Monday, 29 September 2014

The Committees..

During our trip here, we will have different type of events throughout. The events need committees, so we picked which events we wanted to be a committee for. 

There are -

The social committees who will arrange social events through out the trip, and it has a budget, which we don't know of yet. The committees are Charlotte, Emilie and Jennylyn. 

Mid Phase Review committees, this is where we review what has been happening and how we can improve the negatives for the rest of the programme. This will take place on the 16th of October and 17th of October. The committees are Gemma, Chelsea and Kimberly. The budget for this is 20,000 Pesos. 

Debrief committees, this will happen in the end, when we review everything and debrief the programme. The committees are Joe, Miguel and Rhosette. The budget for this is 35,000 Pesos.

The farewell party committee will arrange a farewell party to say goodbye to everyone etc. The committees are Maryan, Pippa and Deane. We don't know the budget for this either. 

Community Action Day and Active Citizen Day have a budget of 4,000 Pesos, as we do not need to travel out of Cebu for this. The committees are - ACD- Leanne, Jorelei and I. CAD- Phoebe and Lucilo. 

We have communication committees who publish our work and makes sure everything runs smoothly etc. 



A week into work!

As I promised in my last blog, this will be very brief! On the first day at my work, I had a tour around the centre and was told information about the centre, which you can read in my last blog- which is very long! Apologies to those who ought it was boring!

Anyways! We work from Tuesday to Friday as on Mondays we have our team meetings!

Tuesday 23rd September- I arrived late because I have to get two jeepneys to work and they take FOOOOREVEEERRRR! Florita asked us to write a 'bio data' which is like a CV for her, so she could put opus into certain workshops and to give us schedule. But she wanted us to have our picture taken first for the bio data (I have no idea why). So we had our picture taken, in which I look terrible! And waited for Florita to give us some kind of form to fill in. Because I thought there were such things as bio data forms, I don't know how I got this idea. But anyways, as we waited for AGES! From about 10am to 12pm, we waited we then had our lunch at 12pm. At 1pm, I asked Florita, if she was going to give us something to write on- miscommunication alert- "where's your bio data? Write your bio data" Florita said back to me, not answering my question. I then realised she wasn't going to give USA nothing to write on. She expected us to just write on some paper. I went back to the room and informed the others of this and we wrote our bio data down.

We gave our "CVs" to her and waited until about 5pm. She then gave us this paper thingy where we check in and out of work, like the old times. I got very excited about this, lame I know, but I don't care. I checked out at 5.04pm.

Wednesday 24th September- I arrived at 09.14am, late again, but like I said earlier, it takes forever to my work placement, and I did try waking up early, but I hate waking up too early..... :-D Florita took us to the conference room and placed us in certain work stations.

Jennylyn-
Commercial Cooking
Dress and Apparel

Miguel-
Housekeeping
Basic Cosmetology

 Joe-
Computer Technology
Consumer Electronics
Furniture and Cabinet Making

Me-
Office work, yes, office work. I got this because of my 'experience and education'. I'm not going to lie, at first, I was a bit gutted with this, but then got a wee bit excited at the idea of working with psychologist and social workers etc.

So I started straightaway into the office with no work to do. I asked around for work and there easy nothing for me to do. The lady in the same office as me, gave me two books about AVRC and said to me 'read this so you can know more about the centre'. I politely took the book and proceeded to read, but knew it all due to last Friday's pre-orientation about the centre. But I found this interesting information-

"In the Philippines- the National Statistics Office reported that 1.23% of the 76.5 million Filipinos are categorised as persons with disability (PWDs) or these persons with physical, mental, sensory and other form of impairment."

I got frustrated at doing nothing and told the lady that I already know about the centre and if there was anything else I can do. She looked like she felt a bit bad, and said 'oh yes, can you please help me by gluing the envelope so I can post the invitations?'

This wasn't anything of me working with the Deaf or helping the Deaf community, but it was better than doing nothing. So I spent my morning and a bit after lunch gluing. The lady told me that there will be a lady who is going to give me work. But this didn't happen.

I got annoyed and joined Joe who had to print 120 leaflets for the 40th year anniversary of AVRC - Foundation Day. I wandered around most of the day and went home at 04.05pm.

Thursday 25th September- I'll summarise my morning- I basically did nothing. After lunch, I taught the Deaf trainees some multiplications and divisions, we played some games as well. I really enjoyed this session and it lasted from 1pm-4pm. I found this task a bit challenging as there were different levels of knowledge of the subject.

One of the girls asked if I wanted my nails done, and I felt bad if I said no, so I let her to do what she was good at.

We spent the last half hour talking about my family being a Deaf. The trainees were so shocked and wanted some kind of answer to why we are Deaf. I tried to explain that we were just born Deaf. They replied with some sort of 'was it because you were sick? Maybe your mum took a wrong medication? Were you born in a hospital? Maybe the doctor did something to you?'
I then found out that every single Filipinos became deaf because one of the following reasons- sickness, the mother took some wrong medication, wasn't born in a hospital or the doctor did something wrong to them.

I was amazed at this and remembered that something very similar happened in the UK, a long time ago, before it wasn't a shame to be Deaf. I felt like telling them that it may all be lies and they were actually just born Deaf.

One girl asked 'how come your parents only had girls? Not boys?' I didn't know how to answer this!! Haha!

I checked out at 04.09pm.

Friday 26th September- I arrived at 09.32am, because my schedule has changed from 9am-5pm to 10am-4pm because the journey was far too long. I was assigned to write an excel form of the delivery that came in the morning. I was slightly pissed at this because once again, it has nothing to do with my coming to the Philippines. But I did it anyways because there were nothing else to do! I was then told to scan some letters and email it.

