SPED teacher goes the extra mile for blind kids

MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte – There are 13 finalists chosen from the 42 national qualifiers for the Civil Service Commission’s (CSC) Outstanding Public Officials and Employees Award or the Dangal ng Bayan Award. Gina Gula Acuzar is one of them.

Acuzar, who is from Anahawan, Southern Leyte, has been a Special Education Teacher I at the Sogod SPED Center since 2012, according to DepEd Southern Leyte Division Senior Education Program Specialist Lina M. Gayas, one of those who nominated Acuzar for the award.

Each year, before school opening, Acuzar goes around the barangays in the municipality to scout for visually-impaired children and encourage them and their parents to let them go to school.

Acuzar has organized her own outreach program, “Children with Visual Impairment,” at her own expense, Gayas said.

Acuzar holds classes for the children in barangay halls, teaching them Braille, a system of writing for the blind and visually-impaired individuals.

One of the families she has helped are the Jamoras, which is composed of a visually-impaired mother and five children, with the father, a farmer, being the only sighted person.

Acuzar approached the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office here to seek assistance for the Jamoras. She asked her co-teachers to help her raise funds not only for the Jamora family, but for other visually-impaired individuals as well.

Before being assigned to Southern Leyte, Acuzar worked from 2005 to 2012 as a Special Education Teacher at the Silahis ng Kaunlaran SPED Center at Padre Mariano Gomez Elementary School in Sta. Cruz, Manila. She handled an average of five pupils every year who are multi-grade and Multiple Disabilities with Visual Impairment (MDVI). (PIA)