Audio slideshow by JENNYVEE SY
PERSONS with disabilities are guaranteed the right to habilitation and rehabilitation by both the United Nations Convention on the Rights of PWDs and the country’s Magna Carta for PWDs.
Yet the outmigration of Filipino physical and occupational therapists to richer countries has severely impaired the delivery of this service to PWDs, especially to children.
The World Health Organization’s World Report on Disability identifies the Philippines as among the countries most affected by the migration of therapists and its knock-on effect called the “global care chain” “In their home countries, other relatives have to step in to act as caregivers,” the report said.
Raina Reyes, 24, a licensed occupational therapist, tells Jennyvsee Sy in this audio slideshow what happens when there aren’t enough therapists in the country:
Read the script.
(The audio slideshow was produced by Jennyvee Sy, a senior journalism student at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, for her J196 seminar class under VERA Files trustee Yvonne T. Chua.)