VSO Philippines 1968-2010
Edited by Kristine Fonacier
VSO PHILIPPINES Editor Kristine Fonacier Associate Editor Jay Neil Ancheta
Writers Judah S. Aliposa Arcille Catherine Ballesteros-Raagas Monalinda B. Cadiz Ana Marie O. Dizon Kristine Fonacier Margarita Gomez Boyd Hagart-Alexander Francisco Lara, Jr
Researcher Aiz Santiago Book Design Maica Lagman Lara Gotis Produced by VSO Bahaginan
Published by VSO Bahaginan Unit 305 Pacific Corporate Center 131 West Avenue, Quezon City, Metro Manila Philippines www.vsobahaginan.org.ph
Philippine Copyright Š VSO Bahaginan Edited by Kristine Fonacier Photo credits VSO Philippines VSO Bahaginan Philip Sykes Matthew Garell Bobby Timonera First printing, 2010 No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. ISBN: 978-971-94645-1-8
Table of Contents
06 Foreword VSO Philippines: A 41-Year Journey by Malou Juanito 08 Introduction by Kristine Fonacier 11 Acknowledgments 12 Timeline
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Chapter One 1968 to 1978
18 Days of Disquiet by Judah Singzon Aliposa 22 « Profile » Legacies from a Year Shared: Bernard Waddingham (1964-65) by Monalinda B. Cadiz 28 Photo Gallery
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Chapter Two 1978 to 1988
32 Radicalization & Revolution, Introspection & Institutionalization by Arcille Catherine Ballesteros-Raagas 36 « Profile » A Lasting Passion: Linda McClintock (1976-1985) by Monalinda B. Cadiz 46 « Case Study » Tambuyog : The Call for Unity in the Coastal Areas (19862001) by Monalinda B. Cadiz 54 Our Stories to Tell
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Chapter Three 1988 to 1998
60 WORKING AMIDST CHANGE by Boyd Hagart-Alexander 72 « Profile » THE YOUNG MAN AND THE SEA: STUART GREEN (1993-1996) by Monalinda B. Cadiz 86 « Case Study » PHILIPPINE RURAL RECONSTRUCTION MOVEMENT: Sharing Skills, Reconstructing Rural Lives by Monalinda B. Cadiz 94 Global Xchange
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Chapter Four 21st Century
98 INTO THE 21st CENTURY by Ana Marie O. Dizon 110 MY LIFE WITH VSO: FRANCISCO “PANCHO” LARA, JR. (1987-1996/ 2002-2006) by Francisco Lara, Jr. 130 VSO Philippines’ List of Volunteers 136 In Our Own Words 139 About VSO
VSO PHILIPPINES: A 41-YEAR JOURNEY 1968 to 2010 Think about how the world has changed over the past four decades: we’ve landed a man on the moon, seen the rise and fall of communism, witnessed great technological advances, faced threats to the environment, and seen the social, political and economic
foreword
global landscape shift drastically.
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A pat na Dek ada For e wor d
Change and its attendant challenges have certainly characterized the past few decades for the Philippines. We’ve lived through martial law, the EDSA Revolution, several devastating natural calamities, and economic gains and crises. First as a program office, then as a recruitment base, and now as one entity working towards the same goals, VSO has been in the Philippines for those eventful and often tumultuous four decades, taking part in the great work of development by living up to its long-held and oft-quoted slogan, “Sharing Skills, Changing Lives.” VSO Philippines deserves a standing ovation in recognition of its exemplary volunteer program in the Philippines. Through the years, VSO and its partners have been tireless in mobilizing and managing foreign volunteer resources and services in the areas of education, community-based health care, disability, gender-fair development and
Volunteers have left a great impact in the fight against poverty and disadvantage, and we are both challenged and grateful that we are able to continue this legacy. self-governance for marginalized stakeholders. And while it is not our main motivator, sometimes it is good for our hearts when we receive recognition for our work: VSO Philippines was awarded a special citation by the Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency in the celebration of National Volunteer Month and International Volunteers’ Day. VSO also received a plaque of commendation from the House of Representatives during the First National Forum on Volunteerism as a Strategy for Development on January 27, 2010. In March 2010, VSO’s Philippine program office will close after 41 years of hard work and meaningful partnerships. On a programmatic level, we can only look at this as the natural culmination of our work: our combined efforts have brought us thus far, and now we need to close this chapter and embark on the next phase of development programming—having helped our partner organizations find ways to become more independent and self-sustaining, we are now paving the way for VSO Bahaginan to take up our program work with its National Volunteering Program, which shall be guided by VSO’s new strategy direction. On a more personal level, the contributions of the volunteers who have been part of VSO Philippines’ journey are truly inspiring. The long and honorable list begins with Bernard Waddingham, the first known volunteer in VSO’s records, who was sent to the Philippines in 1964 under the auspices of the British Volunteer Program to teach in Maryknoll College, Lucena City; and goes on until Victoria Fanthorpe, who arrived in 2009 to work in Maranao
People Development Center in Marawi City as our last VSO volunteer. Having joined us in our aim to build a fairer world, volunteers have not only given their invaluable time and expertise, but they have also managed to make a difference in the way things are done in the long term. They have left a great impact in the fight against poverty and disadvantage, and we are both challenged and grateful that we are able to continue this legacy. We could not let this landmark pass without celebrating the achievements of VSO Philippines and of the volunteers who have taken part in our programs. This book is a chronicle of VSO’s gains and achievements, written by past volunteers and staff members—all people who feel that they have a personal stake in commemorating the work of VSO Philippines. While it is impossible to recognize and mention each and every person who has been part of VSO Philippines, we have put together this small collection to celebrate the journey through photographs and stories. This book also allows us a singular opportunity to recognize our partnerships with government agencies, local government units, schools and NGOs, without whom none of our successes our achievements would have been possible. We in VSO believe that positive change is entirely possible through the work of individuals who are committed to bringing it about, and so we offer this book in gratitude to every person who has been part of VSO Philippines and its 41-year journey. MALOU JUANITO, Executive Director VSO Bahaginan
f o r e wo r d Apat n a Dek ada
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introduction page
