News Updates
Other Program Directories
Help me pick a program

Volunteer in an Orphanage

Visit Website Apply Now Inquire Here

Location

Philippines: Tacloban City

Description

Volunteer for the Visayans, a registered Philippine non-profit, non-government organisation places volunteers in a number of orphanages around Tacloban city and surrounding towns. Each orphanage houses between 45 to 100+ abandoned and unwanted children. All these children have come from poor families and many have suffered from malnutrition or neglect.

The children thrive on the attention and love our volunteers can share with them. Living with just the basic necessities, and few toys, these children also only have a limited staff to care for them. The caregivers at the orphanages are very appreciative of the extra help our volunteers can offer them.

Volunteers are free to tutor the children, organize arts and crafts or sports activities, and help out with basic chores such as feeding the kids, and folding laundry. This is a meaningful way to learn first hand the hardship most children in the world face, and give back to the underprivileged children growing up in a Third World country.

Volunteers don't necessarily need care giving experience. All we ask is that you come with energy, enthusiasm, an open mind and an open heart. With little resources at the orphanages, it helps if the volunteer can bring educational resources, art supplies, or tapes with children's songs.

Volunteer for the Visayans is dedicated to promoting international education about the people and culture of the Philippines, as well as the economic hardships they deal with everyday, through volunteerism and cultural immersion. At the same time, Volunteer for the Visayans aims to provide support services to the community through its host of local volunteers.

Highlights

Additional optional activities:-

- Conduct After-School Tutorials with Children on the Volunteer for the Visayans Child Sponsorship Program between 5pm and 7pm.

- Participate with a wide variety of local community based projects such as adolescent youth groups and local mothers groups outside of your regular working hours.

- Assist VFV with outreach projects such as building houses through their build-a-home project, assist with emergency relief and school supply distribution projects on weekends and after regular program hours.

Discover the Community

All volunteers are accommodated within a small close knit Filipino community. All home stays are within 1 minute from each and within 1 minute from VFV's office and community centre - this offers great cultural immersion as well as a great way for volunteers to socialise outside of project hours.

gravatar
Overall Experience

Elsa Sturgis volunteerabroad

An Eye Opening Life Experience

Volunteering at the Department of Social Welfare and Development run orphanage with Volunteer for the Visayans honestly changed my life. It opened my eyes to the true desperation that comes with extreme poverty. I spent many hours each day in the orphanage nursery, sometimes caring for 16 toddlers and infants at one time. From one child to the next the routine never stopped, diaper, bottle, love, rest, repeat. It was rewarding, disheartening, and amazing all at the same time. The stories of the children's lives before the orphanage, however short, shocked me at first. Some were literally left in garbage bins, others in resting public transport in the middle of the night, and other abandoned after birth at the hospital. A handful of the children were willingly given up by their parents, who realistically had no way of caring for another child. It broke my heart to hear the stories, but everytime I walked out the door I was filled with joy at the pictures which lined the entrance of children with their adoptive families abroad. The children's smiles were bursting as they went on their first sledding excursion with their parents, met their grandmother for the first time, took a family picture with their older siblings, or played with the family dog. Those pictures kept me going, and the thought that each moment I spent with each baby was enough, enough for them to know for that moment that they were loved and safe.
Volunteering at an orphanage will open your eyes to the experiences of the most innocent humans on the planet, their struggles, needs, and desires. It will provide you with one of the most fulfilling experiences of your life.

  • Social Life

    10

  • Health and Safety

    10

  • Community Impact

    9

  • Living Situation

    10

  • Program Administration

    9

  • Volunteer Experience

    10

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Poor Good Excellent

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Poor Good Excellent

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Poor Good Excellent

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Poor Good Excellent

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Poor Good Excellent

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Poor Good Excellent

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Poor Good Excellent

Proceed to Next Step

Back Proceed to Last Step

  •  
  •  

Back Submit Review