“I can’t do it, I can’t speak infront of people, I’m just an ordinary mother without any background on special education”, words uttered by Ms. Perlita “Peng” So when ASP Executive Director Ranil Sorongon persistently requested her to speak in a conference.
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| Peng So being congratulated |
The feeling of incapability and smallness were replaced by fulfillment and sense of self worth when Mommy Peng was applauded and congratulated by the audience after her sharing on “Inclusive Education: A Parents Perspective”.
Her sharing was one of the topics of the conference on “Inclusive Education: Concept, Practice and Sustainability” sponsored by the Leonard Cheshire Disability Philippines Foundation last 6-7 December 2012. The conference is one of the major activities of the International Day of Persons with Disability Celebration.
Ms. Peng, the immediate past vice president of ASP shared to the more than one hundred participants of the conference coming from the different part of the country as far as General Santos City in Mindanao her experiences with her two sons with autism.
She started her talk by recalling her experiences of discrimination when she tried to enroll her son Patrick in kindergarten. How the administrator welcomed them but in the end didn’t accept her son due to his disability. Looking back Ms. Peng was thankful for that incident that challenged her to make bold moves, to give her best for his son. Patrick is now a graduating college student talking up BS Life Science at the Ateneo de Manila University.
Ms. Peng also shared what she has been doing in Ateneo, how she faced the daily challenges for her son to be accommodated and included as one of the many college students. Her hard works are now bearing fruits. The university is now more open to accommodate students with disabilities, support services personnel are very helpful, professors are now practicing reasonable accommodation and the whole school community is slowly being educated on the different disabilities like autism.
In closing, Ms. Peng said “We still have a long way to go, of fighting for the right to education of our children, but as parents it’s our responsibility to pave the way for a better future for them. Education is not just the privilege of a few, it’s a basic right of all children, including children with disabilities”.
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