July Newsletter
Table Of Contents
General News
New Programs Added
Twitter
Meaningful Blog
RYE School News
Alternate Learning System Computer Class Added
More Computers Donated
Pico-Hydro Feasibility Study
Seeking Corporate Sponsorship in Makati
Handover Notes
Project Lifecycle News
Rolling out Project Lifecycle
Locals Using the SDM Method
Project Lifecyle Project Plan
The Meaningful Shop News
Payawpao Orchids Formed
Payawpao Orchids Logo Designed
First Payment to the Payawpao Orchids
Help the Orchids with a few clicks
General News
New Programs Added
Meaningful Volunteer is delighted to announce the addition of - not one! - but two new programs!
The Meaningful Shop - The Philippines
The Meaningful Shop is the umbrella organization for Meaningful Volunteer that coordinates all the various craft groups and sponsorship opportunities across Meaningful Volunteer placement countries. It will be all coordinated via the website www.meaningfulshop.org (still in development).
By volunteering in the Philippines, you'll get to work with the wonderful ladies who are part of the Payawpao Orchids craft group. Mt Payawpao (Pa-ya-pow) is a local mountain that dominates the local landscape.
It is important that you bring some new craft ideas with you when you volunteer with the programs. Just "hanging out" with the ladies is not encouraged.
Click here for more info.
RYE School - Uganda
Following hot on the heals of the success of our Philippines RYE School, we're already making plans to launch one in Uganda.
Early applicants for this program will have the chance to:
- Help us set the RYE School initiative
- Help us with control group testing
- Help with an environmental "fee paying" activity
- Teach some wonderful Ugandan kids
Click here for more info.
Twitter
You can now follow Meaningful Volunteer of Twitter here. Don't forget our Facebook group as well.
Meaningful Blog
Part of the Meaningful Volunteer philosophy is to be as up front and honest as we possibly can. The new Meaningful Blog is an extension of that ideal. Both the successes and failures will be recorded here. Malcolm Trevena - the founder of Meaningful Volunteer - will be writing the blogs and hopes by that by sharing the information, people can see how hard that everyone associated with Meaningful Volunteer is working towards making a meaningful difference in developing communities.
You can read the introduction blog here and how some women are finding empowerment through a craft project here.
New blogs will be published every week or so.
RYE School News
Alternate Learning System Computer Class Added
Meaningful Volunteer has a philosophy of teaching anyone that wants to learn. If you don't want to learn and you don't want to study, then that's fine. But you'll have no part of our programs.
With this idea in mind, Meaningful Volunteer has added a new ALS computer class. What is ALS? ALS stands for Alternate Learning System. These type of programs used to be called OOSY (Out Of School Youth) but the name was changed to reflect the interest by adults in such programs. Our particular class has a fifty-fifty mix of adults and youth.
The new computers that Bob Bozsa donated are being used in this program
More Computers Donated
Meaningful Volunteer is a 100% non-profit organization. We rely on the fees of generous volunteers to fund our projects.
We also receive help from corporate sponsors and individuals. One such individual is Bob Bozsa. Bob has already donated a projector for use in our computer classes.
Bob also recently sent a large amount of money to help fund Meaningful Volunteer projects. Most of the money went to purchase three additional computers. The computers will initially be used in the RYE School in the Philippines. They will then be transported to Uganda for use in the Heart of Uganda program.
Click here for more info.
Pico-Hydro Feasibility Study
James Willet - a Meaningful Volunteer and green energy expert - recently finished a feasibility study for a pico-hydro system for the RYE School in the Philippines.
What is pico-hydro? Pico-hydro uses a freshwater stream to generate small amounts of electricity. The water is collected at the top of the stream into an intake bay, fed into a long pen-stock pipe that runs directly down the mountain which then spins an electric generator.
The system that will be used for the RYE School will generate approx. 1 kilowatt of electricity and save 0.9 tonnes of harmful greenhouse gases every year. About 500 watts will be used to power the RYE School during peak hours and the rest will be used to charge car batteries. The car batteries will then be used to power household that aren't on the power grid. They will typically be used to power lights and a small radio.
The feasibility study showed that pico-hydro is a much more economical system than solar energy given the local conditions.
The report can be downloaded here.
Seeking Corporate Sponsorship in Makati
Malcolm Trevena - founder of Meaningful Volunteer - was recently in Makati to try and get some corporate sponsorship for the RYE School.
Makati is the financial hub of the Philippines. It is where almost all of the big corporations in the Philippines have their base. It is the Wall Street of the Philippines.
Malcolm had meetings with two corporations.
The first was with Shell Philippines*. Malcolm went through all the various Meaningful Volunteer projects before going into specific funding requirements for the RYE School. Shell Philippines were very impressed with the RYE School initiative and the "modest cost" to build the RYE School itself. Some more work needs to be done to align the financial requirements with Shell Philippines' CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) philosophy. Early results are promising and it looks like Shell Philippines and Meaningful Volunteer will work closely in the future.
Click here for more info.
Handover Notes
One of the challenges in running a volunteer program is continuity. Sometime volunteers stay for a month, sometimes they stay for six months. During the transition period, we try to minimize the impact on the students as much as we can.
We have implemented many methods to solve this problem including.
- The ability to see your classes before you arrive.
Here is one such class.
- "Meet" your students
Say "Hello" to Maria!
