A sustainable partnership with PEACE CORPS

Since the departure of Daniel, our former Peace Corps volunteer who dedicated eight months of his mission within the SDC, we were impatient to hear about her or his successor. Her name is Terry and she will join us in Bacolod City in a few weeks only. We will publish a detailed profile as soon as she has settled down.

As an historical background, the Peace Corps were established in 1961 by Senator John F. Kennedy with the initial goal of promoting peace and friendship. He called on American youth to give back to their country by living and working in developing countries. The Peace Corps’ mission has the following objectives: helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women, and helping promote better mutual understanding of the Americans and the communities served. Peace Corps Philippines is the organization’s second oldest program. Back in 1961, there were 130 volunteers assigned in the Philippines as teachers of English language, mathematics and science. As of today, over 8,000 volunteers have served in the Philippines in broader fields. The ultimate purpose of Peace Corps is to foster world peace and friendship through cross-cultural contact and collaborative development efforts.

Bacolod City, with the support of Virlanie Foundation and HOST-NGO [via the People-Private-Public Partnership], successfully requested last year the assignment of a Peace Corps volunteer to support the SDC. Daniel has been the first volunteer to join the programme under implementation within the frame of our SDC project. His main responsibilities were to ensure the sound implementation of the activities at SDC, while sharing his expertise in the field of psychological support. Along with our team, the Peace Corps volunteer aims at fulfilling the needs of the most vulnerable kids based on the most efficient and sustainable approach.

Upon Daniel’s return to the US, it was essential to assign a new volunteer whose mission inside the SDC is important for the time being. Terry has been assigned by Peace Corps organization and after a three-month training in the Philippines, she will arrive to Bacolod City around September, 19^th. We are looking forward to meeting her and introducing her to our beneficiaries and to her new teammates!

Daniel with one of our beneficiaries at the SDC

Profile of our social work trainees at the SDC

Katherine Joyce, Lyka and Sherrish are three students, aged around 20 years old, registered in 3^rd year of social work at the University of UNO-R in Bacolod City. They are currently undergoing a practical internship within the SDC. Involved into the center four half-day sessions per week over a whole semester, they follow the daily life of the most disadvantaged children of Bacolod City. «Our mission aims at assisting the SDC staff to empower the vulnerable children and the children in conflict with the law through case work activities. Our goal is to promote their social functioning as individuals, to instil good values to them, and render other activities, such as educational film showing followed with debates, group dynamics, lectures on self-discipline, etc.».

They shared that they felt a bit nervous at the beginning of their internship though they were fully confident about their mission objectives. «We had already visited the SDC with our teacher and our classmates, and we had the opportunity to exchange with the former trainees and share their experience. That is why we were familiar with this new work environment and we were impatient to start implementing on the field what we learned at the university.»

The young beneficiaries of the SDC are often marginalized due to their fragile social situation (children living and/or working in the streets) or their problems facing the law (young delinquents). The lack of information related to their specific issues often leads to the community members feeling frightened by them. Katherine Joyce, Lika and Sherrish know the children now and they feel empathy and concerns for them. «We try to help them solving their daily issues and improving their vision of life. The main purpose of the SDC is to fulfill the basic needs of the children in order to offer them a better life», they explained. They added that «most of the children at the center lack of support and guidance from their family; some of them are even deprived of it. It is then essential for us to address these needs the best we can, and build a relationship based on trust and honesty with them. In addition, we have to work with the families in order to create or improve the family bonds, which the children need to develop themselves ».

When asked on their motive to study social work, the students explained that they want to help the people in need and empower them, as it is challenging and exciting. They also want to provide good services and programs for the welfare of the communities. The mission of these young and dynamic women at the SDC is a real illustration of the achievements generated by the partnership with UNO-R. 

HOST-NGO team wishes them success and fulfillment in their future professional life!

A new step toward the rehabilitation of the SDC

The rehabilitation of the SDC, which was planned by the city of Bacolod earlier this year, has been ongoing over the past few months. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of SDC's Center Head, the city engineers and Virlanie-Bacolod team, the achievements will help lifting up the living conditions of the children by improving the level of comfort and hygiene within the SDC.

