The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc Dolores Aboitiz Children’s Fund (RAFI DACF) supports the Liloan Special Education (SPED) Center as they continue to cater to learners with special needs.

Through a grant, the RAFI DACF will help provide educational equipment and other materials to support the preparation of specialized learning modules and instructional materials.

The Liloan SPED Center caters to 65 learners with special needs and continues to accept learners before the start of the new school year. However, due to the challenges brought about by the pandemic, parents and guardians are still hesitant and unsure of how the demands of the new normal will affect these young learners.

Thus, Liloan SPED Center aims to maximize the role of educators in uplifting and ensuring that accessible, quality, relevant, and liberating education is provided for all learners in the area. This will be done through innovative approaches in delivering learning modality specific for learners with special needs.

Project BOTI-TECH (Bridging On The Innovative Teaching) is Liloan SPED Center’s innovative response to the need for access to quality and equitable education. While face-to-face education is still not allowed, Project BOTI-TECH maximizes the combination of high-tech and low-tech approaches for blended learning. It offers a special program design based on each learners’ Individualized Education Plan and delivered through the virtual simulation class.

Through this project, learners who find it challenging to answer printed modules and worksheets will be provided assistive application through remote virtual worksheets. Learners will also be given virtual learning designs suitable to their needs, with the aid of a virtual simulation class. Assistive learning tools and reliable internet connection will also be available at the Liloan SPED Center for parents and learners who do not have internet access or learning equipment at home.

The main highlight of the project is the creation of the Special Education Virtual Simulation Classroom that aims to support both parents and learners navigate the new normal in education. Virtual classes offer an avenue for learners to access hands-on learning sessions that are vital in the special education curriculum.

The Liloan SPED Center will cater to both parent and learner and provide a venue to attend the virtual classes in school. The session will last for 1 hour where they will be placed in a properly sanitized simulation virtual classroom with computers and assistive equipment readily available. The teacher conducting the class will be in a separate room to ensure that safety and health precautions are being followed, as mandated by the DOH and the Department of Education.

“The Liloan Special Education Parents and Teachers, first of all would like to thank you for the support that you have given to our children with Special Needs who are students of Liloan Special Education Center. This school year was a challenging year of learning and facilitating teaching towards our learners with special education needs considering that no face-to-face learning delivery should be conducted,” shared Mr. Gernard Uraca, Liloan SPED Coordinator.

To support the Liloan SPED Center in providing equal opportunities for inclusive education, RAFI-DACF provided a grant for the educational assistive equipment (3 laptops) with a total estimation cost of Php 50,000.

RAFI-DACF believes that all children, including children with special educational needs, have a right to inclusive education which are appropriate to their needs. The support that the RAFI-DACF imparts to organizations or schools providing special education enables children to reach their full potentials and capacitates families with the knowledge and skills in taking care of children who are in need of special care and attention.

The Dolores Aboitiz Children’s Fund of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI-DACF) aims to enable communities to champion for children to reach their own potentials. Its Grants Program supports initiatives promoting the welfare and development of children through Early Education and Health and Nutrition.