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Mission to the Philippines
29 August - 2 September 2006

The Mission objectives were to collaborate in a 3-day domestic workshop on Non-handicapping Environment (NHE) which was organized by former APCD participants, the National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons (NCWDP) and the JICA-Philippines Office, to monitor and follow up on APCD ex-participants as well as to seek more information on participants for future training courses, and to strengthen a collaborative relationship with APCD's focal point organizations.

The National Consultative Workshop on the Promotion of a Non-Handicapping Environment for Persons with Disabilities was conducted at the Pearl Manila Hotel, Ermita, Manila from 30 August to 1 September 2006. Honorable Dr. Esperanza Cabral, Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development was the Chairperson for the Workshop. Thirty-two persons participated in this workshop covering a Best Practices presentation, small group discussion, action plan implementation, and lectures by guest speakers from different sectors. Management Corporation talked about promoting NHE from business sector perspectives SM Supermalls, where an accessibility survey was conducted in the Mall of Asia. In addtition, the University of the Philippines lectured about the Universal Design.

Three highlights of the mission were:

1. The extension of the action plan formulated by each participant in this workshop will promote and sustain the NHE campaign in the Philippines.
2. The greater collaboration among sectors such as the SM SuperMalls Corporation, and the University of the Philippines. They sincerely work and support NHE in the Philippines. This is a good model to share with other countries in this region, on the participation of civil society in social development.
3. Former APCD participants collaborating with the NCWDP, will develop a project up-scaling NHE to expand in other areas of the Philippines by submitting the project proposal to the JICA-Philippines. This shows a good practice of working together between civil societies and international organizations for the development of NHE in this region.

Apart from the involvement of the NHE aspect, we had a good opportunity to meet and interview some former APCD participants who attended the Independent Living training in 2005 & 2006 and the Human Rights of Persons with a Psychiatric Disability in 2004.