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On paper, it seems either the most noble or the most foolish of endeavors: people giving their time freely and without charge, so that they could lend their skills to strangers in another part of the world. Surely there are better, more successful, more efficient ways to solve the world’s problems than to send individuals working at the grassroots level. And yet, volunteering remains a resilient concept, because it provides a uniquely effective means for people to take part in the work of global
development in such a personal, tangible way that can change the volunteer as much as the beneficiary community he works in. It provides the opportunity for people of different backgrounds to come together, to contribute to positive and lasting change, to learn and grow even as they share their time and their skills. This is the work that VSO Philippines—and by that, we include its staff, partners, and volunteers—has done over 40 years. For VSO, the story begins in 1958, when a bishop’s letter was published in The Sunday Times of London, offering an opportunity for school-leavers to offer unskilled help in foreign countries, in exchange only for basic accommodation and pocket money. The first volunteer recruited through that channel was an 18-year-old named David Brown. An article published by BBC News on the occasion of VSO’s 50th anniversary illustrated the anticlimactic nature of that first venture:
Photo Mangrove replanting activity participated in by community-based volunteers
David Brown first showed an interest in helping the needy when the Bishop of Borneo visited his Wiltshire boarding school and gave a slideshow to help tempt young men to work abroad. ‘Three weeks later a letter from the bishop arrived saying I was to get my plane ticket from the travel agent, and before you go, have these injections. That was it. It didn’t ask if I wanted to go,’ Mr Brown recalls. His ticket arrived with no further information, followed by a postcard from the bishop saying his brother, a retired Army man, would meet him at London Airport to bid him farewell. Mr Brown didn’t know what to expect when he set off on 19 May 1958—about six weeks after leaving school—as his preparation had mainly involved watching The Bridge on the River Kwai. ‘It was the first time I had been abroad, and the first time I had been on a plane. I left boarding school and within five weeks I was standing in front of a class,’ he says.
By the end of [1958], 13 school leavers had been sent to work in Borneo and Africa by the bishop and the charity’s founder, former education officer, Alec Dickson.” “The First VSO Volunteer” by Sarah Bell. BBC News Magazine, 15 May 2008 (news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7401326.stm, accessed 01 August 2010)
The founding vision of VSO, working as it was in the postcolonial setting of the 1950s and early 60s, was that the British had the obligation to give something to the rest of the world, while also shaping young men into leaders of the future. (“This worked,” the same BBC article would note, “with many going on to become cabinet ministers and captains of industry.”) In many ways, the history of VSO Philippines has always been closely entwined with that of VSO as an international organization. For one thing, the
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Philippines was the destination country for some of the first “cadets” sent out in VSO’s first year, although it was to be nine years until the program started up again, in 1968, after a long hiatus. Times have changed greatly over the past halfcentury, and both the nature of volunteering and VSO itself have evolved with it. By the 1960s, the focus was on sending volunteers with professional qualifications; with the postcolonial mindset gone, too, volunteering became more about sharing skills towards common development goals. VSO Philippines was at the forefront of many developments that mirrored these changes. Adopting a more programmatic approach in the 1980s, VSO aimed at providing a more concerted and considered plan towards its development work. Then when VSO Bahaginan was set up as a recruitment base in the 1990s, the Philippines became a pioneer in south-to-south volunteering. Soon after that, VSO Philippines was also instrumental in setting up National Volunteering as a program area, paving the way for local volunteers working in their own countries. The closing of the Philippines office is also a hopeful landmark, signaling a sea change in paradigm and practice. The work is now to be continued by the partner organizations that VSO has supported over the years, with the participation, when necessary, of national volunteers.
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It’s been a long road getting here, and the story is worth telling both as a chronicle for organizational partners and as a tribute to the people involved. This book aims to tell the story of VSO Philippines through essays, interviews, photos, and case studies; and, just as importantly, it also tells the story behind the story—that of the people who have contributed to the organization. Most of the staff members have moved on to other organizations or to other posts within VSO, while most of the volunteers have gone home (although a good number, it must be said, have remained in the Philippines after their placements have ended). Everyone, however, will attest that the time they have spent with VSO will always be etched in minds and hearts that have been irrevocably changed. Apat na Dekada is our attempt to share this unforgettable experience with everyone. There are many names, details and stories that we have missed in our pages, we are sure, and for that we apologize. We hope at least that we have captured the greater arc of the organization’s history, along with enough of the smaller, more personal tales to remind us that this is also a story of people working together—which, we are often reminded, is the greatest force for change in the world. Kristine Fonacier
acknowledgments
As with the work of VSO Philippines itself, this book would not have been possible without the support and gracious assistance of a great number of people. The editors, writers, and researchers gratefully acknowledge the staff and volunteers of VSO Philippines, colleagues from partner organizations, friends, and family members who have lent us their knowledge, provided us with valuable information, alerted us to mistakes, and pointed us the right way. In particular, we owe a debt of gratitude to Jay Neil Ancheta, who served as our main coordinator for the project, and to the staff of VSO Philippines and VSO Bahaginan, whose idea it was to make the book in the first place. We are painfully aware that the list of volunteers at the back of the book is likely incomplete. We apologize for this, and for any other omissions, and hope that you allow us to credit that to forgetfulness rather than ingratitude. All credit in this book is shared among everyone who contributed to it, but all errors are solely ours.
