The organization Tahanang Walang Hagdanan (TWH) was one of the winners of the 2006 Philippines Development Innovation Marketplace competition held last May, through which 30 innovative projects were awarded US$5 million to carry out ideas that will provide concrete benefits to their communities.
Job or livelihood opportunity for the over 8 million people with disabilities in the Philippines is rarely available because of discrimination and inaccessibility. For 33 years TWH has been offering training on skills development and entrepreneurship to persons with disabilities (PWD). Products developed and produced by the own PWDs under these programs would find a niche in the local and international markets only if they had adequate marketing.
TWH proposal consisted basically in setting up a business center which would ensure a sustainable training regime for people with disabilities and provide a platform to better market their products. With this project, the organization will be able to build and strengthen the economy of the disabled sector by providing PWDs with a depot/marketing arm that will carry the products to the clients, thus, improving access to the marketplace even in the remotest areas. The project also includes the creation of partnerships with international organizations for PWD that will replicate the business center worldwide. After one year, the market center should be able to establish a clientele in the local and international markets. Major components include training, product development and marketing.
The target group will be persons with disabilities in the community-based programs that the organization runs in several depressed areas of the country with home/center-based production and affiliate homes nationwide. One thousand PWDs and their families will benefit from this project (60% men and 40% women).
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