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.
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