Vinia Abesamis
Barbs Fortunato
Leo van Mulekom
Chris Bantug
Julie Garcia
Arthur Neame
Mariam Barandia
Joseph Gloria
Trish Nicholson
Roy Bateman
Stuart Green
Ronet Santos
Ephraim Patrick Batungbacal
Cynthia Honorio
Isagani R. Serrano
Will Jones
Philip Sykes
Pancho Lara
Sue Sykes
Pauline Lawsin-Nayra
Juju Tan
Arlene Mahinay
Arsenio “Pepe� Tanchuling
Nappy Manegdeg
Sharon Taylor
Michael Evans
Linda McClintockTiongco
Bernard Waddingham
Paul Farbon
gerry Merriman
Richard Bennett Jocelyn Bonilla Geoff Brown Billy dela Rosa Alastair Duncan
1964
1968
The first known volunteer, Bernard Waddingham, is sent to the Philippines under the British Volunteer Program in the Philippines, the first incarnation of VSO Philippines
1975
The Department of Foreign Affairs recognizes VSO as a volunteersending organization, and VSO Philippines is officially launched; the first batch of eight VSO volunteers are posted to academic institutions, mostly in the Visayas and Mindanao
A shift towards placements in natural resource management and towards partnerships with Filipino NGOs; the time of VSO’s first placements in vocational training, health and marine science
April 1978 First volunteer conference held in Cagayan de Oro
1960
Timeline 1 9 5 8 - 1 9 9 5
1958
1959
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1971
1972
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1970 1968
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1978 Michael Rose, who had previously served as a volunteer, is appointed assistant VSO program officer; VSO Philippines is still based at the British Council but for the first time had a staff member working solely on VSO program development and volunteer support
1976
1977
1981
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1958 First volunteers are sent to the Philippines as “cadets” through the British Council; postings last for one year
1975
1978
1980
1979
March 1980
Jim Monan, Philippine volunteer and AFO, writes Focus on the Philippines: The Volunteer Experience, a monograph detailing the experiences of volunteers in the Philippines during the 1970s
Volunteer conference accepts the Glencree Charter, a resolution made internationally by volunteer workers calling for greater participation by volunteers in the policy making of their sending agencies
April 1983
May 1983
VSO Philippines’ program is upgraded with the creation of the Field Office; Brian Veal is appointed field director
Michael Morgan, the British ambassador to the Philippines, reacts to a letter written by a group of British volunteers to the Guardian protesting human rights violations taking place at NDC Guthrie Plantation, Inc. by threatening to withdraw the entire VSO program from the Philippines
April 1988
1991
Office moves out of the British Council building to E. Rodriguez Boulevard, Quezon City
Bernie Ross serves as field director until 1992
1995 Integrated Skills for Women in Development (ISWID), a four-year program that aims to contribute to local initiatives in raising gender awareness and empowering women, is launched
1992 Trish Nicholson serves as field director until 1995
March 1988 Richard Bennett joins program as field director until 1991
1995 Geoff Brown serves as country director of VSO Philippines until 1998
1990 1987
1988
1989
1991
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November 1987 1993
1994
1995
1996 to 2010
Conference at Initao, Misamis Oriental; a Development Education Committee is set up at to coordinate the program’s development education activities
1987-1998 1984
1985
1986
Concerns over the peace and order situation in Mindanao result in a greater percentage of volunteers placed in Luzon and Visayas
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1983
February 1989 Office moved to No. 6 Third Street, Quezon City
April 1985 Jamie Mackie joins program as field director until 1988
August 1984 A newsletter edited by volunteers is restarted and rechristened Halo-Halo (“mix”) with North-South development issues at the forefront
October 1986 An advisory council is proposed to increase Filipino nationals’ involvement in the program
April 1989 Volunteers express the need for a medium to communicate development concerns to friends and families back home; thus another newsletter, SULAT, was started
Timeline 1 9 9 6 - 2 0 1 0 previous page
1958 to 1995
2001
1999
The Peace-Building program is launched and is active in Mindanao through the EU-funded TOSCADAR Program (Technical and Organizational Skills for Civil Society Action for the Displaced and the At-Risk)
Dave Hampson serves as country director until 2002
June 1996 The first issue of Kaugnay, a development education newsletter for VSO volunteers in the Philippines, is released
2000 1999
2001
2002
2002 1996
1997
1998
1998 Skills for Community-based Resource Utilization and Management (SCRUM), a four-year project that aims to enable communities to sustainably manage natural resources, is launched
Pancho Lara serves as the first Filipino country director, until 2006
July 2000 Sharing and Promotion of Awareness and Regional Knowledge (SPARK), a fiveyear project to support existing organizations and communities in implementing community-based natural resource management, is launched
2000 Henedina Alvarez, the first Filipino volunteer of South-toSouth Volunteering, was sent to Georgetown, Guyana to work as occupational therapist under Guyana’s Ministry of Health
2003
2003 Genevieve Broad, who served as VSO volunteer in Tambuyog Development Center, publishes her book Fishes of the Philippines: A Guide to Identification of Families, winning the National Book Award from the Manila Critics’ Circle
April 2003 VSO Bahaginan became a duly recognized organization, registered under the Securities and Exchange Commission
2004 VSO is voted top international development charity in the International Aid and Development Category at the Charity Awards 2004, a UK-based award-giving body that annually recognizes and celebrates excellence in the leadership and management of UK charities
October 2004
August 2009 Malou Juanito named Country Director for VSO Philippines after the merger
September 2009 Victoria Fanthorpe, the last VSO Philippines volunteer, is deployed to Marawi City to work for MARADECA
VSO Philippines launches its five-year country strategic plan anchored on VSO International’s strategic plan entitled Focus for Change
2010 2007
2008
2009
March 2010 VSO Philippines closes
2004
2005
Dec 2009
2006
VSO Philippines is awarded the Special Citation in International Volunteerism by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
July 2005 VSO Philippines is featured in the Inquirer as the only foreign volunteer group that continues to work in Mindanao; together with the British Embassy, VSO announces the launch of the project Peace Enabling Actions for Community Empowerment in Mindanao (PEACE Mindanao)
August 2008 VSO volunteers in Lanao Province were evacuated to Cagayan de Oro after fighting broke out as a result of a failed GRP-MILF peace agreement
2005 Birth of Disability program; start of National Volunteering as part of VSO Philippines’ Exit Strategy; Global Xchange comes to the Philippines, managed and implemented by VSO Philippines, British Council and VSO Bahaginan
2006 Juju Tan, the last Country Director to serve VSO Philippines before the merger between VSO Philippines and VSO Bahaginan
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V S O P h i l i ppi n e s 1 9 6 8 to 1 9 8 8 Apat n a Dek ada
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Social unrest, military action, and martial law formed the challenging backdrop to the arrival of the first VSO volunteers in the Philippines
1988-1998
1998-2010
DAYS OF DISQUIET
by Judah Singzon Aliposa
Apart from a family vacation to Austria the summer before he
1979-1987
turned 18, Bernard Waddingham had never traveled abroad. But months later, in November 1964, Bernard packed his bags for the Philippines, arriving in Lucena, Quezon Province, as the first British Volunteer Program volunteer posted in the Philippines.
