I.
Introduction
The Volunteer Sharing Session (VSS) is one of
the major activities conducted by PNVSCA to provide a venue to share
experiences, build network and strengthen coordination among
volunteers, the Agency, the volunteer organizations and other program
partners; and develop camaraderie and friendship among local and
foreign volunteers through social interaction and sports activities.
Two VSS are being held every year, one for Luzon volunteers and
one for Visayas-Mindanao.
This year, the Visayas-Mindanao VSS
was held at the Sampaguita Gardens Resort in New Washington, Aklan on
April 18-20, 2007 participated in by 55 foreign and local volunteers
assigned in various organizations from Visayas and Mindanao. The Luzon VSS was held at the University of Northern
Philippines in Vigan City on May 21-23, 2007 with 38 participants.
II.
Highlights of Activities
A.
Volunteer Exhibits
Volunteers were encouraged to set up exhibits
were set up displaying products, pictures, brochures and information
materials to showcase their respective programs and activities. VIDA, USPC, and VSO-Bahaginan volunteers participated in the
exhibit.
B.
Opening Program
On both occasions, the program was
opened with a welcome remarks by PNVSCA Executive Director Joselito de
Vera thanking the volunteers for their attendance in the sharing
session and encouraging them to make the session a fruitful and
productive one by maximizing the opportunity to meet other volunteers
from other organizations. He
further emphasized the need for the volunteers to continue working
with their respective host organizations to make volunteer assistance
something that would benefit especially the poor communities in the
Philippines.
In the VisMin session, Director de
Vera also called for a minute of silence for USPC volunteer Julia
Campbell whose death was confirmed on that day.
Ms. Ela Sarmago of PNVSCA led the
introduction of the participants.
This was followed by a brief overview of the sharing session
citing the objectives, participants, schedule of activities, and the
house rules for the duration of the session.
A thorough familiarization among participants
was done through the ‘getting to know you’ activity via bingo
style. It required them
to fill up bingo sheets with the name and specific information of
their fellow volunteers whose assigned number corresponds to the
number printed on the bingo sheet.
This way, the participants have to mingle with their fellow
volunteers and know their respective projects and organizations.
The first three to complete their bingo sheets were given
prizes during the awarding ceremonies.
C.
Program Updates
One of the major parts of the
program was the update on the accomplishments of the foreign volunteer
program in 2006. Included
in the presentation are the objectives of the foreign volunteer
program namely to provide technical assistance to priority development
projects and to promote socio-cultural understanding/international
cooperation, the statistics on the number of volunteers in service,
its distribution by region, by sector and by Local Partner
Organization (LPO), for 2005-2006.
Concerns and issues resolved and the thrusts for 2007 onwards
were also highlighted in the report.
The thrusts for 2007 onwards are as follows:
1. Adopt a framework for foreign
volunteer deployment for a more focused and aligned
volunteer assistance to the following development
priorities:
a. Accelerate Economic Growth and
Job Creation
b. Improve Social Justice and
Delivery of Social Services
c. Enhance Education and Youth
Opportunity
d. Environmental Sustainability
e. In provinces with more than
30% poverty incidence and 5th to 6th class
municipalities
2. Intensify awareness about volunteerism towards creating
national consciousness
3. Networking and partnership with local and international volunteer
organizations
4. Reinforcing and strengthening PNVSCA as the government focal agency
on volunteerism
D.
Open Space Discussion
The Open Space Methodology was
adopted in the conduct of this year’s VSS.
The idea of this methodology is to give people free space and
time to deal with issues they feel passionate about and discuss it
with people who wish to be there with them.
It allows
participants to discuss topics of interests to them based on the theme
of the VSS. The
four principles of the Open Space are:
1.
whoever comes is the right people;
2.
whenever it starts is the right time;
3.
whatever happens is the only thing that could have; and
4.
when it is over, its over
The participants were
asked to write down on pieces of paper topics they feel passionate
about and want to discuss. Related
topics were grouped together with some participants volunteering as
convenors for the discussion.
