BY MICHAEL ANGELO DEJANDO
(This is the second of our four-part series of inspiring stories to mark the National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Week 2018. – Ed.)
THE MOST recent data from the Philippine Statistics Office – the 2010 Census of Population and Housing – showed that about 1.4 million Filipinos had disabilities.
In Western Visayas, there were 138,000 persons with disabilities (PDWs).
Despite the challenges of living with their disabilities, some of these Western Visayans were able to reach the pedestal of their dreams.
DEAFNESS NOT A HINDRANCE FOR TEACHER-JOURNO
People who have met 44-year-old Hazel Villa do not see her as a person with disability but as a passionate and selfless woman driven to impact lives as a teacher and journalist while carrying out God’s purpose in her life.
West Visayas State University (WVSU) in Iloilo City, her alma mater since high school, has been a witness to how Ma’am Hazel deliberately fashions herself to become an effective and inspiring language educator, writer and journalist.
Other than that, the century-old institution was also a silent spectator to how Ma’am Hazel said, “Wow! That was a very good story,” some 19 years ago to her student who narrated in class how her mother died.
And until today, there are still a few instances when Ma’am Hazel (who wears hearing aids in both ears) leaves a bad taste in other people’s mouths as she would respond to questions or statements with weird answers because she did not hear them right.
Diagnosed with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss in both ears at the age of 12 despite already having lost her hearing at five years old, Hazel did not let the shackles of deafness chain her from pursuing her dreams in life.
Despite the daily stress of straining to hear, mishearing certain words, and getting ridiculed by some people, she graduated her bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education major in English at the West Visayas State University (WVSU) as Cum Laude. She also finished her Masters at Bond University in Queensland, Australia with distinction grades and on scholarship under the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program.
Among others, she also represented the Philippines overseas in various study exchanges, conferences, workshops and paper presentations.
In the face of her hearing loss, Hazel believes that God has a purpose for making her “differently abled.”
She works as a college professor at WVSU-College of Education (WVSU-COE), a publication adviser of the award-winning SILAK Media, Inc. of WVSU-COE, and a journalist for the Philippine Daily Inquirer since 1999. In November 2013, she also led the Yolanda Reporters Team that trained journalism students and resulted to exposure for Northern Iloilo when it used to be that all attention for the need for assistance of devastated people and communities was in Tacloban.
Describing herself as someone who tries to live a righteous life as the Bible demands, Hazel shared that it takes much humility to progress in anything that she does.
“This is a humility borne out by the realization that it is not one’s talents, skills, or competence that leads to the realization of potentials or being useful to society – it is following God’s will and purpose in our lives that we become useful members of society regardless of the gifts that He gives us,” said Hazel, a Sunday School teacher at Iloilo Baptist Church from 2000 to 2016.
Currently a third year and graduating student at Silliman University in Dumaguete City, taking up Ph.D. English (concentration in Literary Studies), Hazel said she was able to overcome the challenges brought about by her disability with a combination of some life skills, reflections, and general adjustments. These are the following: acceptance of her disability, getting used to having an assistive device like hearing aids, having a good set of friends in school, church, and the community who accepts her and her disability, and focusing on daily positive thoughts.
“Nothing is more inspiring than having a personal relationship with the Creator of All Things who has a perfect reason for making me what I am. I believe no one is truly successful until when they are in their deathbeds and they can sincerely say they fully lived their lives for Christ and the salvation of sinners and gave service to the less fortunate. After all, we are created for a purpose,” added Hazel. (Next: “Disabled millennial accepts call to become teacher-leader)/PN