My next task was to write the name of the folders in the filing cabinets. I got up to fifty and lost it, I wrote to Flortia complaint about how I have been here over a week and hasn't been given a schedule other than to teach the staff Filipino sign Language on Tuesdays from 4pm-5pm and to teach work ethics to the Deaf trainees on Thursdays from 1pm-4pm. I also told her that I came here to help the Deaf community and the work she has given me was not relevant at all.

She told me to wait and go to cosmetology, where I had a facial from one of the trainees. I felt really guilty because I didn't come here to get treatments, I came to help! (I was asked to be given the facial by the way).

I got sick of observing, getting treatments and doing nothing so I went home at 03.23pm.

Bye! :)

Area Vocational Rehabilitation Centre- AVRC.

AVRC is where I will be working at for the rest of the nine weeks I have left. This centre is the same or very similar to apprenticeship in the UK. "Vocational Training Center for Persons with Disabilities serving Regions I,II, III and CAR of the Republic of the Philippines" (from their FB) so basically the trainees here train a specific course and they have allowance during that period of time. When they are trained, they then go out and find a job with help from the centre also.

On the 19th of September, we had a like a wee tour and pre-orientation of AVRC. Our Officer In Charge (OIC) is called Florita, and her signing is poor- she signs like a word, speak twenty words, a sign, twenty words and so in (I think you get the message.) 

Anyways, she did a presentation and I wrote it all down. I'm going to type it up here and hopefully it will not bore you! 

AVRC is under DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development): their main goal is to provide vocational skills for persons with disabilities (PWDs). 

The background- 

After the Republic Act of 2615 of 1959, AVRC was established in 1974 in Brgy. Labangon, Cebu City. The centre was expected to serve an estimated 1.7 million multi-disability group of clientele in the entire Visayas Region. There are Regions of V1, V11, V111 and V1111.

AVRC 1- Northern and Central Luzon, Dagupan City.
AVRC 11- Brgy. Labangon, Ceby City (where I'm working at)
AVRC 111- Zamboanga City in Mindanao.
NVRC 1111 (National Vocational Rehabilitation Centre)- Quezon City (pilot centre) for Metro Manila and Southern Luzon.

The objectives- 

-Maximise residual capacities of PWDs through assessment and guidance, social adjustment, vocational training and placement services.
The DSWD support the trainings.

-Maximum functioning of the person's psychological, vocational and spiritual capacities and encourage integration into the community.

-Serve as a training facility for the students of social work, Physical/Occupational Therapy, Psychology, Information Technology, education and other allied Professional.

-One-storey concrete building on a two hectare lot donated by the Cebu City Government.

-Training tools and equipment provided by DSWD and international organisations (SEATO and ICO-UWPD), civic organisations (Rotary Clubs, friends of Jane Lim-Chua, etc) and business (Timex Phils).

-Physical Occupational Therapy Units were established in Coordination with Cebu Doctors/ Uni a Department of Rehabilitation Sciences to serve indigent survivors of stroke, polio and other orthopedical and neurological conditions.

-Prosethesis workshop established in coordination with Handicapped International to provide prosthetics affordable to low income families.

-Computer Laboratory also established through the assistance of local Rotary Clubs of Cebu-West and International (Engineers without Borders) organisations to provide access to information Technology to PWDs.

AVRC Goals- 

-Provision and promotion of vocational rehabilitation services as legal right of PWDs.

-Development of human resources through a comprehensive vocational rehabilitation programme which will enable them to acquire practical skills for eventual employment.

A"VRC needs us,  the volunteers, for the development of attitude and behaviour for the Deaf. It's very important to have good attitude and behaviour."

-Attainment of social and economic competence that will make PWDs productive members of the community.

AVRC does not just accept the enrolment of persons with disabilities, but also

-Recovered Drug Dependable and Alcoholics.
-Negative Hansenites.
-Released Prisoners (I KNOW! However, there aren't any in the centre, the same goes for the first one).
-Arrested PTB cases.
-Dependents/Immediate family members of PWDs.

Other client categories-

-Women in Especially Difficult Circumstances (WEDC)
-Children in Especially Difficult Circumstances (CEDC)
-Victims of Trafficking (VOT)
-Children in Conflict with the Law (CICL)

The Eligibility Requirements- 

-Working age - 16-59

- has substantial job handicap in the form of physical/social impairment.

-willing to undergo vocational training.

-has good chance of becoming employed.

Documents for Admission- 

-social case study report by local social worker.

-chest x-Ray result (with film).

-medical certificate.

-whole body picture.

Major Services- 

-Medical/Dental Services- 

Determines clients' physical fitness for the training program.
•Maintains clients' health and promote physical well being.
•Determines possibilities for physical restoration.

-Psychological/Vocational Guidance Services-

Assess clients' capabilities, interests, attitudes and skills as well as selection of suitable vocational goals.
•Enhance personality and promote values through Structured Learning Activities and group dynamics. - interpersonal relationship.

-Social Adjustment Services- 

•Assist the clients to come up with own assessment of their problems of situation.
•Facilitate formulation of rehabilitation goals that would enable clients to reach optimum adjustment to their disability and integration to their families and communities.

-Vocational Training Services- 

•Assist clients develop positive work habits and attitudes.
•Facilitates acquisition of knowledge and skills in occupation and activities that would lead to economic productivity.

-Vocational Placement Services- 

•Assists trained clients find the right job to their skills, abilities and capacities for gainful employment.
•Provides employment counselling towards selective placement and occupational adjustment.

There are sixty students altogether in the centre, nineteen of the clients are Deaf. Fifteen courses are set in the centre but only eight are in use.

I really hope I didn't bore you with this long blog?! The next blog will be about my week in work, which will be brief! You'll find out why!

Au Reviour!


Sunday, 28 September 2014

PRO7 and the IPAD Project

We all went to Regional 7 police station in Cebu to find out about whether the police officers are aware of how to communicate with the Deaf. The GVSP and PRO7 work together providing the accessibilities the Deaf need, such as interpreters and a number to text instead of calling in case of an emergency.