The
lead convenors set the time and place where they would want the
discussion to be held. The
other participants who wanted to be part of the discussion signed up
under the topics they chose. In
the open space methodology, one can maximize his/her participation by
signing up to more than one topic.
Topics
in Luzon:
1.
Volunteer Motivation
2.
Sports in Development
3.
Support to Volunteers
4.
Cross-cultural issues in the workplace
Topics
in Visayas-Mindanao:
1.
Volunteer Security (Volunteer, Community, Partners)
2.
Enhance transparency of responsibilities (open mind)
3.
Participatory planning/analysis
4.
How to get business directories
5.
Enhancement of livelihood project
6.
Director of organizations should discuss organization’s
goals and various places
volunteers can be of service so
volunteer can decide where his/her talents best fit
7.
Economic empowerment/prioritization of marginalized sector in
the grassroots level
8.
Genuine peace and development in Mindanao
9.
Provide competency to all the poor children in elementary
school children in
Dumaguete City
10.
Improving natural resource management (both at the farmers
and fishermen ?
decision making levels)
11.
Making sustainable projects/process
12.
How to strengthen relationship between the volunteers in same
speciality
13.
Culture issue
14.
Communication issue
15.
Inter-gendered work relationships or working with
counterparts of the opposite
gender
16.
Eating snacks with partners, to make sure the schedule of
counterpart, promoting
communication between local authorities,
constant communication of partners and
support system
17.
Finding mad dogs (informing community people)
18.
Dealing with political problems and rivalries
At
the end of the day, a plenary was convened to gather the outputs of
the discussions.
The outputs were posted around the session hall and each
participant went around to view the outputs of each group while they
were also allowed to comment and make further suggestions.
(Refer to Annexes A and B for Discussion Outputs)
E.
Socials
Socials were organized on the
evenings of the second day with videoke singing, dancing and group
interactions.
F.
Fun Games
Fun
games was held on the last day.
Participants
were divided into four teams – blue, green, red and yellow, that
competed in the bridge-building activity, tayakad race, three-legged
race and patintero.
Prizes were awarded to the winning
teams and the winners in the bingo game.
Tokens were also given to volunteers who displayed their
exhibits
G. Closing
Director de Vera formally closed the Sharing Session by
thanking the volunteers for their active participation in the
activities with the hope that they learned from the session, and
enjoyed the activities.
III.
Evaluation
The
VSS became a learning venue for the participants to know that all
volunteers, regardless of nationalities, have similar experiences,
issues and concerns regarding their volunteer work.
All
volunteers responded that it is useful to continue the conduct of the
VSS, for various reasons such as the chance to meet volunteers from
other organizations and learn from each others’ experiences; filling
the gap between local and foreign volunteers; and bonding/friendship
with other volunteers.
Suggestions to improve the conduct of VSS included providing
more time for volunteer’s sharing and allow more interaction among
volunteers. Although
majority of the participants appreciated the open space methodology
since it gives them room to explore and discuss things in a free way,
some volunteers suggested to have more structure in the discussions.
Annex
A
Discussion Outputs (Luzon)
1. Motivation - This
refers to the motivation of the volunteer and what prevent them from
being motivated to work.
Problems:
·
Mismatch
o
No work
o
No appropriate position/designation/work
o
Misunderstanding
·
Lack
of Communication
o
Suggestion is not implemented/followed
o
No feedback (wrong response)
o
No clear plan
o
Indirect attitude towards the volunteer
·
Poor
Surrounding (Equipment, counterpart, budget)
o
Lack of will
o
Lack of facility
o
No appropriate person assigned
Solutions:
·
PNVSCA, Foreign Volunteer Organization (FVO), Local Partner
Organization (LPO) must develop a definite Volunteer Matching System
and make sure the work to be assigned will be matched with the
volunteer’s experience/qualification.
·
There
must be a leveling of expectations between LPO and before the
volunteer commences his/her activities.
·
There
must be a sound site development.
