News
As more and more volunteers join in on the RYE School iniative, it allows us to add more and more classes.
Our most recent addition is two new English Land One classes in the baranagay (village) of Sugod.
We also conducting educational surverys in the barangays of Cawayan and Carmen. Once the surveys have been marke and the students collated, we will be able to add six more RYE School classes!
We have also just started computer classes with some of the local teachers. More on this later!
The RYE School initiative in Romblon has taken it up another couple of notches with the addition of eighty new students in the villages of Carmen and Cawayan. The students are studying the English Land One and English Land Three series of books.
Camilla - a Meaningful Volunteer - bravely travels by motorcycle everyday up the side of a mountain to teach the children in Cawayan. Classes are canceled when it rains - it is just too dangerous to travel on the roads. The children themselves face an arduous journey just to get to school. They must navigate the treacherous paths up and down the mountain. Once again, when it rains the path becomes treacherous and too dangerous for the kids to get to school safely.
The kids are very excited to attend the RYE School program. Joshua - for example - attended his first RYE School classdespite being sick and having to walk an hour to school.
Cawayan was chosen by Meaningful Volunteer because its pretty much ignored by everyone else. It's ignored because its hard to get to. The school buildings are run down; the roads pot-holed at best and downright dangerous at worst; the houses are generally nepia huts; the health care center operates from the same building as the daycare center and lacks many basic health supplies; and the kids are malnourished and lack a local high school.
We try to emphasize a quality over quantity with our programs and our class sizes are capped at ten. The need for Cawayan is still great though as is shown by the numerous kids who peer into the class.
Brave souls like Camilla - teamed up with Meaningful Volunteer programs - are starting to make a difference.
Stay tuned to see the progress of the new classes and life in Cawayan
A critical step in any mangrove reforestation is an in depth knowledge of the mangrove species. This was a critical step identified in our Project Plan.
With this in mind, Meaningful Volunteer is delighted to announce that all mangrove species on Tablas island have been documented and are now available online.
Each mangrove species documented has:
A special thanks to SIKAT for their assistance with this information.
After many months of training, research and hard work, Meaningful Volunteer and the Project Lifecycle team are delighted to announce that thirty-six local health care workers have been successfully trained in the SDM (Standard Days Method) method.
Mitos Rivera - a family planning expert who works with the IRH (Institute of Reproductive Health) - was flown in from Manila for the training. The training was carried out in the small barangay (village) of Sugod,
Being a poor province in a developing country, there were some technical issues to overcome that you wouldn't get in a developed country. Just getting the health workers to the venue was a challenge! Several tricycles has to be hired to get the workers there.
Due to some maintenance on some power lines, there was no power at the training venue. Our sound technician bravely put together a very long power extension cord that ran down the length of a street. Once the power was sorted out, Mitos was able to launch into her presentation (using the projector kindly donated by Bob Bosza).
Mitos did an excellent job with the training. The health workers learned about the SDM method, studied the SDM support materials, worked through some case studies, and had some fun as well.
A special thanks goes out to our sponsors for their financial help in making this training happen. They are (in no particular order):
Thanks guys. You are all awesome!
Check out all the pictures from the event here.
The next stage for Project Lifecycle is to distribute the SDM products and support materials to the health workers and to run some information days in the villages.
We then plan to work closely with the Catholic Church to get SDM introduced as part of their standard family planning methods
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.
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
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
Teaching computer classes in a developing country is hard. Our volunteers have done wonderful work in overcoming numerous obstacles including:
One piece of the puzzle was missing: A projector. Bob Bozsa - based in the United States of America - responded our need and donated a projector.
The projector is already making the world of difference. Understanding tasks such as drag-and-dropping and resizing column widths is so much easier to understand when you can watch the teacher doing it.
The projector will also be used for family planning sessions and any other community based work that Meaningful Volunteer is doing.
Thanks Bob! You've made a world of difference to many impoverished Filipinos.
Meaningful Volunteer was recently invited to give a presentation at a mini-conference in Sugod, St. Agustin. The conference focused on ending gender-based violence and inequality issues.
Ingrid Potgieter headed up the talk with Malcolm Trevena. Eden Navia assisted with translation.
The talk focused on the SDM method of contraception. Ingrid introduced the method, went over the scientific basis for it and talked about who the method is suitable for. The talk was very well received with many ladies expressing interest in the method.
No necklaces were actually given out though as we want to make sure all our processes and training are in place before we start distributing them. Nothing could be worse for the project than an untrained person using the necklace, incorrectly using it and then getting pregnant. The necklace would immediately be perceived as "useless".
In about three of four weeks time, Meaningful Volunteer has arranged for Mitos Rivera from the Institute of Reproductive Health to come and provide training to the BHWs (Barangay [village] Health Workers). Once this is complete, we will be in a position to start distributing the necklaces.
Ed Thayer - from the U.S.A. recently visited Meaningful Volunteer in Romblon to see how the projects were progressing. He originally wanted to volunteer with Meaningful Volunteer, but time and business constraints made it impossible.
Instead he made a fleeting visit (2 hours!) from nearby Boracay to present two laptop computers for use in the RYE School. They were gratefully accepted by the students and will bring the total computer count up to six. This will allow Meaningful Volunteer to reach even more students.
Ed also took the opportunity to visit a local school before heading back to Boracay. He promises to be back before Christmas.
The initial RYE School Summer Classes have come to an end. A big thanks to Steve, Betsy and Josh who worked so hard to make it a success!
The classes were taught in an unused local school (as they children were on their summer break). As a way of saying thank you for the use of the classrooms, Meaningful Volunteer donated ten boxes of chalk to the school. The Filipino government gives a measly 300 pesos chalk budget for each teacher for the year. This amounts to about 1 cm of chalk per lesson! Needless to say, the chalk was gratefully accepted. Meaningful Volunteer also covered the power bill and will continue to support the school through the year.
The two English Land 3 classes will be combined into one class and taught during the students lunch break. The English Land 5 and 6 students were also combined into one class. There has been a reshuffle of some of the computer classes as well.
Some of our students graduated from Elementary School and now move onto the high school stage of their education. We wish them well. There is no high school in Sugod, so they all face a long walk - sometimes more than an hour - in the hot sun just to get school. Many of them will have to walk up and down a mountain as well. The stark reality for many of these students is that only 1 in 3 of then will be unable to finish high school, mostly due to financial reasons
The classes will be continued to be taught in spare rooms in the school until we get our own facilities built.