They are currently working on a project called 'IPAD' - Information and Police Access for the Deaf.

Here's an extract from - http://www.philstar.com/cebu-news/2013/11/16/1257320/pro-7-set-pilot-test-pwd-friendly-program?&wgzt=yes

"CEBU, Philippines - The Police Regional Office-7 and the Gualandi Volunteer Service Programme Philippines have signed a memorandum of agreement to pilot test a program for the benefit of  Persons with Disabilities, particularly the deaf.
The MOA created the Information and Police Access for the Deaf (IPAD) program that aims to improve the investigation, monitoring and documentation of cases involving deaf victims. The IPAD will be under the Philippine National Police’s Women and Children’s Desk and will be piloted at Cebu City Police Station 6 in Barangay Pasil, Cebu City.
“WCPD of  the PS6 will be the first to be trained how to handle deaf victims as it is the center station in the entire Cebu City,” said PRO-7 public information officer Supt. Renato Dugan.
Police officers will be trained by the GVSP on basic Filipino Sign Language and deaf culture sensitivity, courtesy to PWDs, and working with sign language interpre-ters to allow smooth communication between the deaf and hearing individuals.
Police will also network and coordinate with other agencies to conduct effective investigation and referrals when necessary.
The initiative is part of the GVSP’s Break the Silence Project which raises awareness on the rights of the deaf. The project is supported by the Australian Government through the Philippines-Australian Community Assistance Program.
PACAP provides small grants assistance to poor communities throughout the Philippines. Since it started in 1986, PACAP has awarded more than 2,200 grants to 1,320 civil society organizations benefitting more than 1.4 million poor Filipinos.
The Break the Silence Project aims to assist local government partners to deal more effectively with sexual abuse cases involving deaf persons.
It will also develop a national framework focused on the prevention of Deaf Child Sex Abuse and provide emergency support to abuse victims by providing access to deaf para-counsellors and court interpreters.
“Anyone nga deaf unya i-abuse sila regardless of age and sex pwede i-accommodate,” Dugan said. –BRP (FREEMAN)"
(I don't know what happened in the last line- it's in the article too!) 
This programme started in 2012 and it's still going on. The programme's aim is give the Deaf access to information and the police. It also involves teaching Filipino Sign Language to the police officers. This session turned into a very heated debate between mainly the UK volunteers and one of the police officers, I'll call her Brenda (can't remember her actual name). She also had some help from another woman, not sure if she's a police officer also. 
The GVSP provide interpreters (volunteers and 'qualified' in their eyes) to PRO7 two hours per day, incase of any Deaf persons walking in. I asked what would happen if a Deaf person walked in and there was no interpreter there? Brenda's response was 'we ask them to wait until the interpreter arrives'. This made me very angry as this meant that Deaf people are not getting the same treatment as hearing people. I questioned Brenda again 'what if a Deaf person walked in, and is in a very emotional state? S/he is expected to wait until an interpreter arrives?! Does any of the police officer here knows any basic sign language, such as 'how can I help you? Are you okay?' Why should a Deaf person wait longer than anyone else, just because you don't have an interpreter 24/7?" 
A lot of the UK volunteers questioned Brenda, and she sometimes tries to get away from the question and answers it differently. We then asked if she thinks a Deaf person can become a police officer, she said 'yes' but by law, a Deaf person can not become a police officer because s/he is 'physically unfit'. 
Someone told Brenda that there are some Deaf police officers in the UK, patrolling the streets or working inside the office. She seemed a bit shocked about it and asked us to speak to the government about it and make them realise that Deaf people can do anything. 
Brenda seemed positive about the Deaf community but there was something lies behind her, she doesn't seem very passionate. She did say that she can't fight for the Deaf community to the government as she can't be political and is a police officer herself, enforcing the laws. 
The main reason why we, the UK volunteers, were very, erm, a bit angry was because we know the rights for the Deaf, we know the equality we have and how badly the equality lacks in the Philippines. 
Jennylyn told Brenda that she went to her local police station to inform them that someone stabbed her father, and the police officers laughed at her and told her to fetch her mother because she is Deaf and can not communicate with the police officers. 'Where's my justice?' She asked Brenda. Brenda asked where she lives etc. but I don't think she can do anything about it. But she never said anything else afterwards. 
We all recommended to Brenda to have Deaf people working in the IPAD project, because the Deaf knows what they want and what needs to be done. Brenda informed us that's she will take the information in and do something about it, hopefully! She also said she would be more than happy to take any information we collect during our trip and any evidence/facts about the disability law in the UK. 
'Its not a discrimination if a mall denies a blind man's entry if he has a guide dog with him'. This has actually happened in Cebu, Brenda and her colleague genuinely believes that it isn't a discrimination. Because it is the mall's rule. 
I asked Brenda 'what's the law in the Philippines on disabled people?' She answered 'they are treated equally.' (Somewhere along those lines) I then told her that the blind man isn't being treated equally if he is denied an entrance to the mall. I also asked why didn't the police do something about it. She said no one reported it. 
I replied to Brenda with this- 
"But you know about it, so why haven't you done anything about it? If you have the law about treating the disabled people equal, and haven't done any action about this incident, you are breaking the rules yourself." 
Byeeee! :) 


Saturday, 20 September 2014

Gualandi Mission for the Deaf...

A little bit more about 'Gualandi' - The Congregation Piccola Missione per i Sordomuti (Little Mission for the Deaf) was founded in Bologna, Italy by Fr. Giuseppe Gualandi in 1872 and is presently working in Italy, Brazil, and the Philippines for the education and evangelization of the Deaf. The Religious Community of the Mission in the Philippines is popularly known as the Gualandi Mission for the Deaf

During our 'meeting' with Aileen, someone asked if the audiology here is free. She said it is not free in the hospitals, as an audiology test is not required when you are born as it is not in the law. If parents requested to have the hearing test done on the baby, it is very expensive. 

