PARTNERS

Kapient Philippines (kapientphilippines.com)

Born of a merger between KPMG consulting Singapore and DP search, Kapient brings many years of regional recruiting expertise, with an outstanding track record in both retained and contingency searches.

With its offices across the region, and the resources and network of its shareholders, Kapient has unparalleled access to executives in the region.

Its vision

To be the partner of choice in delivering the best human capital solutions to its clients in the Asia pacific region.

“We’re not here just to fill positions with people – we’re here to help companies move their organization forward.”

Thomas Ng, Kapient Philippines’ president, has included persons with disabilities as a possible untapped pool of employable individuals. To prove that persons with disabilities can indeed be productive individuals, he has hired josefina olorocisimo, ATRIEV’s top graduate of year 1999 as research and recruitment assistant. It has been Mr Ng’s personal advocacy to find jobs for qualified visually impaired persons and has gone one step farther by sponsoring training courses for blind college graduates.

Asia Pacific College (APC)

IBM Philippines, the leading IT supplier in the country together with SM (Shoemart) Foundation, the number one retail giant in the Philippines, explored the possibility of putting up a computer training institution that would produce high caliber graduates. The result of these exploratory talks is the inception in 1991 of Asia Pacific College (APC).

The College's aim is simple: to produce competent professionals who can meet the demands of the industry. APC admitted its first students in 1991 with the launching of the Training Program in information technology. APC is the proud pioneer in the country of graduate certificate programs in Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence.

ATRIEV’s partnership with APC stemmed from a scholarship program initiated by IBM Philippines for qualified ATRIEV students. IBM’s scholarship program covers the basic computer literacy training in ATRIEV while APC provides sponsorship for the diploma course in Associate in Computer technology.

To date, two ATRIEV graduates namely Ebenchito Pabia and Arlene Capinig have qualified for APC scholarship. , They are treated like any other student taking the same exams as their sighted counterparts and meeting the high standards of the college. Two more members of the 2007 graduating class namely Angelita Balasabas and Lemilou Arbiol have also qualified for the Associate in Computer Technology course.

It is hoped that through the partnerships of these institutions, blind persons will meet the standards of the IT industry and become productive individuals.

Today, APC is the school of choice for those aspiring to attain a world-class education with a strong IT-based foundation. It is also hoped that APC will soon be the model of a truly inclusive education for visually impaired persons in the Philippines.

PARENT ADVOCATES FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED CHILDREN (PAVIC)

Parent Advocates for Visually Impaired Children (PAVIC), Inc. was formed in 1999. In the beginning, it comprised of about a dozen parents whose children were either blind, low vision, or with other handicaps. The main purpose for the group was to render support to each other.

Currently, PAVIC is comprised of more than 221 children registered as members. The children’s age ranges from 0-15 years old. The most common causes for their vision loss are: cataracts, glaucoma, optic- nerve hypoplasia, retinal detachment, retinitis pigmentosa, retinoblastoma and ROP. It is noteworthy, however, that ROP (retinopathy of prematurity) makes more than 50% of the children are ROP cases. The visual acuity of the children ranged from low vision (with color differentiation), with light perception to total blindness.

In 2006, PAVIC and ATRIEV formalized its partnership through a memorandum of agreement. Francis Choy, former PAVIC President, invited Carol Catacutan, one of ATRIEV’s key officers, to the Parents’ Congress held at Palm Plaza in 2005. Catacutan spoke of the new technologies available to the blind especially in the field of computer literacy. Catacutan’s talk spun keen interest in the parents of blind kids that a training program specifically designed for parents in computer literacy was born.

An innovative approach to computer literacy training was also broached by Mr. Choy. In 2006, the first team learning of parent and blind child was pilot tested.

To date, ATRIEV and PAVIC continue its training programs for parents, for the parent-child tandem and for blind children grades IV to VI. The partnership has also produced one parent of a blind child, Filipina Maclit, as a qualified trainer after successfully completing the trainers’ training course at the National Computer Center.

It is hoped that through the partnership, computer technology will be made available and accessible to the blind youth.

PowerSpeak, Inc. (powerspeakinc.com)

Severino "Joey" P. Reyes III has nearly twenty years of experience in business development, marketing, sales, customer relations, and communications.

On March 8, 2003, Joey Reyes established PowerSpeak, Inc. a training center for Leadership and Effective Communication envisioned as the premier professional development center in Asia. PowerSpeak, Inc. aims to create a niche that would be easily distinguished from existing competitors in terms of the quality of its training and service. PowerSpeak, Inc. was created with the intention of empowering individuals by helping them to develop their personal and professional potentials to meet the increasing demands for greater efficiency and intense competition. Since that time PowerSpeak, Inc. has succeeded in providing quality training to several companies and helping these companies achieve their corporate objectives.

ATRIEV staff and blind students have benefited from the enriching seminars of PowerSpeak. It has been Joey Reyes’ personal mission as well as a part of his corporate social responsibility to reserve slots for the Personal Awareness and Leadership seminars (PALS) of PowerSpeak to blind individuals. Every blind person who has experienced the PALS has attested to the life changing experience brought about by the seminar.

Joey Reyes is instrumental in touching the hearts and lives of the blind staff and students of ATRIEV through his PALS program. An entertaining and dynamic speaker who spices his talks with timely humor and drama, Joey has conducted seminars and/or given talks to several clients, including private corporations and government agencies, among others.

In the course of his impressive career, Joey has earned numerous awards and citations, including Humorous Speech Champion, Toastmasters International Division a 2nd Runner Up International Speech Contest, and Distinguished Area Governor for Toastmasters, to name a few.

Joey is a director of the UP MBA Alumni Society, Treasurer of the Board of Trustees for Philippine Seminars Incorporated, Charter President of the Fil-Estate Toastmasters Club, and Charter President of Professional Branch Managers Association of Fil-Estate.

