According to the recent household assessment result conducted by the Listahanan, the DSWD’s information management system that identifies who and where the poor are, it revealed that there are 1.3% or 29,346 of the 2,340,468 poor individuals in the Bicol Region have disability.

DSWD Regional Director Arnel Garcia said on Monday during the kick-off activity of the National Disability and Prevention (NDPR) week celebration held at Albay Astrodome.

He said Camarines Sur posted the highest number of poor individuals with disability having 10,620 followed by Albay with 6, 658, Masbate 4,233, Sorsogon, 4,015, Camarines Norte 2,777 and Catanduanes with 1,043.
Garcia added that aside from the said data, the Listahanan have records on individuals with functional difficulties such as seeing, hearing, caring, walking, remembering and communicating.

He explained that disability is an umbrella term that depicts difficulties in functioning experienced by a person with a health condition in interaction with his/her environment.

Therefore, a person with difficulty in functioning may experience activity limitations, which means difficulties in executing bodily functions such as mobility, seeing and hearing, or cognition, that limit their activities in the everyday environment and life. Difficulty in functioning may range from no difficulty or slight difficulty to a severe difficulty / cannot do at all.

Moreover, he said that the agency is piloting a project for PWD’s in Ligao City. The project called Community Action and Resources for Accessible, Better, and Leverage Environment (CARe-ABLE) for Persons with Disability (PWD) which aims to provide interventions to Persons with Disability and to reduce barriers for greater access to resources both from the government and non-government sector.

NDPR celebration
July 17-23 marks the annual National Disability and Prevention (NDPR) week celebration pursuant to Proclamation no. 361 s.2000 as amended by Administrative Order No. 35 s.2002.

The weeklong celebration aims to stimulate public awareness on disability and encourage every citizen to take active responsibility in uplifting the economic and social condition of persons with disabilities in the country.

This year’s theme is “Karapatan ng May kapansanan, Isakatuparan…Now Na!” which focuses on the realization of the fundamental freedoms and rights of persons with disabilities as provided for in existing international mandates and national laws.###