Early Childhood Care and Development Providers learn from CBM and partners

CBM Philippines, together with its partners – Resources for the Blind, Inc. (RBI), NORFIL Foundation, and Better Hearing Philippines, Inc. (BHPI), shared their experiences to Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Providers from all over the Philippines during the 2017 Conference on Inclusion of Children with Developmental Delays in the Early Years on October 23 to 25.

With the theme “Inclusion from the Start: Creating the Foundation for Child’s Holistic Development”, the conference aims to provide ECCD service providers wider perspective on breaking barriers for early inclusion of children with developmental delays through policies, strategies, researches, innovations. It also aims to increase awareness on the support practices for inclusion in early childhood education to ensure equity, access, and opportunities among young learners. Lastly, it aims to create a network of ECCD services providers for both public and private institutions for promotion of inclusion in early childhood education.

CBM Philippines Programme Manager Erly Ocasiones served as a keynote speaker and talked about “Ensuring Equity, Access, and Opportunities of Children with Developmental Delay in the Early Years: Advocacy Thrust of Parents and the Community”. In her presentation, she also talked about the advocacy thrusts of ECCD and linked it with CBM’s programmes in the country.

Partners also shared their expertise during the conference. As part of the panel discussion, Ms. Amy Mojica, executive director of RBI, discussed the “Practices for Inclusion on Early Childhood Education”. Dr. Hubert Ramos, programme coordinator for BHPI, served as one of the panelists in the discussion of “Service Providers Competency Programs for Early Learners”. Meanwhile, Ms. Clarissa Fetesio, project-in-charge of NORFIL Foundation, talked about “Safeguarding Children with Disabilities from Abuse”.

The conference was led by the ECCD Council in partnership with UNICEF, Save the Children, Plan International, World Vision, EDUCO Philippines, RBI, Tan Yan Kee Foundation, Inc., Foundation for Advanced Professional Development, Inc., and the Philippine Association for Intellectual Disabilities.