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Volunteer in a Child Care Facility in the Philippines

VerifiedProvider
4.5 / 5Overall Rating
2Reviews
2004Year established

Program Overview

Volunteer for the Visayans places volunteers in several orphanages around the city and surrounding towns. Each orphanage is home to around 45 and over 100 abandoned and unwanted children, many of whom come from impoverished families and have suffered from malnutrition or neglect.

Living with just the necessities and few toys, these children only have a limited staff to care for them. Caregivers appreciate the extra help our volunteers can offer them, like tutoring the children, organizing arts and crafts or sports activities, and helping with basic chores such as feeding the kids and folding laundry. This is a meaningful way to learn firsthand the hardship most children face and give back to the underprivileged children growing up in a Third World country.

Volunteers don't necessarily need caregiving experience. All we ask is that you come with energy, enthusiasm, an open mind, and an open heart. With little staff, we ask the volunteers to organize recreational activities such as sports, educational exercises, or arts and crafts. With few resources at the orphanages, it helps if the volunteer can bring educational resources, art supplies, or tapes with children's songs.

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Program Highlights

Spend 2-4 weeks or 3-6 months in Tacloban City and volunteering.
Experience a lifetime chance to build a lasting bond and friendship in a poor society with a kid.
Help kids read and create a timetable of different activities.
Get the opportunity to change the life of someone for the better, immediately and directly!

What's Included

Accommodation / Housing for Program Duration
Some Meals / Partial Meal Plan
Airport Transfer (Pick-Up)
Airport Transfer (Drop-Off)
Language Lessons
On-Site / In-Country Staff Support
Some Program Activity Costs

Program Details

Learn all the nitty gritty details you need to know

Locations

  • Tacloban City, Philippines

Available Terms / Availability

  • Years Offered
  • Year Round

Eligible Nationalities

  • All Nationalities
  • This Program is also open to Solo, Couples, Group

Education Levels & Language

  • Language
  • English
  • Education
  • Any/All Education Levels Accepted

Accommodation Options

  • Home-stays

Application Procedures

  • Resume
  • Online Application

Age Requirement

18+

Duration

  • 2-4 Weeks
  • 5-8 Weeks
  • 9-12 Weeks
  • 3-6 Months
  • Summer

Program Reviews

Hear what past participants have to say about Volunteer for the Visayans

4.5
2 reviews

Rating breakdown

5
1
4
1
3
0
2
0
1
0

Top categories

Living Situation
5.0
Health & Safety
5.0
Day to Day Life
5.0
Volunteer Placement
4.5
Program Administration
4.5
Community Engagement
4.0

Participated in this program? Share your experience now.

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Showing 1-2 of 2 reviews

ET1989May 2014

SOS Children's Village

I volunteered at SOS Children's Village in Tacloban City with VFV for 2 weeks. During my time there I played games with the kids, worked on math skills, and held arts and crafts time. The orphanage itself has an incredible structure, allowing the children to form families within individual homes fit with individual house mothers who become like a real Mother to them. You would never know that all 120 children at SOS are orphans or children who's parents can no longer care for them, the atmosphere is loving, caring, and inviting.

ElsaSturgis · September 2013

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.

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