In his younger days, Joey was very active with the UP Broadcasting Association, UP Repertory Company, Philippine Educational Theatre Association (PETA), and the Manila Teen Theater League.

Joey earned a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Communication and a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of the Philippines.

Bagong Henerasyon Foundation

The BAGONG HENERASYON FOUNDATION is a non-stock, non-profit non-government organization whose vision is "a healthy, educated prosperous and empowered citizenry in Quezon City. The Foundation was founded by Councilor Bernadette “BH" Herrera-Dy In order to fight against sickness, ignorance, poverty and indifference by empowering individuals with knowledge and skills.

The Bagong Henerasyon Foundation has been rendering community service and delivering noteworthy projects in uplifting the lives of Quezon City constituents particularly the underprivileged with advocacies on Health, Education, Livelihood and People Empowerment or H. E. L. P.

In 2006, Councilor BH sponsored the tuition fee of one ATRIEV student. Since then, the partnership between Bagong Henerasyon and ATRIEV has evolved from transportation support to provision of venue for training.

In May 2006, in order to ensure that computer literacy Is for everybody, the BH Foundation added Its newest Computer Training Project, and this time It is for people with disabilities, particularly, the visually, hearing, speech and mobility Impaired, In partnership with ATRIEV. BH Foundation received the grant from the APEC Digital Opportunity Center (ADOC) of Taiwan, for the management and operation of the E-Care CENTER Seated at Barangay Nayong Kanluran, District 1, Quezon City. ATRIEV provides trainors and training curriculum in programs for the blind conducted at the E-Care Center. To date, It has produced 450 graduates encompassing various disabilities.

Bluepoint Foundation Institute (bluepoint.com.ph)

Bluepoint is a non-profit Open Source education and development center. It is the first organization in the Philippines that focuses on Linux and Open Source training.

Bluepoint seeks to enhance the IT skills of Filipinos by providing globally competitive Open Source education through (1) advocating, (2) educating people in, and (3) developing Open Source software through trainings, seminars, fund-raising events, research, and development.

ATRIEV’s Project Officer, Rene Orense, has been privileged to join two training programs of Bluepoint: the TULAY (Teachers Using Linux to Augment the Youth ) and Extreme PHP. He is now planning to implement his learnings in the ATRIEV system.

ATRIEV also plans to work with Bluepoint in the development of a screen reader software that works with open source. If and when this dream will come true, more Filipinos will have access to computer-based information.

From the very words of the movers behind Bluepoint Foundation: “We are committed to excellent service, innovation, diversity, creativity, honesty, and integrity. Our accountability is to God.”

PHILIPPINE WEB ACCESSIBILITY GROUP (PWAG)

The Philippine Web Accessibility Group or simply “PWAG" is a Philippine Initiative to UN Web Accessibility Design Compliance, and is a non-profit, government registered, association of web designers and advocates of web accessibility based in the Philippines. It's main mission is to "teach and promote web accessibility in the said country as a means of making information accessible to all including persons with disabilities (PWD)."

PWAG was founded on August 11, 2006 after accepting the mandate of creating the web accessibility group from the government and fresh from the "Webmasters Interface Workshop” held at Cebu City in May of 2006, where Lourdes Borgonia, ATRIEV former webmaster and one of the core members attended the meeting. The core members of the group were selected by the National Council on Disability Affairs or NCDA (formerly National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons) from among those web designers from the government, academe and the disability sectors who participated in the first ICT workshop in 2004 held in Tagaytay City. Also, the web sites they designed passed the Manila ICT Design Recommended accessibility compliance.

In their third meeting, PWAG core group agreed and finalized the main objectives in forming the organization. In addition, PWAG is also tasked to oversee and implement relevant programs on accessible ICT in the Philippines. You may visit PWAG’s web site to view their objectives at www.pwag.org/aboutus.htm.

PWAG was incorporated and registered under the Securities and Exchange Commission last May 8,2007. It is government supervised through the Department of Social Welfare and Development-National Council on Disability Affairs (DSWD-NCA) and the National Computer Center-Commission on Information and Communications Technology (NCC-CICT). It is also supported by the following partners outside the Philippines namely: Mr. Leo Valdes representing Vision Office Support Services, Ltd of Canada and Ms. Mel Pedley representing UK based Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS).

The following are some of PWAG’s topmost achievements despite being a very young organization:

PWAG received a “Notable Universal Design Award" from Team Access. Team Access is a group of web professionals from different countries who specialize in quality, accessible web site development.
PWAG published its first book called "Web Accessibility Guide for Filipinos."
PWAG maintains an e-group with around 165 members majority of whom are web designers. The forum provides exchanges of information and ready assistance on how to design accessible websites.
PWAG has already formulated the Basic Recommended Web Accessibility Standards for Philippine Designed Web Sites and has been approved by both the NCWDP and the NCC.
PWAG has evaluated and gave "Disabled Friendly Awards" to 15 government and non-government sites.
PWAG Official Website recently received the Gold Edition of the humble yet noteworthy "Talking Hands Awards" for 3rd Quarter of 2008 for being a freshly presented teaching site! It also received the "Visual Delights Award" under the Key Teaching-Learning Element. PWAG website merited the award because it teaches web accessibility with great commitment and introducing new terms and concepts augmented with thoughtful and precise narrative.

To date, aside of being one of PWAG's web site validators, Desse Borgonia and Rene Orense also play the role of being one of its Board of Trustees and Board of Incorporators representing ATRIEV and the visually impaired sector as well. To know more about PWAG, visit their web site at www.pwag.org.

ATRIEV

Adaptive Technology for Rehabilitation, Integration and Empowerment of the Visually Impaired