1968 - 1978
“VSO was an exciting adventure,” Bernard recalls. “I was to
teach maths, religion and English, and I remember my first day: I was still jetlagged, but I had to stand up in my school blazer and address the whole school—[there were] around 1000 students.
Previous page Manobo B’lit fisherman, upper Sepaka, Cotabato, 1977; a member of one of VSO’s beneficiary communities in Mindanao in the 1970s page
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Marcos’ administration was also marked by massive spending in infrastructure—roads, public buildings,
This was the context in which the Department of Foreign Affairs received a letter written for and in behalf of “Her Britannic Majesty’s Embassy” that introduced the British Volunteer Program, which would “deepen mutual understanding and harmony through assistance with educational, social and economic projects in the Philippines.” The BVP is the umbrella organization for the various agencies under which volunteers from the UK are sent overseas, and in the beginning the Philippine government recognized VSO volunteers under the BVP banner which was, in turn, run through the British Council. By 1968, BVP had 1420 volunteers overseas, with more than a thousand of them “graduates or qualified.” There were two types of BVP volunteers: Cadet Volunteers and Graduate Volunteers. The former, usually between the age of 18 and 24, were trained to the British equivalent of high school and were usually technically skilled; graduate volunteers were over 20 years old and had university degrees or professional qualifications. The British Voluntary Association covered the recruitment costs, training and travel of BVP volunteers sent to the Philippines. Each host
V S O P h i l i ppi n e s 1 9 6 8 to 1 9 8 8 Apat n a Dek ada
1998-2010 1988-1998
Under his presidency, the Philippines experienced great progress, especially in the eyes of the international community, but domestically there were planted the seeds of disquiet and unrest that will haunt the country for decades to come. Early in the Marcos presidency, in 1967, the Philippines stood as one of the founding countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a league that nurtured the emerging economic tigers of the region. At the same time, however, the growing disparity between the rich and poor and the consequent need for land reform contributed to the rise of the insurgent Communist Party of the Philippines and its militant arm, the New People’s Army. Mounting unrest, assassinations and acts of terror were met by a major military campaign from the government. Civil war also threatened Mindanao: Protesting official discrimination and the lack of development in the region, the Moro National Liberation Front (later the Moro Islamic Liberation Front) gained ground.
schools, and health centers—that was funded by intensified tax collections. However, there was still massive government corruption, and economic progress was neither proportional to population growth nor distributed equitably.
1979-1987
Ferdinand Marcos was a young and dashing senator from Ilocos when he was sworn in as President of the Philippines in 1965. He and his beauty queen wife, Imelda Romualdez, rode in a crest of popularity that promised change and an end to corruption and graft-ridden patronage politics.
1968 - 1978
Under his presidency, the Philippines experienced great progress, especially in the eyes of the international community, but domestically there were planted the seeds of disquiet and unrest that will haunt the country for decades to come.
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1998-2010 1988-1998 1979-1987 1968 - 1978 page
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A pat na Dek ada V S O Ph i l i pp i n e s 1 9 6 8 to 1 9 7 8
Apat na Dekada: insert subtitle here if necessary
Far Right Editorial cartoon from the Martial Law era
1998-2010
elizabeth purkiss
It was one of the most thrilling moments of my life…I had no idea where the Philippine Islands were—me, a graduate with A level Geography tucked under her belt. It was a place that just hadn’t impinged on my life.
From 1968 to 1975, volunteer placements continued to be run through the British Council. It built on the Council’s link with academic institutions in the Philippines. Of the 36 volunteers posted during these years, 21 were placed in Mindanao and 25 were assigned to placements that focused on mathematics, science and engineering.
Nicolas Wealey is similarly nostalgic about his arrival in Manila on October 2, 1970. It was a warm 38 degrees Celsius, and so humid that he “struggled down the gangway with my rucksack.” Wealey, an agriculturist, found that the drive up to his placement at the Mt. Apo Science Foundation, “certainly looked like paradise to me.” The two years of his placement flew by, and he had struck friendships with the locals, two undergraduate American volunteers and “just about maintained, repaired and make anything that would keep the campus going.” He also had nearly drowned while crossing a swollen river during a rainstorm. But what sent Nicolas packing were the occasional outbreaks that started between the NPA rebels and the
1979-1987
The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs officially recognized VSO as a volunteer-sending organization in 1968. The next eight VSO volunteers to arrive in the Philippines were all posted to academic institutions like the Mindanao State University in Marawi City, the University of San Carlos in Cebu City, Silliman University in Dumaguete City, the Mt. Apo Science Foundation in Davao City, and St. Louis University in Baguio.
