The U.S. government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), launched a three-year, Php92.3 million project that will enable visually and hearing impaired children, including those who are deaf, blind and deaf-blind, to gain access to quality education.

USAID’s Gabay: Strengthening Inclusive Education for Blind/Deaf Children project, implemented in partnership with the Department of Education and Resources for Blind, Inc., will work with local governments in the provinces of Batangas, Sorsogon, and Southern Leyte, to identify children from kindergarten to grade three with vision and hearing impairments, so that they can receive literacy support early-on.

“The United States is a strong advocate of disability policies and programs. We believe that people with disabilities have and should have all the same rights as others,” said USAID Mission Director Lawrence Hardy during the launching of the new project held in Quezon City.

Through the project, USAID and RBI will increase the capacity of service providers and health workers to detect the needs of, and provide services to, children with visual and hearing impairments, improve teachers’ abilities to prepare and deliver appropriate learning plans, and enhance local government and communities’ responsiveness to the needs of people with disabilities.

Globally, the disability population continues to be overrepresented among the world’s illiterate and economically poor, due to barriers in access to quality, equitable, and inclusive education. Investing in quality inclusive education can lead to a 7% gain in national GDP.

Gabay is part of the U.S. government’s commitment to improving the quality of basic education to support broad-based and inclusive growth in the country. USAID invests in the next generation’s ability to sustain growth by improving early-grade reading skills and strengthening the capacity of partners to advocate for local level policy reforms in education.