Description

By volunteering on a nutrition public health project, you can help Volunteer for the Visayans address a critical local public health issue whilst at the same time working closely with VFV staff and local community members to tailor projects to combat hunger and improve food security through heightened nutritional awareness.

Nutrition tends to be an issue that is overlooked by many Filipino communities. As a result issues such as chronic heart disease, diabetes, vitamin A deficiency, PEM and malnourishment are rampant in a society that cannot comprehend the importance of a healthy diet.

A critical objective is to educate Filipinos on the need to cut back on the amount of sugar and salt they use in their local diet, and to increase consumption of vegetables. There is little public education on these needs.

To this end, VFV created its Nutrition Public Health Project with the ongoing goal being to alter Filipino attitudes towards food whilst at the same time addressing the issues of undernourishment amongst local community pre-school children.

Volunteers will work with VFVs Community Feeding Project, planning, budgeting and providing supplementary feeding menus for the daily feeding of up to 35 preschool children. At the same time, volunteers will work closely with local mothers to educate them on the importance of nutrition and to investigate and implement long term solutions to combat hunger and food security. Such methods might include investigating the possibility and effectiveness of organizing local community feeding kitchens and implementing plans for communities to become self-sustainable.

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.

Qualifications

- Volunteers must be independent and open-minded.
- Volunteers must be willing to experience a different culture.
- Volunteers should have some knowledge and experience about nutrition.

Languages

• English

Cost in US$:

$799 for 2 weeks, $80 for each additional week.

Cost Includes:

• Excursions
• Food
• Housing
• In-country orientation/Training
• In-country staff support
• Language instruction

Experience Required

no

Volunteer Types

• Culture
• Health
• Health Education
• Nutrition

Typical Volunteer

Volunteers will help implement supplementary feeding projects for between 30 and 70 children whilst also working closely with local communities in order to organise workshops and seminars to promote nutrition education.

Age Range

18 years old and above

Application Process Involves

• Resume
• Written Application

Post Services Include

• Alumni Network

Year Founded

2004