Elizabeth Purkiss recalls that when she received, early in 1970, the news of her assignment to teach English literature in the Jesuit-run Xavier University, “it was one of the most thrilling moments of my life…I had no idea where the Philippine Islands were—me, a graduate with A level Geography tucked under her belt. It was a place that just hadn’t impinged on my life.”
1968 - 1978
institution or organization provided for the volunteer’s board and lodging, any “equipment necessary for their duties,” and the volunteer allowance of “about Php25 a week in the case of a Cadet Volunteer and about Php30 a week in the case of a Graduate Volunteer.”
1988-1998
Opposite Volunteer Roy Bateman trying a root zone insecticide applicator designed by fellow volunteer Philip Sykes
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V S O P h i l i ppi n e s 1 9 6 8 to 1 9 8 8 Apat n a Dek ada
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1998-2010 1988-1998
p ro f i l e
Legacies from a Year Shared
1968 - 1978
1979-1987
Bernard Waddingham (1964-65)
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by Monalinda B. Cadiz “I seemed that I was thrown into the deep end…. I had never taught before,” recalls Bernard Waddingham, who arrived in November 1964 as the first VSO volunteer to be sent to the Philippines. “During the year, I was inspected by a senior member of the staff. The conclusion was that, on my return home, England’s gain would be Maryknoll’s loss!” This came to him as a surprise because of the many the challenges he had faced; equally important, however, he had become endeared to to the community he had lived in and worked with so much so that, 40 years later, he was invited back to the Philippines to be thanked again for that one year of his life which he shared with a community in Lucena City.
A pat na Dek ada V S O Ph i l i pp i n e s 1 9 6 8 to 1 9 7 8
in Lucena. I was also welcomed in Naga City, from where several of my co-teachers came.”
Maryknoll Academy (now Maryhill College) in Lucena City was Bernard’s destination. “For an 18-yearold who had only once before left England—and then only to nearby countries in Europe—the Philippines was very different. It was very warm! The Philippines was still developing and the country was not as wealthy as England.” These were the first impressions of the country that was to be his home for a year. Nonetheless, despite the stark contrast between the Philippines and Bernard’s country of origin, it was not long before he felt at home in a strange land. “The community which I joined was very welcoming. This included the faculty at Maryknoll, the pupils, and even my landlady and her family. I was always made very welcome when I visited any function
Aside from his inexperience in teaching, the young volunteer teacher recalls that the oldest pupil in the school was a senior student who was 14 months older than Bernard was. “In 2005, I attended the 40th graduation anniversary for that [batch of graduates] and they were very surprised to discover how close in age to them I am.”
At Maryknoll, Bernard was asked to teach English, Mathematics and Religious Education to freshmen and junior high school students. “Teaching itself was the biggest challenge, never having taught before…” says Bernard. “After one day’s introduction, I was given the textbooks and told to teach. I thought this was hard but found out that some other teachers, teaching subjects they had not studied, were only one chapter ahead of their pupils!” Bernard was surprised that he had to prepare lesson plans, showing the aims, methods and expected outcomes for each lesson. “I had never taught before and had not thought that teachers at home had done this.”
Living in the community of his placement was not very difficult for Bernard. “I had been to boarding school for seven years and this no doubt helped in living away from home. I think one of the highlights was the way my landlady, Mrs. Anita Chua, took me into her family. At holiday times, she took me to stay with her relatives in Batangas. I am still in contact
V S O P h i l i ppi n e s 1 9 6 8 to 1 9 8 8 Apat n a Dek ada
1998-2010 1988-1998
Bernard’s adventure with VSO started when his application for undergraduate studies with Cambridge University was rejected. As fate would have it, Bernard narrates that “it was too late to apply for other universities, so I had a year to spare. VSO had previously caught my eye and, in May 1964, my mother had seen an article in The Catholic Herald, an English Catholic newspaper, about VSO trying to find a Catholic 18-year-old to fill a position in the Philippines. When I applied to VSO in October, this position was still vacant. I fit it like a glove, being an 18-year-old Catholic boy with the time available.” In the 1960s, placements were for secondary school graduates who were getting ready for university studies. The volunteers were tasked to teach English and Math in primary and secondary schools.
1978-1988
bernard waddingham
In May 1964, my mother had seen an article in The Catholic Herald, an English Catholic newspaper, about VSO trying to find a Catholic 18-year-old to fill a position in the Philippines.
1968 - 1978
Left Photo from Bernard Waddingham’s personal archives, from his time in the Philippines; Inset Bernard Waddingham, photo taken 2010
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with Anita and her family. Last month, Anita sent me a photo of Vivian, her youngest daughter, now in her forties, for whom I used to babysit! Betty, Anita’s eldest daughter, came to England with her husband in 2005—it was strange meeting at the airport a lady in her fifties whom I had last seen as an eleven-year-old girl.” Working relations with colleagues was not a problem either. And just as he maintained communication with the family who took care of him as if he was their own, Bernard has kept track of his friends back in the Philippines that he still remembers the maiden names of his women friends and their married names afterwards. “I remember the comradeship of my fellow teachers, particularly Bert Paraiso and Jun Arquesa from Naga, with whom I shared a room in our lodgings. Just one room for three male teachers in which to prepare their lessons, mark assignments and sleep! The two sisters, Lydia Pasadilla (now Olano) and Emerita Pasadilla (now Olisago) were good friends and Lena Nidea and her family were special friends. I renewed acquaintance with Lena in New York in 2003 and met her family again in 2005.” Bernard fondly recalls interesting anecdotes during his placement. “The fridge is one of the best anecdotes,” muses Bernard. “Shortly before I left Lucena in 1965, I won the first prize in a raffle. It was a fridge. Obviously, I could not take a fridge back on the plane with me. The local bishop needed a fridge so I sold it to him. Nowadays, I would be less mercenary and would give him the fridge but I was young then and it was nice to take some money home. To continue the story, when we returned to the Philippines in 2005, there was another raffle. I did not do so well this time, winning only the second prize—another refrigerator! Again, this could not be taken home and was given to the former pupils’ scholarship fund.”
