DAVAO CITY— The Open Hand School for Applied Arts (OHSAA), a school which provides “an innovative and safe learning community for young adults with special needs” had its house blessing and ribbon cutting on Tuesday, June 7.
OHSAA founder, chef Waya Anaos-Wijangco said that the school will offer four levels of programming: Life Skills Development (LSD) ‘for the lower functioning’ goaled towards independent living; ‘Get Ready to Work’ (GROW) wherein students are exposed to different work areas to find out the skills they are interested in to develop; Towards Employment and Entrepreneurship (TEE), where ‘skills towards getting into work’ are built; Transition Into Employment (TIE) which happens in a workplace or on-the-job training (OJT).
She said that she prefers that all work done by the student is “actual” and “hands-on and not only simulation.”
“You teach them independence, that’s our goal,” she said.
Wijangco said she wanted to find out if their system work/, that is why she put up a restaurant called Gourmet Gypsy Art Cafe after the first batch of Open Hand graduated for them to work in.
In Davao, AA Group of Companies, she added, is willing to take in future graduates of Open Hand.
“Our product is not a degree, it’s not an education, our product is hope,” Wijangco said.
How it started
Nine years ago, Wijangco started cooking classes in the summer. A mother called her and asked if her son with autism who loves to cook could take him into her class.
“After that summer, the boy was very happy with the cooking lessons. The mother called and told me ‘can we make this a year-round thing?’ So I said, ‘o sige, let’s try,’” she said.
After a while, Wijangco said, the students with special need, who were taking her class, not only had an effect on them in terms of cooking skills but also in communication, planning, and organization.
Her first student in 2007, 24-year old Ibarra Gargantiel from Quezon City, diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is set to start work at a restaurant next month as a line cook.
Gargantiel told DavaoToday on Tuesday that he was very happy that he learned how to cook at a young age. He also took up culinary classes in 2010.
“I feel blessed, I want to serve more food for hungry customers,” he said. He added that is “really happy now” that he can continue cooking since it is his dream.
Expansion
The school outside Davao located at RCS Building Matatag near corner Matulungin Streets Barangay Central, Diliman, Quezon City, was established in 2012 with nine students.
The city’s branch, with four teachers at the moment is located at Lot 41-B Nicasio St. near corner Tahimik Drive, Obrero.
Wijangco added that they are still in negotiations on the school’s further expansion.
“We’ve seen that there’s so much [of a] need, but there’s not enough places that are doing this, in fact this is the only school that’s doing this transition straight to employment,” she said. (davaotoday.com)