There was a child who was not recognised as Deaf until she was five years old, and she was recognised by her mother. 

However. Gualandi Mission for the Deaf (GMD??) provide free hearing tests, but unfortunately some deaf people or families does not know about this and a lot of them doesn't know http at there is a Deaf community. 

When parents are made aware that their child is deaf, most of the time, they are ashamed and make excuses that the child is sleeping or the noise wasn't loud enough for the child to hear. What's even more heartbreakingly is that sometimes Deaf parents does this. In the Philippines, it's very hard to accept your child's Deafness. 

GMD are trying to make deaf parents and children aware of this organisations, so they can gain free hearing aids and audiology test. Aileen is only aware of one centre which provides free audiology tests and hearing aids. However she knows that there is a centre in Manila, but it is not free. 

My next blog will be about an heated debate in the police station!

Ciao! :)

GVSP - Gualandi Volunteers Service Programme

On Tuesday, we went to the GVSP office - Gualamdi Volunteers Service Programme.

"Our Vision: A Deaf Inclusive Filipino Society.
Our Mission: To harness the potential of volunteers in advocacy and education and to contribute in building sustainable resources.
Our Core Values: To empower volunteers with the necessary knowledge, skills and values to become competent, creative and pro-active person who are open to change and having a deep sense of JUSTICE, FAITH and SOLIDARITY." 
http://gvspvolunteers.org/about-us/current-projects/ - Break the Silence: Campaign again Deaf Child Sexual Abuse
They got the name 'Gualandi' from two Italian brothers went were the first people to help the Deaf.

Some of the volunteers will be working at GVSP, publicising information about the deaf, or information for the deaf, helping the marginalised deaf people, educating them of the wrongs of sexual abuse, educating the Deaf about their rights and fighting for their rights.

They aim or prevent sexual abuse happening to Deaf people, they do this by showing cartoon of what is wrong. GVSP once showed this at a school, and a Deaf girl put her hand up and told them that her neighbour was doing it to her. He gives her 10 Peso, as he knows she loves using the computer in an Internet cafe. In return, she thought it was right to perform such sexual activity for him, as he requested it.

One of he volunteers asked "why is this happening? Why did the neighbour thinks it's okay to do it? Why did the girl think it was a right thing to do?"
Aileen's respond was "if your mind is dirty, you have to convince a person to do some kind of sexual activity"

GCSP also provide Deaf culture awareness, Deaf sensitivity and FSL training to the police officers, psychologists, volunteers and social workers. When their project started, in one year, so many (she didn't say how many exactly) contacted GVSP telling them that they have been touched, raped or abused. In 2014, there are more than 2 or 3 issues.

Staffs- Janice - a relay interpreter in courses- she's a bit like a communication support worker. John Paul and Denen (Deaf) are relay interpreters for boys who are uneducated.

A lady, I think her name is Aileen, I'm gonna call her Aileen. Anyways, she introduced GVSP to us and told us about the project- Break the Silence- link above!

She was telling us about the vulnerable position, that a lot of the Filipinos are in. They are easily taken advantage of due to them being Deaf. Criminals pick them as their easy target as they can not scream and simply because they can't tell the different between what's right and wrong.

We were told about some of the cases that GVSP had supported and some which are still ongoing. They provide support, lawyers and interpreters. We were asked to go to one public court hearing, to give out moral support to the parents of the girl who was gang raped and murdered. Aileen felt that the parents needed support from the Deaf community and to see the UK volunteers as well, because we know what's right and wrong, and perhaps to give some advices or information about the law in the UK.

I'm gonna write down information about some of the cases. Be warned, some are very graphic or upsetting!

Case one- the one I just told you about above, the neighbour and the girl. The girl was 16 years old. There were problems with the case as the grandmother of the family did not want to prosecute the neighbour because she thought it would take to long, would be too difficult therefore causing too many problems and she did not want to pay for a lawyer or an interpreter.

But after a long time persuading the grandmother, that GVSP will pay for a lawyer and provide an interpreter, which meant that the family would only need to pay for the transports to and from the court. They finally agreed to proceed in 2012. The hearing is still going on, Aileen wanted us to go to one of the hearing but the court house is too strict, they only allow whoever has a role in the case in.

Case two- in 2011, a Deaf girl was gang raped and killed by five men in a Fiesta (festival/party) in the city of LapuLapu. Her body was found three days later. The only person who recognised her was her father because of the clothes she was wearing.

She was apparently very beautiful and was asked by one man if they could talk somewhere more quiet. The girl's friend disappeared into the party, and the girl went along with the man, only to be met by four other men too. She could not speak, therefore could not defence herself and if she did scream, it was probably not heard as it was taken in a quiet place. Fiestas are normally in the mountains and loud music are always playing, another reason why she couldn't have been heard and why spher body was found three days later (me thinks?)

There is a trial still going on for her, it has taken so long because the denfence's lawyer was murdered. The victim's lawyer, I don't know why, but the lawyer had to be changed as well.

We, the sixth cycle volunteers, are invited to attend to the hearing, as it is a public court hearing. We are encouraged to go as Aileen said the parents of the victim would need the Deaf community's moral support. One batch was able to attend to the hearing last year as well in September/October.

Case three- very brief- a Deaf girl was accompanied by her neighbour, thinking she can trust him. But she was left in a stranded house and was raped by two men.

GVSP feels like the vulnerability in the deaf community is so alarming as they can not speak about their abuse, they are nit trained to be aware of any kind of abuses.