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Bernard is light-heartedly reflective about changes which volunteering brought to his life. “The biggest change stemming from my volunteering experience was the rest of my life. If I had not spent a year with VSO, I might not have attended Sheffield University, where I met my wife!” he muses. Upon finishing his placement in the Philipines, Bernard went back to the UK and studied Accountancy and Financial Administration at Sheffield University. Then he studied accountancy and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1971. He worked for a short time in the profession, before working for a logistics business for over 30 years. In 1972, Bernard married Margaret, with whom he now has a daughter and two sons; their daughter has followed in his footsteps his footsteps in sharing her skills to change lives through VSO. Bernard proudly shares that “without any prompting from me, our daughter Rosemary volunteered and spent two years with VSO in China from 1996 to 1998. We visited her twice during her stay there. Our niece also volunteered with VSO and spent a year in Nepal.” He adds that “being with VSO gave me an enduring love for the Philippines and its people. Every mention of the country in the media in the UK attracts my attention.” But best of all, working with VSO had given Bernard a taste for community involvement. “Since being with VSO, I have always been involved in charity work,” says the former volunteer. “I work for my parish, for The Catholic Union of Great Britain, a Catholic organization in public life, and I am a treasurer in England and Wales of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre (KHS), a worldwide organization supporting the Christians in the Holy Land with prayer, pilgrimages and finance.” Early in 2005, the daughter of Bernard’s landlady in Lucena invited him for a Maryknoll reunion in Long
Beach, California where she had moved. Although tempting and before he could accept the invite, he and his wife Margaret received another invitation. This was to a reunion in Lucena itself from the class of 1965. Two invitations after forty years! “This would be an emotional few days, Margaret’s first visit and Bernard’s first since he finished his VSO service in 1965,” reads an article about Bernard’s visit written for the Maryhill publication. The article continues, “The reunion weekend was mainly at a beach resort and included presentations, parlor games, singing and cabaret—Filipino hospitality is tremendous. It was amazing to see such a high proportion of students from one year, including some who had travelled from Australia and the US, meeting together after such a long time.”
From Lucena, Bernard and Margaret travelled to Naga City to meet more of Bernard’s former colleagues at Maryknoll. Bernard was flattered at a welcome banner across the road where Bernard used to live, which also prominently showed the name of VSO. Margaret was shown the house where Bernard stayed 40 years ago, where, the article says, “In pride of place in their house is a photograph of Bernard as a student!” The couple were entertained yet again with utmost Filipino hospitality by Bernard’s friends and their families. The article continues to report that “Correspondence and photographs have subsequently travelled both ways between Bedford and the Philippines. Margaret and Bernard have been invited back for the next reunion in five years, “although we don’t really want you to wait that long before you come back!”
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bernard waddingham
Being with VSO gave me an enduring love for the Philippines and its people. Every mention of the country in the media in the UK attracts my attention.
1968 - 1978
Left Photo from Bernard Waddingham’s personal archives, from his time in the Philippines
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tumultuous sea of change, the sense of being part of a group became important for volunteers like Philip Sykes, James Miller and Nicholas Wealey, as they had to draw closely together.
1968 - 1978
1979-1987
Left Volunteer Philip Sykes and Susan Mira, who would eventually become his wife, at a school event on Opol Beach, Cagayan de Oro
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Opposite Home of volunteer Jill Bakker, and later Philip Sykes, during their placements in Cagayan de Oro
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Philippine military. “The guerilla war escalated. Americans were increasingly berated in the media, and it did not matter if I explained that I was British.” By 1972, Marcos had already transformed from being the popular, promising politico to the despised despot that he eventually came to be. One September morning, James Miller, who was a biology teacher in Cebu’s University of San Carlos, switched on the radio that he had inherited from a Peace Corps volunteer, and heard, “instead of the normal mixture of pop music and commercials, there was the blast of a military band playing marches. And then a voice broke in and I learned that President Marcos had placed the country under martial law.” Philip Sykes was one of three VSOs posted to Cagayan de Oro. He spent two years with the local trade college “doing things like teaching, working to improve the local systems, and training tutors. At 21 , I was doing things I would never have had the opportunity of doing in England.” He and the two other volunteers became great friends, later even sharing a house together. Cast afloat on a
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In the increasingly polarized Philippines, social action programs espoused by the NGO movement presented political alternatives to the Marcos regime, and were implemented against a backdrop of an increasingly ideological armed struggle. “They formed part of a surge of challenge to authority,” wrote Dick Bird in Never the Same Again: A History of VSO. “Volunteers posted within these organizations as health workers or agriculturists, for example, were not rowing with the mainstream of established society.” In People to People Working for Change: Celebrating 40 Years of VSO, it was also reported that, from the mid-1970s onward, “VSO’s approach began to place greater emphasis on the developmental impact of the work that it was undertaking in the country.” This increasingly professional approach was reinforced by the establishment of a network of VSO program offices and overseas staff, “and was so until the end of the decade.
