“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the game.”

This is probably how the 2,495 members of Bislig City Special Persons Association, Inc. (BISPAI), a Sustainable Livelihood Program – Bottom Up Budgeting (SLP-BUB) assisted project, deal with the challenges of living with disability. Just because these people have to live with physically and mentally challenging conditions does not mean that their world ends there. Like each and every one of us, our actions are our fate. Despite the defying circumstances, they have maximized their potential.

It was in 2013 that the association agreed to venture on wood craft furniture as a livelihood project. The group is composed of Persons With Disability (PWDs) aged 20-59 years old with varied physical disabilities. All of them underwent training on TESDA Carpentry NC II which equipped them with skills on safety operation of power tools and knowledge on product innovation.

With this project, the group has offered made-to-order furniture to number of residences and even commercial establishments; and learning materials to Day Care Centers situated in the city and to nearby municipalities as well. ###(MARY CARMELLE C. JUMAWAN/Social Marketing Unit/DSWD Field Office Caraga)

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