Aileen wanted us to be role models for the Filipino volunteers. She wanted hem to learn our aggressiveness, assertiveness and courage. As their attitude are normally shy, intimated and they won't ask questions. Aileen wanted us to make the hearing people aware that we can do anything, and we have rights. We don't need the 'special treatments', we only have interpreters who are our voice, ears and nothing else.

She wants our work to be sustainable. She mentioned that the teachers are very happy to have Deaf volunteers, as they think it's a good method to have a deaf teacher teaching the deaf children, making them realise that they can be anything they want to be. I visited one of the Deaf schools in Venu, and I saw a writing on the chalk board saying 'DEAF CAN BE HEROES TOO. EVERY DREAM NEEDS A HERO TO BRING IT TO LIFE.'

The Break the Silence project is done, as there are no more findings. But it is still being continued, as they are continuing what the other volunteers has left behind. They planned to do a fun run to raise money, but the time was too constraint. So they are hoping to do that next year, with two years of training the two deaf organisations in Manila and Bohol. They are hoping to have more findings to train more deaf organisations.

There will be a National convention in April by the project - Break the Silence - talking about how to set up a Deaf organisation physically and virtually.

Next blog will be about the Gualandi Mission for the Deaf- a short blog!

Byeeeee! :)






Thursday, 18 September 2014

The first host home...

On the Saturday, after being trained, being with the British people and being in our comfort zone- it was time to be escorted to our Host Home.

I was feeling very nervous as I will be living with them for three months, I had no expectations of what it's going to be like. It isn't like a sleepover at your friend's house- you're sleeping over for three months at a complete stranger's house.

All I knew was that I will be living with a mother and a child who is eight year old with the volunteers- Mikhail (British) and Rhosette (Filipino). We travelled there by a jeepeny with the other volunteers left behind as the two vans were filled by the rest. The jeepney was filled with suitcases, bags and us, the volunteers.

We approached our HH (host home) and were greeted by the eight year old girl (Nina), the driver of the jeepney helped me to get my gigantic suitcase into the house. We then met the mother - who wanted us to call her 'Mama Novie'- I felt rather uncomfortable with the term as a) she isn't my mother and b) she's still a stranger to me. However, she seemed really nice and very excited to have us around- which left a postivie impact on me, but I was still feeling unsure and homesick.

We ate the food she laid out on the table, which were meatballs, pork fat(not the meat, just fat) with some kind of sauce and of course, rice. Shr then brought chicken to the table later on which was delicious.

The volunteers had to have a meeting with the host home family, to come to an agreement of what food we liked/disliked, what chores we have to do or would like to do, what time we have to be back in the house, how can we enter the house and if there were any previous items that the host family did not want us to touch.

This is when the issues brought up in the agreement turned into a havoc later on that evening, and not only the issues in the agreement but also the bedroom sharing situation.

One of the rules of VSO, was that the male and female are not allowed to share a room. However, in our HH, Rhosette and I were suppose to share a room with Mikhail- we were confused and the youth programme co-ordinatior left us with the knowledge that a male were sharing a room with two females.

Mikhail has asked the Filipino interpreter if he was really sharing with the two females. He responded with 'yes, but it's fine because you have a curtain' may I emphasise how tiny the curtain is, it only hides his bed, it therefore does not give him any privacy to get changed. This meant that we would have to get out of the room for Mikhail to get changed and for Mikhail to get out if we wanted to get change.

During the agreement, we were asked to pay 15 Peso per month for the supplication of the mineral water- this was a strange request as we we were told we would not have to pay for anything asVSO covers it all.

The mother also asked us to put in 150 Peso weekly to save up for a trip to swim and see the whale sharks. We were told that it costs 1000 Peso each for it. I thought this was a great idea and very adventerous, until the British interpreter (Kam) told us that it doesn't even cost that much as he's been there before. That made me wonder what the mother was planning to do with the money? I guess that will never be solved.

The mother also asked Mikhail to shower outside in public, as the ladies get naked in the bathroom to wash themselves, and she felt like it was inappropriate if Mikhail did the same. This was obviously out of order.

There also weren't any jeepneys near our home, we had to walk a fair bit to get the jeepney.

I decided to speak to the team leaders about this on the following Tuesday, without realising that it would be solved sooner than that!

The house had three tiny cute puppies, one bigger puppy, and two dogs. One is a mother to the three puppies, she looked so skinny and her tits looked like there weren't any milk in it and were so saggy. This was heartbreaking to watch as my dog, Ruby, had six puppies and were treated so well. I tried to control my emotions and tried not to cry.

We went to Colon, as the mother wanted to buy a fan for the bedroom. I asked her if the we, the volunteers, could go to Ayala mall afterwards to see our friends. She led us there and asked us to meet her at the house. The team leaders were there, so Mikhail took this opportunity to tell them what had happened whilst I ordered a drink from McDonalds and cried to Gemma because I felt homesick and overwhelmed with everything.

The team leaders we're furious about the bedroom situation, with the fact that we had to pay for the water and that there weren't any jeepney a near our home- Samira said she would have never picked the home as a host home if there weren't any jeepneys near us for our safety.

The team leaders decided to pull Mikhail out of the home, which made me feel very upset as I wasn't prepared for that to happen and I wasn't prepared to be left alone with a Filipino, so the team leaders decided to pull Rhosette and I out.

After a long night of discussing  about what we should do etc, the team leaders were angry with the YPC (Youth Programme Co-Ordinator)- Rack, as she left us in this situation. The team leaders also phoned the mother if the HH and informed her of the issue. She accused us of exaggerating the situation and that there were a miscommunication- I accept the fact that there may be a miscommunication but we were definitely not exaggerating!

We were put into a nunnery again, a different one whilst Ronnie (Filipino Team Leader) and the Filipino interpreter went to the HH to collect our bags. They apparently knocked on the gate for ages, and had no respond until a pregnant lady (whom was living in the house too) opened the gate for them and let them in the house. They told her to inform Novie that they're getting the bags and leaving as Novie was asleep.