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1998-2010 1988-1998
Radicalization & Revolution, Introspection & Institutionalization
A dramatic and heroic decade that also marked deep and lasting changes within VSO
1978-1988
by Arcille Catherine Ballesteros-Raagas
The decade 1978 to 1987 witnessed a tumultuous political and economic period in the Philippines best characterized as a period of radicalization, revolution and introspection. It was a period
1968 - 1978
of radicalization for VSO as well, as many “firsts� happened and
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were implemented during this decade.
Previous page VSO volunteers working in placement during the period; photo taken circa 1979
This radical departure in the operation of the VSO program was also being seen across all other VSO offices. Dick Byrd, in Never the Same Again: A History of VSO notes than VSO’s programs around the world were being gradually transformed, paving the way for local staff to take over VSO operations; in 1980, 80% of all volunteers were managed by VSO’s own staff, a process that was virtually complete by 1982. This shift in operations was made possible by hiring fully salaried staff appointments. But when full salaries could not be afforded, a new post was devised in 1975—that of the Assistant Field Officer (AFO), still made it possible for the office to have professional and competent warm bodies to run the office. The post of the AFO would be filled up by volunteers who had completed their initial assignment. They would be asked to stay on, still on the same volunteer terms, to assist the local VSO office. Their main role was to vet requests from and increase the contact with other volunteers, which in turn
With martial law in full force in the country, this was an era that saw the explosion of the number of Philippine NGOs and people’s organization in the areas of human rights, democracy and participation. “It is difficult to believe that the British Embassy, which was the Overseas Arm in [the Philippines], would without this post, have identified such a program—indeed, politically, could have, given the divided nature of society under Marcos. Yet this work was to justify a fully funded field office, eight years later,” writes Bird. As a result of this shift, more local staff was hired: Precy Santos, who joined the program as administrative assistant in 1980; Ellen de Leon joined the program as clerical assistant in 1986; Cynthia Honorio, administration officer, came in December 1987. It was also in 1980 that Jim Monan, a Philippine volunteer and AFO, wrote Focus on the Philippines. In April 1983, the Philippine program was upgraded with the creation of the Field Office, and Brian Veal was appointed as its first field
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contributed to program development as well as opportunities for able volunteers to take on additional work and interesting field experience beyond their initial placement terms. For example, a volunteer originally placed in a university setting with teaching responsibilities, after completing the placement, would be appointed as an AFO and become more involved in social action and community development roles with non-government organizations.
1978-1988
In 1978, six years into martial law, protests against the government became more intense as people saw President Marcos install himself as Prime Minister in an attempt to perpetuate himself in power. It is against this backdrop that Michael Rose, who served as a ceramics volunteer with Tala Foundation in Caloocan City (1976-78), was appointed assistant VSO program officer. VSO, though based still at the British Council, finally had a staff member working solely on VSO program development and volunteer support.
1968 - 1978
With martial law in full force in the country , this was an era that saw the explosion of the number of Philippine NGOs and people’s organization in the areas of human rights, democracy and participation.
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Opposite The number of volunteers quadrupled during this decade
meeting. However, this was dropped the following year in favor of two national conferences per year.
1978-1988
director. He was later succeeded by Jamie Mackie in 1985. At the end of this decade, in February 1987, Alastair Kennedy was also appointed as East Asian regional program manager. It was also in 1978 that the first volunteer conference was held in Cagayan de Oro City, Mindanao. This conference gathered together volunteers to share their experiences in their placements and learn from one another. This gathering proved to be invaluable as a platform for feedback and informal assessment of how they were doing in their respective placements, identifying gaps and just plain enjoying being together. This conference would eventually become an annual staple of the program office, which in the later years was expanded to include partner organizations.
1968 - 1978
1988-1998
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Left Photo taken from volunteers’ archives, taken in Pangasinan, circa 1986
It is also worth mentioning that during the March 1980 volunteers’ conference, the participants accepted the Glencree Charter, a resolution made internationally by volunteer workers calling for greater participation by volunteers in the policy making of their sending agencies. In 1983, VSO experimented in a regional (North and South) Philippine conferences as well as a national
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Another radical departure during this decade was the quadrupling of the number of volunteers from about 40 or so from 1968 to 1977 to almost 200 in the next decade. In a 1998 VSO newsletter, Marafiki reports that the “…1980s and 1990s saw steady growth, as VSO responded to additional demands for skills development in an increasing number of countries despite the fact that in the 1980s school leavers had been phased out and overseas posting had been extended to two years resulting in the decrease in the number of volunteers to 750.” The nature of the volunteer placements also changed. In the previous decade, the placements were all in university settings where volunteers taught math, science, English and engineering. However, between 1976 and 1986, the focus of the placements were generally in natural resource management and development education with volunteers being placed in vocational training, health, and marine science. Interestingly, there was a continued focus on Mindanao, as approximately half of the 108 volunteers placed during this period were based in this so-called “Land of Promise”; 34 were agriculturists, 12 rural engineers, and 11 Continued on Page 41
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p ro f i l e
A lasting passion
1968 - 1978
1978-1988
Linda McClintock (1976-1985)
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by Monalinda B. Cadiz Linda McClintock arrived in the Philippines as a VSO volunteer in 1976, fresh from graduate studies and looking to make a difference. She had no idea then that her stint would make change her own life in so many unexpected ways—or that, three decades later, she would still be passionately involved in working with communities in Muslim Mindanao. “On Monday, January 4, the schools were back and I visited the Central Primary School that MuCAARD-UK gave money to for a vehicle. They had a large number of letters for me to take back to Overton Primary School—who had raised the money—in reply to the letters they sent out with Romy in June last year.”