2. Sports in Development – This refers to the problems and solutions identified by the
group
in relation to the country’s national sports system/program.
Problems:
·
Culture (gender issues, community support, education,
enhancers)
·
Interest (funding, scheduling, time, equipment, special
needs)
·
Participation (age issues, native sports, networking)
Solution:
·
Integration of Genders
·
Improve the athletes skills thru skills training rather than
competition based training, wherein you only train when there is
competition.
·
Introduce the sport to a child at a young age where there is
no sexual tension at all.
·
Compilation of Native Sports. Native sports is dying since there is lack of support. Almost
all the sports being competed in the country are foreign sports which
in due time will eliminate any trace of the local sports. To remedy
this, the Government should organize a sporting event featuring local
sports. Advocacy must also be done so that Filipinos will once again
be introduced to the sport their forefathers once played
3.
Support to Volunteers - This
refers to the support provided by the FVO, LPO and PNVSCA to the
volunteers. The essence of this discussion is on how to strengthen
relations among volunteers, local partner organizations and
communities in order to maximize volunteer assistance.
Problems:
·
Dealing
with the present situation
o
Culture
o
Office/Organization Structure
·
Support
of the In-Country Organization to volunteers
o
Financial
o
Cultural Integration
o
Volunteer Orientation
Solution:
·
Leveling
off between the volunteer and partner organization
·
Provide more volunteer bonding (local and international) for
possible networking/linkage
·
PNVSCA
must give updates to volunteers re: issues/concerns identified
4. Cross- cultural issues
in the work place - This refers to the issues identified in relation to the local
culture and the cultural differences between the volunteers and the
local community and how it affects their performance.
Problems:
·
Shy
culture among the locals. Locals know how to speak English but do not
speak up even though they have something to say
·
Inferiority
complex
·
Volunteers
are looked at as financial source
·
Corruption
issues
·
Too
much support or not enough support
Solution:
·
There
must be clear expectations on both side.
·
Provide
project management training to the volunteer and the local
Annex
B
Discussion Outputs: Visayas-Mindanao
- Effective
Communication to avoid misunderstanding.
·
Meetings:
start with delay; talk in local dialect; formal communication
between the volunteers and organizations.
·
Official Trip:
forms to be filled up; instructions
for the office procedures should be clearly informed;
and lacking communications.
Use Counterpart.
·
Auto vs Agri:
Asking more than he can do;
communicate with boss, write letter to agency. We need “enough conversation” before we start.
·
English is my 2nd language:
Using 2nd language is hard and difficult for us;
sometimes ‘writing’ is better than speaking;
Local dialect is our 2nd language, para nami ika-2 o
ika __ nga language and lisud kaayo;
we cannot join conversations nor meetings.
Learn it; Suggest ideas by writing; Ask co-staffs to improve
it.
- Communication
issue
Problem: If we don’t open our mind, we cannot make good
communication and make our project improve.
Solution:
·
learn the local dialect
·
drinking
·
immersion or huntahan
·
keep smiling
·
joking
·
dance, song
·
soroy-soroy
·
understand pinoy culture
- Culture
Issue
Issue: What are the culture differences between Philippines and your
country?
Discussion:
·
How do we address our superior?
o
Ask the office staff
o
Establish at the beginning what to call each other
·
How to answer/accept personal questions?
·
Always food on the mind.
·
Family life (extended families).
- Genuine
peace and development in Mindanao
Objectives:
·
sharing of experiences and knowing about Mindanao
·
project the real situation of Mindanao – grassroots
perspective.
Brief Background (in Mindanao):
·
located in the southern part of the Philippines
·
known as “Land of Promise” because of its productive land
with several kinds of resources.
·
Existence
of the tri-people (Muslims, IPs and non-muslim) with diversed culture,
traditions and beliefs practices
Peace condition:
·
1970s – biases between Muslims (moro) and Christians
(settlers) arose due
to politics
·
conflict erupted resulting to massive displacement especially
the IPs.
·
Militarization was experienced several times as option to
resolve the conflict
resulting to
death and damages of livelihood and properties particularly
west
and central Mindanao.
