Leo: Garden Café’s Longest-Serving Employee

Selling fish with his mother and helping people carry their goods at the market was all Leo knew when he was young. Leonardo, or Leo as his family and friends called him, was born Deaf. He is the third child of 11. His father provided for the family by farming while his mother worked as a fish vendor to augment …

Boholini Pizza, Now Open

IDEA is producing an always-increasing number of deaf graduates, and job placement for them continues to be a great challenge for IDEA. Unfortunately, IDEA’s Employment and Income Generating Projects (EIGP) cannot accommodate all its graduates so we are always seeking other ways to help our graduates become self-supporting. IDEA’s founder, Dennis, has long dreamt of training deaf people to be …

Christmas at IDEA

Christmas is a time to be merry. It’s a time when families and friends host parties to celebrate the season. This year, the IDEA family also gathered to celebrate all the people who keep our organization flourishing. The IDEA family kicked off the holiday season with a Christmas Party on December 17 at the Dao Diamond Hotel, one of IDEA’s …

Nathaniel’s Sweet Success

Nathaniel was walking on the roadside with a full backpack and tears in his eyes. He left the dorm on his own. He had walked about 3 kilometers when a man on a motorcycle stopped to talk to him. Not knowing the man, Nathaniel just stared at him as tears kept falling down his cheeks. He couldn’t hear what the …

A Life Changed

“Really? Send my deaf child to school? What’s next after schooling? Could she get a job?” Parents often ask questions like these when our teachers and staff visit the homes of deaf children to recruit them to school. Convincing a family to send their child to school has never been easy.  Most parents are doubtful and unaware of their deaf …

IDEA Deaf Jobs

IDEA has been providing avenues of employment for the Deaf in Bohol for three decades now through IDEA initiated Employment and Income Generating Projects (EIGPs). These employment opportunities include the Garden Café, Dao Diamond Hotel and Restaurant, IDEA Café and Pension House, Fly Tying Industry, and Hammer and Nails Livelihood Center, Inc. These facilities not only provide employment for the deaf but they …

Support IDEA

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Dennis with Construction Crew

IDEA Shop on Progress

One of IDEA’s Employment and Income Generating Projects (EIGPs) is the construction shop, now officially named Hammer and Nails Livelihood Center, Inc. (HNLC). The majority of its employees were once our deaf-student beneficiaries. Now, the number of our deaf graduates is undeniably increasing and it comes with IDEA’s increasing need to find employment for the skilled Deaf. IDEA is seeking …