Independent living for PWDs Persons with disabilities are usually considered as weak, burden, jinx, and less productive.  PWDs also experience discrimination from their own family.  Access to education, training, and employment are limited, when available; the built environment limits theirfull participation. Support from family members are most of the times hard to solicit. This project proposal is aimed to empower PWDs and encourage their guardian to discover their full potential. Person with disabilities must know his rights and how can he effectively assert those rights and privileges. To address these issues and concerns, the person living with disability should know how to live independently by applying the philosophy of Independent Living (IL). Even the most disabled persons can live independently through the support and understanding of their family and the community, as well as the national and local government.
          Independent Living follows the following principles that: (1) A person with disability should live in community not in institution. (2) Aperson with disability is neither a patient who should receive medical treatment nor a child who should be protected or a god who should be worshipped. (3) A person with disability is in a position to control aid. (4)A person with disability is a victim of #social prejudice# rather than his/her disability. From these principles we should empower people with disabilities by teaching them to choose and to decide for themselves.
          Peer counselling is very important for a person with disability to help him/her accept his/her disability. Independent Living Centre in the Philippines offer peer counselling as a tool to empower people with disabilities. Peer counsellors are persons with disabilities themselves and during peer counselling activities persons with disabilities are encouraged to speak freely about his/her emotion that he/she usually reserve in front of non-disabled people. They are also advocatingfor personal assistance system to be funded by the government. It is also a good training ground to develop future leaders who willadvance the rights of persons with various disabilities. Empowered participants must organize self-help groups in their own locality to pay forward the knowledge, ability, and skills they have acquired from this proposed project.
          There are numerous women#s organisations in Laguna but surprisingly there is no women with disability association.  One of my goals is to empower women with disabilities to develop their leadership and participatory skills. This group experiences double discrimination because they are women and they have disabilities.  I have been receiving report of workplace discrimination experienced by our women with disability.They are not considered forpromotion on the basis of their disability.  We have to stop this discriminating act once and for all. The first step is to organise Women with Disabilities in Santa Cruz, Laguna.
          We will develop PWDs (through peer counselling) who are well-informed of his rights, whose voices are heard, and whose personal choices and decisions are respected.    We envisioned that Independent Living is the key to be free to choose, decide, and to achieve dreams as PWDs with equal rights with others.