AVRC II Celebrates 42nd Founding Anniversary

More than 100 people joined today’s celebration of the 42nd founding anniversary of the Area Vocational Rehabilitation Center (AVRC) II of the Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office VII Labangon, Cebu City.

The celebration started with a mass and followed by a program wherein PWD trainees showcased their talents in dancing, singing and poem recitation.

Partners and stakeholders also attended the celebration such as Helping Hands, Human Cure, and Rose Institute.  Retired AVRC workers, parents of trainees, and families of workers also came to celebrate the anniversary together with the 85 current PWD trainees of AVRC.

Rose Institute provided medical services to the PWDs and other participants.  The AVRC provided massage services, cosmetology services, and family forum.

The AVRC II provides comprehensive vocational rehabilitation services for persons with disabilities (PWD) in Central Visayas.

As a non-residential institution, AVRC II provides various courses ranging from Cosmetology,  Massage Therapy, computer Technology, Consumer electronics, Furniture and Cabinet Making, Housekeeping, Dress and Apparel Technology, and Commercial Cooking.

The AVRC also provides community-based services.  It has been providing physical therapy service, which caters not just the PWDs referred by local government units but also to the PWD in the neighborhood.  The AVRC also produces prosthesis particularly, artificial leg.  The center has its own technician who makes the prosthesis.

A PWD must be referred by a Physiatrist before provided with prosthesis. A physiatrist is a medical doctor who specializes in physical medicine, rehabilitation, and pain medicine.

“We need the referral of a physiatrist because there are PWDs who lost their legs but it does not mean their immediate need is an artificial leg.

Some might need to be rehabilitated first,” says Eutilla Tahanlangit, AVRC OIC-Center Head.

As of now AVRC II has produced a total of 2,106 graduates from AVRC.

“Kayo ang lahat sa amin,” says DSWD 7 regional director Ma. Evelyn B. Macapobre. She lifted part of the lyrics of the song sang by Bonifacio Fernandez, a visually impaired trainee to begin her message.

Director Macapobre stressed that without the trainees, AVRC will not reach its 42nd founding anniversary. She underscored that the AVRC management and the workers have been inspired to search for innovations to enhance the services and to make learning at AVRC a fun-filled experience for the PWDs.

Currently, a total of 39 PWDs have been provided physical therapy and provided prosthesis.

AVRC II has been at the forefront of providing human resource development to PWDs in the Visayas Region.