Hi, my name is Cheryl Ann Tanudtanud-Xavier, PTRP,
MBA. Most people know me as Tchai. I’m a PT graduate of CDU,
Batch ‘97. I began my PT career as an academician for Silliman
University and Cebu Doctors. Then in 2001, I took the road less
travelled: I worked as a volunteer PT in Sri Lanka and the Maldives
for VSO. Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) is a development
organisation from the United Kingdom which sends professional
volunteers to different developing countries all over the world. It
was during this 2-year placement that my journey in development
and humanitarian work started. As a volunteer PT, I established the
only paediatric rehabilitation and supportive seating service in the
Maldives.

After being a volunteer, I became a technical staff
for Motivation Charitable Trust, an international disability and
development organisation in the UK. As a PT, I was part of a team
of rehab professionals setting-up amputee rehabilitation centres in
Sri Lanka on a project funded by USAid in response to the growing
population requiring prosthetics and orthotics due to the ongoing
civil war in the country. At the completion of this project, I was
promoted to work as Asia Wheelchair Services Coordinator.

For nearly 5 years, as a PT, I worked with a multinational
team in different cultures to establish wheelchair services in
partner local organisations dealing with mobility disabilities in Sri
Lanka, India, Nepal, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. This
allowed me to discover the multifaceted aspect of being a Physical
Therapist. I was not only a clinician, but also a trainer, a manager,
a technician and a development worker specializing on wheelchair
services in less resourced settings.

It is with this back-drop of experiences, that I was invited
by the World Health Organisation to participate in a global Training
of Experts in Washington, DC last July 2012 to orient us on the
Wheelchair Service Training Package – Basic Level. This was a
training package that was develop by WHO following the 2007
release of the WHO Guidelines on wheelchair provision in less
resourced settings. What was even more interesting for me was the
realisation that I was the only Filipino in the group and that I have
worked alongside 3 of the 5 WHO consultants who authored and
developed the training package.

My personal advocacy is to use the skills and experiences
I have gained in the past decade to develop wheelchair services
here in our country, the Philippines. It is time to give back...