God’s little helpers

It was a touching sight. A couple of girls, giggling and having the time of their lives, are mixing paint with their bare hands. Another girl stands precariously over a stack of plastic chairs while applying sealant on the ceiling of a newly opened day care center. Just outside the center, a couple more, with brushes in hand, are busy painting steel rods and aluminum benches with anti-rust primer. Beside the center, in what would become a small multi-purpose hall are a group of shovel-wielding college students bent on filling up pails and pails of dirt and flattening the ground where cement would later in the day be poured.

Curiously enough, the name of the place where this is all happening is Barangay Langgam and here you are with a bunch of high school and college students, as well as a sprinkling of young professionals, from Australia and New Zealand who are used to a comfortable life sweating it out and laboring day in and day out like an army of ants.

Here for a three-week mission in Sitio Rustan, Barangay Langgam, San Pedro, Laguna, dubbed Workcamp 2004, the 24 all-girl volunteers aim to help build a day care center and a multi-purpose hall, as well as give tutorials to school kids and classes on health and hygiene, as well as population control, to mothers. Other activities also include visit to orphanages and house-to-house calls in the said community to learn more about the needs of the residents.

Workcamp 2004 is a yearly mission organized by the Developmental Advocacy of Women Volunteerism (DAWV) Foundation (http://www. dawv.org, telephone 631-5071) in cooperation with Creston College in New South Wales, Australia. The foundation’s goal is to uplift the quality of life of Filipino families through poverty intervention programs by women volunteers. The volunteers shell out for their own airfare and accommodations just to do volunteer work and for the last several years, have gone to Iloilo, Cebu, Manila, India, Mexico, among others. The girls who have unselfishly given up their vacation time for this year’s workcamp include Gianina Cueno, Melanie Supan, Marguerite Pintado, Catherine Quinn, Monica Tudehope, Lucy Cannon, Clare McAuley, Sarina Rose, Katrina Alvir, Teresa Goodall, Rachel Thomas, Veronica Hayes, Jessica Wilson, Eun-Hee Lee, Nicole Keupper, Rosie Southwood, Tahni Pyke, Adra Anthony, Marian Bare, Carmen Pavia, Beng Flores, Therese Poh, Jennifer Lee and Helena Rajwer. The youngest in the group, at 15, Rachel Thomas saved up for a whole year working in a grocery just so she could join this year’s workcamp. The whole team also did fund-raising activities prior to coming here for building materials such as paint and hammers.

Katrina Alvir, a Filipino now based in Australia and a high school teacher, is a veteran of these workcamps having first volunteered to go to Iloilo years before. "That experience changed my life and made me rethink about my roots," says Katrina. Being Filipino, she says, is more than just knowing how to speak Filipino fluently. It’s about looking back and understanding one’s own culture, observing the values and making these your own, wherever you may find yourself . Having left the country at such a young age, Katrina admits not being able to understand her own culture. Her experience in Iloilo changed all that and made her own life richer, her chosen path clearer.

For Adra Anthony, a Singaporean studying Psychology in Australia, volunteer work is a great learning experience. Being the eldest, Adra’s parents at first had some misgivings about her joining the team. "I told them I really wanted to do this and they relented," she says.

Like the rest of the girls, Adra’s experiences have opened her eyes to the harsh realities of life, and that not everyone has the same opportunities they have. "I learned not to take things for granted anymore. I learned to value even the little things because what could be worthless to me might be priceless to some other people," she shares, adding that it would be difficult to let go of the people – and the kids – she and the others have come to know so well once the workcamp is over.

"The hardest part would be saying goodbye to the kids. I’m sure everyone will be teary-eyed. One way or another, they have become a part of our lives," says Adra who, apart from giving tutorials, also teaches the kids to play soccer and volleyball during free time.

The girls’ schedule is no joke. Manual work is done in the mornings and the afternoons are reserved for teaching classes. In-between, they conduct home visits where they learn about each family’s concerns and play with the kids. When they get home, they prepare their lesson plans, clean and do the laundry. Weekends they are off to orphanages to distribute toys they brought from Australia.

Barangay Langgam is a small community of about 125 families. According to Herminia Bunao, the president of the Nagkakaisang Mamamayan and Sitio Rustan, the community’s main source of livelihood is ragmaking, which was founded by DAWV through its "Puso at Piso" project. The community has no source of water save for the daily ration that cost each family P30 per drum. It has no paved roads and the residents’ status are still being worked out with the local government, which promised to award them the land by March. Donated by the Añover family who owns the lot, the St. Josemaria Day Care Center was built last July and is now being painted and improved by the volunteers. The multi-purpose hall adjacent to it was built by the volunteers from scratch.

We are aware it’s going to be hard-work and we know we’re not going to solve some humongous problems but we’re here just the same to forge friendship with the people in this community and offer our services," says Workcamp 2004 head Maria Vega "Bheng" Flores, a medical research scientist who started doing volunteer work at 18. According to Bheng, they do similar projects in New Zealand and Australia among the Aborigines community but every year, they have what they call a "service project overseas" which has been going on since 1988. "Volunteers would usually raise money for whatever materials they need and also pay for their own airfare and board and lodging," she says. "They come here not only to give but to learn as well and hopefully be a better person in the process."

Before coming here, the team underwent training and was briefed about the Filipino culture, the reality of social and economic problems, the differences in the strata of population, among others. "These workcamps always involve two things. One is manual work and education which is our main aim. We want to give something that will last and teach them not to depend on doleouts. So we try to teach them to be self-reliant and try to help them work out some livelihood projects if possible," she explains.

One of the most important things she has observed about doing volunteer work is the importance of having a family. "You could see the stark difference between a child in an orphanage and a child living in a depressed area but has a family to call his own. The latter seem happier and are more generous with what they have. But, in general, Filipinos are a happier lot compared to other countries we’ve visited. Despite their situation, they are more hopeful and joyful even in the toughest of times," she says.

The workcamp will end a few days from now but the volunteers’ experiences – happy and sad – will never be forgotten by the volunteers themselves and the people whose lives they have touched and uplifted.