The group came to Rochester School for the Deaf with Discovering Deaf Worlds, a local non-profit that works with developing countries to help enhance the lives of the deaf and hearing impaired.
Eleven Filipino deaf leaders are at RSD to learn more about education and early childhood development. They are also are learning from local experts about strategic planning, disability law, finance and fund development.
While they are here, they will also take in cultural events such as the George Eastman House and Lilac Festival.
"Rochester, as a lot of us know, has the highest deaf population per capita in the country. We know deaf doctors, deaf lawyers, deaf accountants, professors, everything. To have those kind of role models here in the community is great exposure for our delegation from the Philippines, but it's also great exposure for our Rochester counterparts to learn from these top leaders in the developing world as well," said David Justice, Discovering Deaf Worlds.
"What we've learned we'd like to apply to training deaf people, especially when it comes to youth. For example, clarifying their vision and goals, objectives, coming together, cohesiveness with our goals so we can be effective," said Mackie Calbay, deaf advocacy coordinator.
The group will visit Buffalo on Tuesday and Syracuse on Thursday. Their three week visit to the region will wrap up May 26.
