UNTV’s “Kaagapay” advocates for autism awareness

UNTV’s “Kaagapay” celebrated their anniversary with a program and a seminar on autism at the La Verdad Christian College in Caloocan City on 4 May 2014, Sunday -- through the untiring efforts of its Executive Producer Jovan Marquez and Special People segment host, Donna Lim. Kaagapay’s hosts, Annie Rentoy and Dr. Daisy Camitan moderated the event.

The seminar started with Ms. Dang Koe, ASP’s Chair Emeritus, sharing a recent interview and corresponding feature on autism on ”Kaagapay” that showed children with Down Syndrome, instead of children with autism. Her talk covered the vital role media plays in autism awareness and how it can help correct the misconceptions about autism. Dang also shared her journey with her son, Gio, which made the talk a heartfelt and touching one.

Dang Koe presenting in UNTV's "Kaagapay"

The audience was very engaged. “Ms. Dang’s seminar for us was very lively,” commented Donna Lim, who is also a mom to a CWA. ”It made our team realize that they really have to research well before airing my episode,” she said. She also added that Ma’am Dang kept her talk interesting and even if she cracked some jokes during her speech, she never veered off from the issue. “Dang made me realize that I should not stop being an advocate for PWDs, for my daughter to have a voice in this world.”

At the end of the open forum, Dang accepted in behalf of ASP, the certificate of donation of one computer set from JKA, a talents and events company.

Christian Caragayan and Clarence Cruz, two musically-talented self-advocates, each had the opportunity to serenade the audience of newly-converted advocates.

“Kaagapay” features community-building works through public philanthropy and social works and it aims to help people by featuring the ways and means that the different government agencies and institutions help citizens with their dilemmas. The show also has a segment on “Special People” which features persons with disabilities.

This article is the contribution of Raphael Torralba, ASP Project Officer.

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