She’s not your typical kolehiyala, nor your extraordinary friend. She went to the convention in her blouse, straight-cut pants and brown sandals, standing proud despite her rare condition. Who would have thought that she lived her life normally?
With her booming voice fleeting in joy as she answer campus journalist’s questions, Janine Soliva, 24, has become a familiar presence in the office of Iloilo’s third district Board Member Jet Roxas.
Janine is not a regular person you have known. She is unique, very different from the rest of the crowd, yet she lives by the principle that the future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope.
She is a disabled person having a congenital defect in her limbs as a result of an overdose of medicine taken by her mother during pregnancy.
Though she faced piles of discriminations since birth, Janine ignores it and acts what a normal person can actually perform realizing how difficult it was for her because of her disability.
When asked about the manner her parents brought her up, she proudly replied, “Ginpadako ako sang akon mga ginikanan as a normal person. They showed no special treatment among the six of us. Each has an exclusive character and physical attributes; each one of us is unique.”
Despite her exceptional disability, Janine finished the degree of Bachelor of Science in Community Development at Western Visayas College of Science and Technology (WVCST). Indeed, it proved that no matter how different you are from the rest, God has given us equal opportunities to live, fulfill and reach the dreams we aspire.
With the authority that Republic Act 7277 has brought, disabled persons have the inherent right to respect for their human dignity, they have the same civil and political rights as others and they have the right to economic and social security and to a decent level of living among others.
For According to Steve Guttenberg, an English novelist, “If you're an underdog, mentally disabled, physically disabled, if you don't fit in, if you're not as pretty as the others, you can still be a hero.”
That’s a fact. Now, she serves as Secretary to the Iloilo Provincial Federation of Differently-Abled Persons. In service, she found her joy. Nothing can stop her from serving the people because she considers herself as a catalyst for change – a change for the better, not for the worse.
It was an uphill path she walked on. She knew there was no turning back, so that’s what she did - HOPE.
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