MANILA, Feb. 6 (PNA) — President Benigno S. Aquino III will attend Friday the 50th founding anniversary of the Elsie Gaches Village (EGV), the first and largest government facility for people with developmental disorders.
Located in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, the Elsie Gaches Village was founded on February 3, 1964 with funding assistance from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Philanthropist couple Samuel Gaches and Elsie McCloskey donated their 16-hectare summer villa to the government to be used as asylum for the sick, aged and handicapped. The facility originally started with three buildings and a handful of patients.
At present, the EGV has 14 cottages providing 24-hour residential care services to 589 male and female patients from all levels of developmental category.
The facility has social workers, psychologists, doctors, nurses, teachers, house parents, therapists, dieticians, and administrative support personnel. Each of them has a defined task and responsibilities geared towards caring, training, and rehabilitating individuals with developmental disorders.
The EGV is supported by the Valencia Foundation, Knights of Columbus, lawyer Rodolfo Robles, the Kiwanis Club, Catholic Women’s Club, Friends of Elsie Gaches Village Inc. and other local and foreign organizations.
Among those who are expected to join the President will be Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman, DSWD Regional Director Alicia Bonoan, local officials and stakeholders. (PNA)