Over the past few weeks, the electrical system has been repaired. Solar panels have been installed to supply part of the daily needs of the center. The comfort rooms have been unclogged and repaired, and new showers are ready to be used. The shower room has been built outside the dormitory building in order to facilitate its monitoring and maintenance. All year long the sun is rising down quite early in the Philippines and the lighting will clearly change the dark and long evenings.

New shower rooms at the SDC

Following these improvements, the safety level has been reinforced within the whole compound and especially in the dormitory. The mission of SDC's house parents during night shifts has been facilitated for the direct benefit of the most vulnerable children. An other direct outcome is the sustainable implementation of the aïkido activity program, led by volunteers from Warriors for Peace, a local NGO. The sessions are now being held every Thursday evening. The activity room, which is located on the first floor of the dormitory building, has been renovated last May and is now equiped with electricity. It is the perfect environment to hold aikido activities and enable the self-development of each child participating into this program.

SDC's new activity room

This crucial step toward a successful rehabilitation of the SDC follows the ongoing actions which have been implemented by Virlanie-Bacolod team for two years already. Every accomplishment will help the SDC complying with the environmental requirements which apply to the Philippines. 

As a consequence, it will help reaching a higher level of safety and well-being for our disadvantaged children in Bacolod City!

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) partners with SDC in Bacolod City

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is a public institution dedicated to protect human rights, which shall be guaranteed by the Philippines Constitution itself. It holds two different mandates: to investigate in the case of suspicion of human rights violation, and to run information and education public campaigns to address the issue of human rights protection. 

It is within this frame that the CHR in Bacolod City has decided to organize activities designed to improve child rights protection within the SDC starting this month. Upon meeting the team and beneficiaries of the Social Development Center, the CHR representative in Bacolod City, Mr. Romeo Baldevarona, showed a great interest to help dealing with the issues faced by the children as well as their families. 

His team will hold awareness sessions for the children at the SDC to help them understand their rights for protection, in an attempt to reduce the risks of abuse, violence, or traffic that might affect them. The Commission will also address the children’s families to empower them in their capacity to protect their children’s interest as best as they can. In addition, the staff of SDC will also have the opportunity to participate into seminars on child rights protection to be applied in special care institutions, such as the Social Development Center. This capacity building objective is directly linked with the goal of sharing skills and experience between the local actors involved in child care. The expected outcome should allow the enhancement of the services provided by the SDC, which will better match the individual development of each and every child.

At last, but not least, the CHR has committed to offer legal support to the children in conflict with the law and their families, who might need specific assistance to understand the legal proceedings and be able to assert their rights as minors or legal representatives of the child. This comprehensive range of services proposed by the CHR will help building a major partnership, along with the existing actors involved for several months already. We are looking forward to witness very soon the achievements in terms of child rights promotion and respect to result from this new collaboration!

GlobalGiving team visits us in the Philippines

HOST-NGO has recently become a member of GlobalGiving community upon succeeding the fundraising challenge last April. GlobalGiving works closely with their members to ensure optimal transparency and reliability for each one of the projects promoted via the GlobalGiving online platform. Every other year, a team of volunteers is sent on the field to visit all the member organizations of its community. In addition, GlobalGiving provides online fundraising tools, one-on-one strategic support, and the opportunity to connect with a vast network of individual donors and corporate partners, including Nike, Dell, HP.

This year, the Philippines were on the agenda of GlobalGiving team. HOST-NGO received a few weeks ago the visit of two young volunteers representing GlobalGiving. We spent two days introducing them with our organization, touring them around the city of Bacolod, and showing them our projects and beneficiaries. Ana and Sandra, future graduates of Georgetown University, Washington DC, were assigned by GlobalGiving to visit all the partners based in the Philippines and report on their project as well as assist them to enhance their sustainability. Our team brought them on the field to better understand our activities and the issues at stake for the vulnerable youth and disadvantaged communities.

