004 shall povide baseline data on the use of sign in education, interpreting, isgn instruction and media. The NSLC has been challenged by limitations in funding and other resources. When Dr James Woodward has made a proposal on the development of Asian-Pacific indigenous sign language dictionaries, the gave Filipino Deaf community an opportunity to fulfill the plan of publishing an authentic FSL dictionary.

Dir Gladys Tang from Chinese University of Hong Kong

Chinese University of Hong Kong

The Chinese University of Hong Kong is a research-led university in Hong Kong.CUHK is the only tertiary education institution in Hong Kong with Nobel Prize winners on its faculty, including Chen Ning Yang, James Mirrlees, Robert Alexander Mundell and Charles K. Kao...

(CUHK) oversees project management the project involving the four countries, and is also local project director for Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

. Dr James Woodward is regional manager and also he is local project director for Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

. Fr. Charles Dittemeier is the local project director for Cambodia

Cambodia

Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

. The Philippine Federation of the Deaf is responsible for implementation of the project output in Philippines. Marites Raquel Estiller-Corpuz is the only Deaf local project director out of these four countries.

The Project is funded for three years to develop dictionaries and teaching materials as well as a database of sign language data. Six Deaf coordinators are already being trained in sign language analysis, fieldwork and dictionary production. These six Deaf coordinators will be collecting data from regions.

Issues/Controversies

In 2005, a legal issue was raised against Philippine Federation for the Deaf regarding their status as a non-profit foundation. It was registered as a non-stock, non-profit corporation, but its registration was recently revoked after the Securities and Exchange Commission

Securities and Exchange Commission (Philippines)

discovered that the PFD had not been filing annual reports.

The PFD had been unable to file an annual report because first, none of the officers knew of the requirement, and second, it could not afford to hire a regular accountant and auditor. As Julius Andrada, president of the foundation, stated in a letter to SEC Chair Fe Barin: “The consequence of our hearing impairment is not just a loss of sound but a loss of access to information.”

In late 2003 though, the PFD was able to secure some project funds that allowed them to hire an accountant, who then prepared a financial report. It was only after the report was filed with the SEC that the foundation’s shortcomings were discovered. As penalty, the PFD was slapped with a fine of P21,000, which it had to pay if it wished to retain its SEC registration.

In letters to Barin, Andrada notes that the PFD "has not had any fixed sources of income for the past six years (and) our only current project is for three years (that) covers contractual employees with fixed terms renewable every six months." The Php21,000 fine, Andrada adds, could be "used for other projects of the Federation which will help Deaf Filipinos."

External links

PFD Website
Old PFD Website
Who we work with - Philippine Deaf Resource Center Official Website
Philippine Deaf Sports and Leisure Club Official Website
Friends and supporters - Manila Christian Computer Institute for the Deaf
Manila Christian Computer Institute for the Deaf
Manila Christian Computer Institute for the Deaf is a non-sectarian, post-secondary, Christian foundation school for the deaf in the Philippines authorized by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to offer non-degree computer and other technical training programs.It is also...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.