Philippines
Volunteers are working in the areas of peace building, secure livelihoods and disability. VSO also recruits volunteers from the Philippines through VSO Bahaginan to undertake volunteer placements in other countries around the world.
Peace building
Continuing armed conflict between government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front has left around 400,000 people homeless since January 2003 and over 120,000 people have lost their lives over the past 30 years. Around 10% of the affected communities come from the Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte provinces in the west of Mindanao. Key factors fuelling violence include disputes over over land and other natural resources; biases and mistrust between Muslims and Christians and a culture of violence, including the presence of individuals and groups that profit economically from it and have a stake in ensuring that conflict continues.
VSO Philippines has been involved in peace building activities since 2001. It began with volunteers linking Muslim and Christian communities in Mindanao in activities such as business enterprises which as well as securing an income for poor communities encourages greater cultural understanding and respect between individuals and groups who are working together. Volunteers are also working with organisations that support the emotional and health recovery of those affected by the conflict. A national volunteering programme is encouraging young people to become involved in local volunteering, which increases their understanding and acceptance of other young people from different backgrounds.
Secure livelihoods
Many rural and coastal communities in the Philippines rely heavily on natural resources as a way to earn a living but overuse of these resources and poor farming and fishing techniques mean they are rapidly being depleted. Volunteers with marine, forestry and agricultural skills are working with communities and organisations to encourage more sustainable and safe farming and fishing methods, to train local people in alternative ways to earn a living and to encourage groups of individuals to work together on business enterprises.
Volunteers with experience in strategic planning, business management, human resource development and financial systems are working with local service organisations to ensure they operate as efficiently as possible. These organisations are then in a stronger position to fulfill their objectives, which include educating and training local communities in skills such as marketing, money management and advocating for policy changes that protect the environment.
Disability
Discrimination, misinformation, negative attitudes and superstitions regarding disability have been major barriers to the development of disabled people. Since 1997, both hearing and deaf volunteers have been working with organisations working for the deaf and VSO is currently the only international volunteering organisation to be working in this area in the Philippines. The work of these volunteers has addressed a number of issues, including the denial of abuse in deaf society, the lack of educational resources for the deaf, lack of basic primary health care and poor understanding of basic ‘life’ skills amongst the deaf.
From 2005, VSOP expanded the programme to work with a broader range of disabilities, while at the same time focusing on the core issues of limited access, failure to implement rights, capacity building and mainstreaming among volunteers in the other programme areas. The programme is focused primarily in the cities of Manila and Cebu, where we work with a small number of active and purpose driven organizations, formed and run by the disabled. Recently, volunteers have been assisting with handicraft manufacture from recycled materials, small enterprise development advice, organizational development, marketing, resource mobilization and advocacy through the media.
Programme Summaries
VSO Programme Offices
Quick facts
- Population:
- 87 million
- Capital city:
- Manila
- GDP per capita:
- $5,137
- HDI ranking:
- 90 out of 177 countries
- Life expectancy:
- 72