In Bacolod City, a workshop was also organized by GlobalGiving volunteers with the support of our team. The objectives were to train new organizations on how to expand their network, engage relationship with donors, and develop a successful online fundraising strategy. A dozen participants representing eight different non-profit organizations (Ikaw-Ako, CheckMySchool, Sustained Actions, Federation of Urban Poor in Negros Occidental, ALDC, NOBCP, Negrense Volunteers for Change Foundation, HOST-NGO) joined the workshop and shared their experience and aspirations in the field of community development. It was a great opportunity to network with new potential partners while revising our fundraising strategy to be more successful!

HOST-NGO team and beneficiaries would like to thank GlobalGiving, in particular Sandra and Ana, who were eager to meet us and provide their support and feedback for the benefit of the local communities in need. We hope to meet them again soon!

Soon: a documentary showing our projects in the Philippines

From July 8th to 15th, our team warmly welcomed Victorien and Virginie over a week in Bacolod City. Our French friends wished to contribute to our development program to show their interest and consideration to the issues addressed by HOST-NGO in the Philippines. Their visit emphasizes the spirit of our organization, encouraging everyone to join and apply his/her own “TOUCH” by sharing with us passion, knowledge and/or skills.

The mission of Victorien and Virginie aimed at designing a video documentary dedicated to illustrate the projects implemented in the Philippines and promote our activities to the public. HOST-NGO would like to foster the involvement of mew volunteers and also introduce our work environment and our beneficiaries to current and potential partners and donors.

Several shooting sessions were organized throughout Bacolod City and at the Social Development Center, to show the life and issues encountered by the children currently or previously taken in care by  the SDC. This video will present the local environment and constraints, especially the challenges faced by the street children. Meanwhile, it will allow to testify the progress made to help the vulnerable children, mainly thanks to the various actions implemented in collaboration with our local partners. Or course, we also want to share with the public the remaining milestones in a realistic but optimistic way!

Victorien V. is a French young and promising film director. He already proved his talent in two short films made in Burkina Faso, which have both been nominated in 2012 and 2013 Cannes Film Festival (Short Film Corner). His first movie, Living in Tengrela, has received the jury's “Coup de Coeur” in 2012. Virginie, his life partner, works as a first assistant. She shares her artistic fine taste and sensitivity to let this new challenge be a full success, besides her life partner, Victorien.

Our team and beneficiaries would like to give a warm “SALAMAT” (thank you) to Victorien and Virginie for their involvement and generosity. We hope to be able to continue our adventure with their loyal support. HOST-NGO would like to wish them a great journey and the achievement of their respective projects!

Education & learning to build a sustainable future for the youth

9:30am at the SDC: a group of children is heading to the classroom with their individual school pack (notebook, pen and paper). After eating their breakfast, they get ready to participate into the educational program proposed within the frame of the Alternative Learning System (ALS), launched last January at the SDC.

Three half-days a week, the children taken in care by the SDC over a long period of time, have access to specific learning modules: language (Tagalog), mathematics, history, etc. Two teachers assigned by the Department of Education (DepEd), Jayson and Carlito, are preparing the children to take an exam next October. The objective is to ensure the continuity of education for every child, in order to facilitate his/her reintegration into the formal education system upon exiting the SDC, and to ensure his/her future professional success. Some of the young participants will soon be transferred to the Regional Rehabilitation Center for Youth (RRCY), located on Guimaras Island, and run by the Department of Social Work and Development (DSWD). They will be able to continue the educational program at the RRCY, and enhance the knowledge gained at the SDC.

In order to maximize their chance to pass the future exam, the SDC local team is organizing study time sessions, three times a week, to complete the ALS program. The house parents are responsible to help the children reviewing the topics taught by the teachers from DepEd. “There are only 14 weeks left before the exam”, Jayson told the children this week, raising their concern on the upcoming challenge. Building a sustainable future is a tricky process for our young beneficiaries, who are now on the way to becoming active and responsible citizens, thanks to the Alternative Learning System at the SDC!