The next day (Monday), we were put into our HH at last, but were separated. I was put with Pippa (British) and Phoebe (Filipino). I felt more at ease with this HH, I didn't feel homesick, so I think the vibes I had at the original HH wasn't good.

On Tuesday, Mikhail and I received a text from Novie saying exactly this-

"I w0nder why accused me and create stories issues against me?of what we agreed about the chores and everythng? why happened you guys has negative impressi0ns??? you d0nt even clarify ?infact i already told you for us to understand each other, you have to open up then all of a sudden create stories?!im n0t f0rcing you guys to stay here just d0nt make any issues against me!!! very disap0inted of what u did!"

That's all for now! :)

Wednesday, 17 September 2014

The trainings

I thought I'd talk about the trainings we had to do before flying to the Philippines and the trainings before being out into our work placements.

Before heading to the Philippines, we attended to Leicester's University to do our training there. Whilst leaving Belfast airport, I stupidly left my suitcase at the security check up point (do not ask how) I had to spend the long weekend, borrowing my friend's clothes (thank you, Chelsea!) haha.

Throughout the weekend, we learnt about the Philippines's culture, how hard it would be being away from home, our fears and hopes, the host home, what to expect from being a volunteer, the code of conduct, the rules, we had to solve the dilemmas, and discussed what to do in possible situations with 5 different approaches which were: accommodate, compromise, control, avoid or problem solving, foods, counterpart - what to expect from them and how to deal with any type of problems with them and to put stuff like - CAD (community action day)- with the community, ACD (active citizenship days)- the volunteers only- to find out more about the Philippines, or if we have a particular topic we would like to know more about, we use one of the ten ACD to take that opportunity, KAP1,2,3 surveys, host home, placement leave host home, debrief, MPR (mid phrase review) etc in to columns of 'pre-placement', 'in placement' and 'post-placement' - I hope that makes sense? If not, please do comment!

We also talked about our idea of 'development' - I believe that in order for development to happen, you would need education first- I'll try and summarise it by doing a flowchart but horizontally!

Education-work-money-family-money to support family (food, shelter and education)-children can learn by that money from that job- then the children can succeed in having jobs from that education that the parents paid for- with the money they earned from that job- and they have that job because they had education. Therefore that kind of development is sustainable!

We then had a discussion about medical care, our health and what medicines to bring, and how to clean such wounds, how to prevent HIV and AIDS. The usual lectures you'd get from school but with more depth- I'm not going to bore you with all that details, don't worry! ;) lol!

We then had more training in the Philippines, before the work placement. The training was basically a recap of what we did in Leicester with a few more extra things we needed to know about the Philippines. As in the training we had in the UK, it was more general, and not 100% focused on the Philippines.

The interpreters did a lecture about interpreting as in the Philippines, interpreters are not as well trained as the UK interpreters are. So they went through the basics rules of interpreting- such as they are not allowed to drop in their own opinions, they have to translate everything the speaker/signer had said, they have to keep everything confidential and they talked about the definition of being
professional and their boundaries etc.

We were also informed of the different work placements that we would be doing. I'm going to be honest, I do not remember all of it (guilty!) but I will try and find out information about all of the work placement. I'm gonna tell you what I can remember and when it have find out all of the work placements, I will update this blog and inform you!

-GVSP - Gualandi Volunteers Service Programme - I will be discussing about this in my next blog.
-Basak Elementary School- teaching the Deaf children in a Deaf unit.
-First High School for the Hearing impaired, teaching the Deaf, Maths, Art and English etc.
- Zapatera School - teaching the Deaf, Maths, Art and English etc.
-AVRC (Area Vocational Rehabilitation Centre) - my work placement - I'm starting there tomorrow and I'm very excited! I will be talking about this tomorrow, because I would know more about this
project by tomorrow. Basically, I will be teaching life skills to isolated Deaf people who doesn't have a job.
-DSWD- Department of social and welfare development.
-Haven - teaching women who were abused.

I will be talking more about these placements once I know more about those!

I will update this blog- so keep an eye on this one! I will inform you when this has been updated by Facebook!
Bye for now! :)

Tuesday, 16 September 2014

LapuLapu Beach!

I'm a wee bit behind on this blog. But I thought I'd tell you about my first day meeting the Filipinos!

When arriving at the Betania  Retreat House (a nunnery basically)

About

The Venue of Quiet and Reflection for privately guided individual or group retreats.
Description
We at Betania Retreat House-Calamba, welcome you to a little haven of quiet and serenity. Betania is nestled on a hillside secluded by abundant trees and greens and flora, demonstrating God's beauty and grandeur.

We offer warm and tranquil environment for prayer, solicitude and quiet reflection to individuals and all peoples of any faith traditions. It is your ideal place for:

Group or Preached Retreats
Stay-out or Overnight Recollections
Youth Encounters
Individual Private Retreats
Seminars and Conferences
Marriage and Family Encounters
Prayer Meetings
Spiritual Direction and Counseling
Renewal Programs
Enrichment Programs and others

Betania is seedbed for contemplation, an oasis for presence and connection. Feel free to visit us or inquire by phone or email.
Betania Retreat House is managed by the Religious of the Virgin Mary (RVM). (I GOT THIS INFO FROM FB)

We were put into rooms already sharing with the Filipinos, which was a bit overwhelming as we were out out of our comfort zones! But it was a good kind of an overwhelming feeling, as it meant we had to talk to them rather than be divided into the 'Filipinos' and the 'British'.

We arrived rather late so there wasn't enough time to fully know the Filipinos well, instead we ate dinner (yes, rice was one of the food laid out), everyone introduced  themselves and we played a quick game of something like charades to "break the ice".