·
Lack of basic social services and poor governance ignited the
Moro people
for right to self-determination.
·
Situation is normal, worsen only upon media recipe –
creating scenario
worst.
·
Mindanawan people are peace-loving people, living together,
respecting
culture, traditions and beliefs difference.
Recommendation:
·
Don’t think Mindanao as tourist hot spot in the
Philippines.
·
Don’t rely on biased information about Mindanao – real
situation of Mindanao
tells only by Mindanawan itself.
- Creating
Network of Volunteers
Purpose:
·
Creating friendship
·
Solving individual problem
·
Improving security
·
Exchanging information about work field of volunteers
·
Future collaboration
Action:
·
Directory of sharing session participants
·
Database of all volunteers in the Philippines
- Improving
Natural Resource Management
Issues:
·
Fishermen are out at sea all day so are not available to be
talked to/include
·
Enforcing policy at the local level is difficult as people
don’t want to “tell on
their
neighbors”.
·
Environmental officers in LGUs do not focus/act on
environmental issues
·
Work has been done on policy but implementation is lacking in
terms of
information dissemination, enforcement and funding
·
People focus on the ‘hunger of today’ and not on
sustainability for future
generations
Some Possible Solutions:
·
Approach fishermen’s wives about issues of sustainability
and alternatives to
bad fishing practices
·
Planting more mangroves to sustain fish populations
·
Volunteer focus on livelihood programs
·
Properly train/provide technical officers and LGU
environmental officers
·
Put pressure on government to filter down more money to
support local
environmental officers and technical staffs
- Economic
Empowerment/Prioritization of Marginalized Sector in the
Grassroots Level
·
Focused on Women and Gender issues many prostituted women are
now exploited and some are affected on HIV and AIDS because of
economic crisis especially here in the Philippines.
To minimize this problem of ours, as a community volunteer, we
must help promote the economic empowerment through conducting
orientation and demonstration about livelihood, it cannot only make
themselves busy but it can also help family needs as the important,
and we should help enhance livelihood projects.
·
One example of the effect of economic crisis is the child
trafficking, which is
very rampant
- Maximize
Volunteers’ Talents
Some
Suggestions:
·
Strong training of volunteer in Filipino culture and protocol
·
Leveling of expectations.
Example: Director, counterpart and volunteer meet
together and
develop objectives and volunteer’s role.
·
Both volunteer and counterpart should work hard on accurate
communication
daily
·
Make friends, build strong inter-personal relationships by
building trust (a
lengthy process).
·
Be sincere in personal and cultural life (admit when you make
a mistake, be
willing to say I’m sorry and always smile).
- Volunteer
Security
Volunteer:
·
It is the volunteers’ personal responsibility/commitment
·
“buddy system”, “discover the risks and challenges in
the community”
·
volunteer’s diary/logbook
·
avoid high risk places
·
build relationships and support groups
·
“blend in” (not too conspicuous) and complacent
Local Partners/community:
·
constant monitoring
·
introductions and courtesy calls
·
physically accompany the volunteer to new places
·
orientation on roles and responsibilities
·
MOA signing
Volunteer
Security Agencies:
·
Security advice/briefing upon arrival in the host country
·
Set of emergency procedure and guidelines
·
Monitoring on a weekly basis/volunteer movement form
·
Security alerts
·
Strict enforcement of all the above through constant
reminders
- Transparency
and Open Mind
Problem/Issues:
·
Lack of knowledge about organizational structure
·
Lack of transfer of knowledge downwards the hierarchy
·
No open-minded feedback
·
Non-availability of person-in-charge
Possible Solutions:
·
Find the right level in the hierarchy to communicate
·
Exchange ideas during private encounters (merienda, cock
fighting, etc.,
show you accept the culture, join life)
·
Concrete designated counterpart on working level
- Sustainability
on the Project and Process
Points:
·
Participatory planning
·
Building/developing relationship
·
Prioritizing issues
·&
