TAPESTRIES in lovely and happy hues adorn the homey office-cum-art center of St. Francis School-Vision Shared Resources and Artistic Expression (VSA) Arts of the Philippines Inc. in its headquarter in Quezon City.
Being displayed along with the handwoven clothes are threads of various kinds and colors, and products made out of these clothes—from cute kikay bags to eco and lady’s bags, wallets, passport holders, hats, headdresses, scarves, shawls, vests, T-shirts, unisex tops and dresses. Taking center stage of the art room are two Japanese handlooms called saori.
And here’s the amazing revelation: The tapestries were woven by the talented students with disabilities and special needs of St. Francis School using these portable handlooms from Japan.
VSA Arts of the Philippines is a nonprofit organization formed in collaboration with the National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA) to strengthen the artistic potentials and enhance the skills of Filipino children and adults with special needs. VSA aims to empower differently abled persons by giving them learning opportunities, trainings and jobs through skills acquisition.
Included in the programs they offer are weaving trainings and tutorials to differently abled students so they can unleash their creativity and self-expression. However, to date, VSA only has four handlooms imported from Japan and Thailand and are interchangeably used by 20 student-weavers during their classes.
The school currently has 47 students. Among these are those with Global Development Delay, autism and hearing impairment. Rebecca Santos, VSA executive director, said the imported handlooms are very expensive, and costs roughly P60,000 each. Hence, it is not easy for them to buy additional pieces that can greatly assist more students. The Department of Science and Technology-National Capital Region (DOST-NCR) comes to the rescue for VSA as it provided 10 units of handlooms and pledges to provide trainings on the features, operation and maintenance of the technology, as well.
The DOST-NCR collaborated with the Philippine Textile Research Institute (PTRI) to transfer PTRI’s developed portable therapeutic handlooms.
The technology is specifically designed to engage differently abled persons in handloom weaving as a therapeutic rehabilitation for their physical, mental, social and vocational ability. What makes the handlooms special is they are designed for the use of paraplegic persons or those with total noncoordination of their lower extremities. It features a hand-held lever so the use of treadle in interchanging XXX s to lock wefts can be eliminated. The therapeutic handlooms also promote easy weaving comprehension as it only needs eye-hand coordination for its users.
The PTRI-designed technology is developed to empower those with special needs by providing opportunities where they can earn income through handloom weaving.
The DOST-NCR funded the project, titled “Improving the Capacity and Productivity of Urban Weaving of St. Francis School-VSA Arts of the Philippines Inc. through the Fabrication of PTRI-developed Portable Therapeutic Handlooms”.
The 10 handlooms were set up at VSA early this month. For two weeks St. Francis students, along with volunteers and other groups catering to person with disabilities, had further training on warping, threading and weaving.
DOST-NCR Regional Director Jose B. Patalinjug III recently visited the summer training and expressed amazement at how the children worked with focus and determination while displaying their innate creativity. He said seeing the VSA students weaving and using the portable handlooms firsthand further affirmed his conviction that children with special needs are capable of thriving.
“These children are truly inspiring. We, from the DOST-NCR, assure VSA and other similar institutions that we will continue to provide assistance to capacitate more Filipinos with special needs. In fact, we are looking at the provision of additional technology needed by VSA to assist more children and adults who are differently abled,” he said.
“Indeed, our differently-abled children and fellowmen are capable of producing outputs that can be beneficial to our country’s economic development. With adequate technology, training and opportunities, we can further empower them so they can do bigger things,” Patalinjug said.
VSA is the agency’s first recipient of the therapeutic handlooms in the region. The official transfer and launching of the technology was held on May 4, at the VSA School in Quezon City.
Meanwhile, Santos is overwhelmed with the support of The DOST-NCR. After all, she has been working on giving the children with disabilities learning and livelihood opportunities since the establishment of St. Francis School in 1996.
“If you look closely at our students, you can see how skilled and determined they are, especially in weaving. We are indeed very thankful to the assistance given by the DOST-NCR, as we can now support more students with special needs through the additional handlooms. But right now, we would be needing donation of threads so we can continue the training after this batch,” she said. The first batch of weavers also got their certification on May 4, the VSA head said.
She said they are greatly looking forward to showcase the products made by the students at DOST’s upcoming National Science and Technology Week exhibit in July.
Santos also said her students will be the official Philippine delegation for the 2017 Saori Hiroba VSA Japan Festival in August this year. Aside from receiving further training in Saori weaving, the students and their trainers will serve as Philippine ambassadors in education, tourism and cultural exchange.