The next day, we got on a hired jeepeny (our very first ride) and travelled to the LapuLapu beach as our social activity! It was a very long journey as the jeepeny had to stop to get tickets for its tax(something like that, that's what I was told by one of the Filipinos) - it took us about two/three hours to get to the destination!

But it was quite a fun journey filled with laughter and an embarrassing moment for me! (I will not explain it in here as there are some people who read my blog, and I would prefer it if they did not know about this shameful moment! Haha) We learnt a lot more abut the Filipinos and the Filipino Sign language! The Filipinos also learnt out language, the British Sign Language!

I don't know about you, but my assumptions/idea of a beach is sand with the sea. Well, let's just say when I arrived, my imagination of this 'beach' was wrong.  It was like cement land (I hope that makes sense?!), with the sea right in front of it- I guess the advantage of that is no sandy feet! However, later in the day, the tides pulled in and we could see the sand! :) but by this time I was too tired to swim/walk.

We had lunch, which consisted of rice (surprise), sausages and spam. I enjoyed the sausages, so yay! We gave the leftovers to what looked like a stray dog, we, the British, felt sorry as it's unusual to see stray dogs and cats around whereas the Filipinos didn't seem so bothered! If they do have dogs as their 'pet' at home, it would either be in a cage or tied to something as they are only there for their protection. They wouldn't really have a cat as their pet!

The day was fabulous as it gave us a chance to really mingle with the Filipinos, gave us time to fully absorb the fact that we are in THE PHILIPPINES! It also gave us the chance to relax after a few hectic days of travelling!

Bye for now! :)

Saturday, 13 September 2014

A short blog about the food here in the Philippines.

The basic food of the Philippines is rice. Rice, rice, rice and rice three times a day, everyday with pork, chicken or fish and vegetables. That's what I have been eating for the past week, in Betania Retreat House (a nunnery). I'm hoping that in our host home, there will be something besides rice, but I very much doubt it! However, it has been bearable so far and I'm hoping that it will continue to be bearable for the next 11 weeks or so.

Balut- YUCK YUCK YUCK! It's an embryo of a chicken/duck.. It is not fully developed but it is dead- the Filipinos loves it! What the hell?!?! It looks like a boiled yellow egg inside, but with some kind of, erm, slimey and black/grey blob (the embryo) on it.

We were told that we could try it if we wanted to, April (our youth programme supervisor- YPS) bought some for us. April said that we need to be mentally prepared to eat it, and not to think of it as a chicken, how easy(!) But I couldn't do it. April said that it tasted like a chicken. Chelsea, Gemma, Leanne, em and Abdullah tried it, and they said it tasted like an egg- the yolk bit mainly with a texture of slime- the embryo probably! I asked April if we could feel/taste the beak, feet, eyes, brain, the organs and the feathers. She said that you could taste everything! But I think she exaggerated that as it was only an embryo, and the others said that it was slimey, however Leanne felt a crunch, we don't know whether that was the beak or an eggshell. 

The Filipinos believes in not wasting any foods as they're very poor- therefore they believe in eating everything, such as, eating chicken intestines and blood as their snack!!! They also eat tree worms, crocodile, gecko and soup number 5- what??? Cows' penises and balls soup.. Mainly the men eats it, not the women.

We were advised not to eat any street foods, as they are normally from some kind of disgusting environment, part of the body or any animals, such as rats.

I guess you get the idea of how extreme the foods are here.

Facts about the Philippines!

There's 7,107 Islands in the Philippines, with the population of 100 million people,. It's is the 64th largest country in the world. The Philippines is the seventh most-populated country in Asia, and the 12th most-populated in the world. (I found this on the Wikipedia, by the way)

We went to the British Embassy, to meet the Ambassador and find out more about the Philippines. We found out a lot about the disabled people here, how they are treated and what access they have. Basically, the disabled people aren't treated as equal as the 'normal' people are. They are seen as lower class. The laws here aren't as advanced as the UK, which is why the UK government fund the charities who are willing to help the Philippines. The disabled people in the Philippines have to make their own wheelchairs/crutches.

The Philippines have this organisation which is called Phil health, which gives out or repair hearing aids, however they need to have members first, in order to have money, I think the members pay a fee to join in, then they can provide hearing aids etc. they have succeeded this, but they haven't yet provided hearing aids still! So normally, the parents pay for hearings aids. The families are usually embarrassed if a member of their family are deaf- they normally try to hide them!

Not only does the government doesn't give out money to deaf people but also others- such as the Typhoon Yolanda -  it has been a year since the incident and they still haven't repaired severely damaged areas.

Interestingly, in the Philippines, the "House of Parliament"- the "MPs" are normally a family, aunts, uncles cousins, etc. are involved in the politics. The disabled people aren't offered the same opportunity for jobs, most of them are unemployed.  The Ambassador said that people are trying to change the Filipinos' view towards disabilities , they are still fighting for Rights for disabled people and there are no Disability act in the law. Whilst on the topic of jobs and money- 25% of the Philippines population are below the poverty line.

In the Filipino culture, it is believed that when there is a job available, whoever is already employed in that job, is expected to bring a member of their family for that job, rather than advertising the job or selecting through CVs.

The Deaf schools in the Philippines are not funded by the government, most of the time, their resources and money come from the UK and charities! The schools here are overcrowded, so they have decided to have shifts for different groups to come in at a certain time of the day - can you imagine that?! They do not go to school all day - only for a few hours per day!

The hospitals here aren't as advanced as the UK's hospitals and isn't free. The waiting time is extremely long as most if the time, they're queuing up for about 3-5 doctors.

Now, moving on to the fun stuff!

JEEPNEYS! - a transport that was used in the World War Two, they are now used as public transport for the Filipinos to travel.. They're very colourful, filled with graffiti and very cheap- 8 peso is the minimum- so that's about 1p! The majority of the time, it's crowded, with the Filipinos touching you or sitting on you, yes,    s i t t i n g    o n    y o u.

