Deaf Entrepreneurship Program

​DEP was conceived in 2014 after Ms. Capalit witnessed how her former Deaf students struggled to find employment after finishing vocational-technical courses. Unfortunately, most of the establishments where they applied for work preferred hiring applicants with no hearing disability. Moved by their sad plight, she began introducing entrepreneurship as an alternative means for livelihood to her students. She initiated the "Deaf Sweet Business" wherein students were taught bread and pastry production and product selling. Students were amazed on how their money grew out of sheer hardwork and focus. This was the early stage of Ms. Capalit's Deaf Entrepreneurship Program (DEP).

 

In April 2016, she applied for Australia Awards Scholarship and presented DEP as her Re-Entry Action Plan (REAP). Fortunately, she was granted the scholarship in January 2017 and completed Master of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia in July 2018. Upon her return to the Philippines, she then introduced her project to her colleagues and Deaf students but waited for the next school year to formally start.

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DEP was finally implemented in School Year 2019-2020 at the Agusan National High School (ANHS), Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, Philippines. The recipients were Deaf students of ANHS and some adult members of the Butuan Deaf Association (BDA) who were also graduates of ANHS-SPED Program. It was aimed at addressing the lack of entrepreneurial knowledge and skills of Deaf learners.

 

Ms. Capalit rendered two outputs for her REAP: (1) Conduct of entrepreneurship classes to Deaf participants from June 2019 up to March 2020, and a (2) Handbook that summarised all the lessons of DEP.

 

Ms. Capalit finished writing the handbook, entitled, "Basics of Entrepreneurship: A Guide to Building a Startup for Deaf Individuals" in April 2020. Below is the handbook's cover. Front illustration was made by Jhong Jhong Sugian, President of the Butuan Deaf Association (BDA) and one of the DEP recipients.