Volunteer for the Visayans

Volunteer for the Visayans is a great Philippine NGO in Leyte. The projects are ideal for someone wanting to get their hands dirty. My project was construction at the community center at the dumpsite . VFV is tuned into the needs of the kids and the community center has local buy in from the village. If you can't do a developing country don't do this program. Expect to make a million friends and be impacted by the children. You won't be the same after you do the program.

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.

I've volunteered with VFV 4 times already and every time I do, it never fails to give me a satisfying feeling that I was able to help underprivileged Filipinos. Thanks VFV and thanks GoAbroad!