Members from the organizing Philippine Accessible Disability Services (PADS) with Cebu City councilor Eugenio Gabuya Jr. (fifth from left) at the press conference of the Break the Silence Global Run.
CDN PHOTO/CHRISTIAN MANINGO
THE CEBU City Government signified its support for the Break The Silence run that will be held this Sunday.
The footrace held simultaneously around the world aims to raise the awareness of sexual abuse on deaf women and children. It will have 3-kilometer, 6k, 12k and 21k distances.
The Cebu leg will start at the SM Seaside City Cebu and will feature around 2,000 runners. The USA, Australia, New Zealand and Hungary will also hold their own footraces for this cause. All in all, almost 10,000 will be joining the worldwide simultaneous event.
Proceeds of the race will support the program to protect persons with disabilities, especially the deaf community.
One of the main supporters of this event is the Cebu City Government, which helped by waiving off all of its fees and taxes for the race.
Cebu City Councilor and deputy mayor for sports Eugenio “Jun” Gabuya Jr. announced in a press conference yesterday at his office in Cebu City Hall that instead of paying for fees to stage this run, he suggested that organizers use the funds to help the deaf women and children who are abused.
“As a show of support to the PWD community, we waived off all of their fees. In fact, there’s an ordinance passed that all PWDs shall receive a P12,000 annual financial aid from the city government and I hope this will be approved,” Gabuya Jr. said.
To further show its support to PWDs, the city government also donated two standard-sized dragon boats for training purposes of PWD paddlers who are scheduled to compete in various national and international dragon boat competitions.
According to Gabuya, a band of deaf Cebuano paddlers will compete in an international dragon boat competition in Hong Kong later this year.