- See how the student is performing
Here is Maria's performance
We have now added the final piece of the puzzle in the form of handover notes. These are notes left by former volunteers about tricks and tips for teaching a particular pupil. Click here to see the handover notes for David and here for Arvie's.
Project Lifecycle News
Rolling out Project Lifecycle
Now that the training days have been finished, Project Lifecycle is all set to go! To celebrate and acknowledge the wonderful work of the BHWs (Barangay [village] Health Workers), they were all presented with a certficate of attendance and an ID badge. They were all very excited to be acknowleged.
The ID badge will formaly identify the BHW as being trained in the SDM (Standard Days Method) method.
The BHWs are now fully equiped to go out into the community and commence selling the necklace. Each necklace will sell for 100 pesos (~ $US 2.08) with 20 pesos (~ $US 0.42) going to the BHW who sold the necklace.
Locals Using the SDM Method
For a long time now, our dedicated staff have been working hard to roll out the SDM (Standard Days Method) Method here on the island of Tablas in the Philippines. We worked hard to understand the sexual health of the island with our 500 person survey and were especially pleased with how well the training went.
The local BHWs (Barangay Health Workers) were very excited to go out and promote the product, but we made them wait another week or so before we finally sent them out into the community.
By all accounts, the BHWs have been very successful in promoting and selling the SDM Necklaces. It was very satisfying for us when one of volunteer happened to be in a locals home and took this picture.
On a slightly funnier (tragic?) note, we learnt that one lady in the isolated village of Cawayan thought that she had to first boil the necklace and then drink the resulting mixture! A local health care worker was quickly dispatched to put her right.
Project Lifecyle Project Plan
Ingrid Potgieter and Malcolm Trevena have been the two mainstays of Project Lifecyle. They both worked out to successfully roll out the SDM (Single Days Method) method of contraception. Ingrid recently departed for her home in New Zealand and Malcolm is soon to depart to Uganda to expand the Meaningful Volunteer initiatives.
It is important that the lessons learnt, knowledge acquired, and methods implemented by both Malcolm and Ingrid are not lost. The information is invaluable to future volunteers and - in fact - anyone else who wants to roll out the SDM in the Philippines or other countries.
With that in mind, Meaningful Volunteer is proud to release its on-line project plan for Project Lifecycle. You can view the on-line plan here.
Over the coming weeks, both Malcolm and Ingrid will fill out relevant sections of the plan with information they have acquired. Future volunteers will firstly use this as a resource and then supplement the plan further with the lessons they have learnt.
The project plan is based on the Standard Days Method: Implementation Guidelines for Program Personnel. which was developed by Georgetown University in Washington D.C. The orginal document can be downloaded here.
Any part of this publication may be reproduced and excerpts from it may be quoted without permission, provided
the material is distributed free of charge and the Institute for Reproductive Health, Georgetown University and/or Meaningful Volunteer is credited as the source of all copies, reproductions, distributions and adaptations of the material.
The Meaningful Shop News
Payawpao Orchids Formed
Meaningful Volunteer is set to launch the Meaningful Shop in the not-too-distant future. The Meaningful Shop is a coordinated approach of all the various Meaningful Volunteer craft and sponsorship initiatives across the world.
The Payawpao Orchids are the first group to join the initiative. Mt. Payawpao is a local mountain that dominates the local landscape
The Payawpao Orchids initially consists of five ladies: Erna, Agustina, Flor, Vivina and Bhim. Once the five ladies are generating enough money for themselves, five more ladies will be added. Once those ladies are earning enough, five more will be added and so on.
The Payawpao Orchids are starting by making paper based jewelry. The technique involves taking recycled paper, cutting it into long thin triangles and rolling the triangles into tight beads. Wood varnish is added to make the beads hard.
Payawpao Orchids Logo Designed
Branding is an important part of any organization and the Payawpao Orchids craft group is no exception.
The Filipino people are wonderfully talented and are capable of many great things.
With these is mind, the Meaningful Shop sought out a local person to design the logo for the Payawpao Orchids. Click here to view the new logo.
The logo was designed by Willie Fesarit - husband of Flor (a Payawpao Orchid) and pastor the Four Square Gospel Church.
Willie hand-painted the logo which was then scanned into the computer. The logo contains a picture of the Mt. Payawpao - a local mountain that dominates the landscape. The mountain is surrounded by orchids that symbolize the beautiful Filipinas in the craft group.
First Payment to the Payawpao Orchids
After much measuring, cutting, rolling, and varnishing, the Payawpao Orchids have produced their very first craft item!
Now that they have the process sorted out, they are producing many beads and necklaces.
Not only have they produced many craft items, but they have also sold their first items to Meaningful Volunteer James Willet from the U.S.A. The other volunteers on the island were equally excited and purchased their own items which led to the very first payment to the craft group.
Each lady received approx. 1,000 pesos (~ $US 20.83). This will be the first of many and the amount should increase overtime. The Meaningful Shop retained 10% of the money from the items sold. This will go toward the hosting of the website as well as the purchase of plastic beads, paper, varnish, and so on.
Help the Orchids with a few clicks
The Payawpao Orchids have been working hard and coming up with all sorts of wonderful crafts in preperation of the launch of the Meaningful Shop online store.
The need your help to price their stock and tell them what items you like and don't like.
So, what are you waiting for? Click here and fill our the survey for the ladies!
Keep in mind when you suggest prices, that all profits are returned directly to the ladies
|