The malls here are massive! It's filled with what you would see in the UK and USA- the shops are American/British, such as topshop, Krispy Kreme (<3), Starbucks, f&f, guess, Claire's, etc.

The Filipinos - they are very friendly, tolerant, funny, generous and blunt- said I was FAT! Haha!

I found out that my room-mate, Jennylyn,  didn't know anything about Anne frank, Hitler, WW2 - which is weird, considering where their jeepneys came from?! Her father died recently in August- he was stabbed, I salute her for still coming to this trip. Another Filipino's brother died recently as well- they looked so calm when explaining what happened, I don't know why, but I have this feeling that it was normal for people in the families to die all the time from any kinds of disasters.

A few of the Filipinos weren't born Deaf, Jennylyn was almost drowned by force and the water went in her hear causing her Deafness. Her parents had a massive argument about it and they had a divorce because she became deaf, this shows how shameful it is to be Deaf in the Philippines.

I showed Jennylyn a photo of my family, and told her that they all are Deaf, she looked almost shocked and said she will pray for us. I asked her why would she pray for us, she said because you're all Deaf. I told her that we're a very happy family and have no problems with being Deaf- it looked as if she she accepted it as she mouthed 'oh' but at the same time she looked confused, as in like, 'how can you be happy and have no problems?'

The Filipinos will not tell you if they're unhappy with you. They will go to the extremes to keep you happy! We, as the UK volunteers, have to make sure that they are 100% okay and that they don't mind doing what we would like to, as they will not tell you if they aren't comfortable with it etc. which makes me paranoid, as I obviously do not want them to bear with whatever they're not comfortable with, lol.

My next blog will be about FOODS.




Monday, 8 September 2014

Manila!

Just as soon as we landed, Gemma thought she had lost her passport along with the presents for her host family- but no, Chelsea luckily found it! We proceeded to go through the passport control etc, etc. we were relieved when we saw our suitcases after a talk from a VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas) staff saying that it's possible that we could lose our suitcases, lol. Gemma then spotted a man with a sign saying 'Chelsea Pritchard and party' - we weren't 100% sure if it was us or by coincidence someone has a same name as Chelsea and was travelling in a group too. We asked if the man was with VSO or driving us or something- I started to feel suspicious of the man, like what if he hacked through the airport computer and found our name on it- me being me basically, haha. The man told us that he works in the airport escorting people to meet who we had to meet when out of the baggage reclaim area.

We met our interpreter, Kam, (who by the way, says 'let you know' a lot!) and Lean, an ICS (International Citizen Services) staff member. Lean kindly asked us if we wanted to eat, and we didn't know what to pick! So we safely picked McDonalds! We then went ahead to our transport and travelled through Manila.

What can I say about Manila?!

Well, not much, as it was dark when we landed therefore we could not see much of the Capital City of the Philippines! But we will see more of it today, whilst visiting the British Embassy! (I'll tell you all about that in my next blog!)

During our travel to the hostel, Kam told us some tips about the Philippines, such as not to give money to the children because they will come back and more kids will come, and to also look out for pickpockets (mainly by the children, while others are asking for money) - they're desperate to help their own family. We found out more information about our driver, he had worked in Afghanistan for one year, as an engineer, which gave him good money but he was on one year contract and had to come back. The families in the Philippines don't see each other very much as they're always working somewhere else in the world.

This made me very grateful that we live in a 'well off' country and that we are able to we our families a lot!

We finally arrived at our hostel, and we all were very tired, so we were escorted to our bedrooms, with some help by men (for the ladies, of course) for our suitcases. We asked for wifi and texted our families and friends! I went for a quick COLD shower, there's no hot water in the Philippines! But I don't mind, as it's very hot here and soooooo humid! It's about 80%-95% humid here! It was also 28 DEGREES CELSIUS at TEN O'CLOCK at NIGHT!

I quickly wrote my blog about the journey from London to Dubai and fell asleep!

The journey to Dubai!


After a long wait at the check in, (as there's ten of us who needed to check in) we finally board on to the world's biggest passengers plane! - We were flying with the Emirates! We were very excited with what we had, a TV (yes, some movies were subtitled- woooo), free food, free drinks, a blanket, a cushion and a pair of headphones! The journey was 6 hours and 29 minutes- 3584 miles! That was only to Dubai- not including to Manila and to Cebu!

We were given a hot towel to wash our face and hands (I think that's what we were supposed to do with it!) and we were given a menu! Our dinner for the plane was

Appetiser- Smoked Salmon- served with a pesto flavoured potato salad, topped with cherry tomato.

Main Course- was either-

Yoghurt Chicken- pan-fried chicken topped with a creamy and mild yoghurt curry sauce, served with steamed basmati rice and sautéed fresh spinach.

OR

Welsh Lamb Stew - traditional slow-braising stew, with chunky mashed potatoes, home style sautéed beans and carrots.

Dessert- Sticky Toffee Pudding - moist sticky toffee pudding drenched in a rich toffee sauce

Beverages-'Tea or Coffee

Before Landing- A selection of beverages will be offered with a sweet treat.


I hope I didn't make you jealous there?! ;)

I was very excited to see Maleficent as one of the movies that were captioned as I've been wanting to see it! So I settled down and started to explore what was on the tv screen- they had music, tv programmes, movies and games!!

I watched Maleficent, listened to music and ate food happily. When it was nearly time to land, - about 2 hours or less to go, I tried to sleep for a bit, but I could not get comfortable and then the next thing I knew, we were in Dubai!

After going through another security check, we found that Chelsea has lost her presents for the host family and that Joe left behind his belt at the security check- HAHA!

We quickly investigated the posh Dubai airport and waited to get onto our EK334 plane to Manila!