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Linda started to volunteer in a period when VSO was shifting its program approach, putting greater emphasis on the developmental impact of the work undertaken primarily through volunteer placements. Linda’s initial assignment in 1976-1979 was with the Diocese of Malaybalay, Bukidnon Social Action Program. Initially requested as a food preservation expert, the young volunteer ended up working as a community organizer instead, for her organization’s Community-Based Health Program (CBHP).
After her first placement, which finished in three years, Linda took on another, working as program coordinator for Muslim women with the Kahayag Foundation from 1979 to 1986. She still thinks of this placement as one of the highlights of her long volunteering stint in the Philippines, as she had lived and worked with Muslim women in places like Marawi, Malabang, and Cotabato City. Linda recalls that one of the most fulfilling moments she had when volunteering in the Philippines was when the community they had been helping for a year made a synthesis of the impact that the health program brought to their lives. “We did an evaluation of the Community-Based Health Program and the small cooperative store we’d helped the community set up. There were lots of issues and problems, but at the end, one of the farmers got up and said in Cebuano, ‘Before you came to work with us I was like our water buffalo: you could have put a ring though my nose and wherever you pulled me I’d follow. But as a result of the CBHP and the co-op I now know that I am not a scarecrow. Even though I am poor and humble, my thoughts and feelings have value. I am a person.’” What had brought Linda to the Philippines? Before her placement, Linda says that she had always
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It began in 1976, when then 24-year-old Linda McClintock arrived in the Philippines from the UK as a VSO volunteer. The Philippines was under martial law, and apart from the social and political tensions of the time, life in the Philippines offered many fantastic and interesting opportunities for volunteers willing to take up the challenge of working in the countryside. Just emerged from graduate studies in social work at Manchester University, Linda relished the prospect of living a rustic life amidst the backdrop of an amazing landscape like that of Bukidnon, and the chance to pioneer life-changing programs in a community. There was no hint that this initial stint would turn into nearly a decade of volunteer work in the Philippines, and that it would, as she now says, “change everything.”
1978-1988
These first few sentences in Linda McClintock’s January 2010 entry in her blog is a continuing narrative of a long and inspiring sojourn in the Philippines that hasn’t really ended.
Her placement area then had neither asphalt nor cement roads, and there were wooden bridges on the highways. Having to travel extensively in order to visit the five remote communities where she was to give trainings, Linda recalls that an 80-kilometer trip would take about five hours over “all kinds of roads” back then. She was based in Maramag and then Damulog, but visited at least five different communities in the mountains of Bukidnon. Despite the difficulty in travelling, Linda says that she was always inspired by “the amazing scenery of Bukidnon and by working with people who were committed to justice, risking their lives during martial law.”
1968 - 1978
Opposite Photos from Linda McClintock Tiongco’s archives
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wanted to volunteer, having known many people back in the UK who had served overseas. Little did she know, however, that her coming to the Philippines as a VSO volunteer would be the turning point in her life. Her volunteering stint indeed “changed everything”: she got married to Romy Tiongco in Tagum, Davao on January 24, 1981, and stayed in the country for 13 years. Eventually, the couple and their two children, then aged 5 and 7, moved back to the UK in 1989. Currently, Linda is the Northwest Manager for Christian Aid (CAid) in the UK, beginning work there in 1992. She credits her experience with VSO and work in the Philippines for giving her career mileage, especially as she was earlier asked to join CAid’s Emergency Rosta because of her time and experience working in the Philippines. “I guess I got the original job with CAid because of my Philippine experience and the fact that CAid funded the work we were doing in Bukidnon and Kahayag. The connection with CAid was made because Rob Auld, one of the VSOs with me in Bukidnon, had been sponsored by CAid.” VSO has figured considerably in Linda’s family’s life as well. Her husband was a VSO trainer in the UK for several years, and their son Zac was deployed to Cambodia as a volunteer in 2010. So well-known is the family in VSO circles that, when Zac went through training, he was asked if Romy was his dad, as the surname was uncommon in the UK. One notable and lasting legacy of Linda’s placement which continues to help communities in Mindanao is the group Muslim Christian Action for Relief Advocacy and Development (MuCAARD). MuCAARD traces roots from the collective efforts of the people of Mindanao and of Romy Tiongco, who in turn inspired Linda and Robert Auld to join forces. Then named the Muslim-Christian Agency for Rural Development (MuCARD), the group was born in 1986 as an umbrella organization aiming
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to assist POs in improving their capabilities to assist small farmers, fisherfolk, women and the urban poor. The group’s activities are focused on Mindanao, specifically in the provinces of Lanao del Sur and Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, and Bukidnon. MuCAARD was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1986 by Linda, who had then just finished her nine years as a VSO volunteer, along with Romy, Hadji Amina Gauraki and Joy Gaspar. MuCCARD-UK has sustained its drive since the 70s to improve the condition of poor communities in Mindanao, continuing to work in Bukidnon, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur. MuCAARD’s work was supported by Christian Aid until 2009, when the international organization pulled out of the country. During a trip back to the Philippines in 2003, Romy and Robert found that the situation in Mindanao remained challenging, and that many of the problems they were familiar with still remained, with new ones arising to make life even more difficult for people in the rural communities. Although they were encouraged to find that MuCAARD’s work was still making a difference in the lives of people in the region, Romy and Robert were concerned that whatever gains MuCAARD had achieved would be jeopardized by the lack of funds. Upon their return to the UK, they asked Linda and another friend, Ed Parry, to help set up a small organization to help MuCAARD with fund sourcing from the UK. By 2008, MuCAARD-UK was fully functional, and while Linda acknowledges that the young organization is still “very small,” it has nevertheless managed to support a number of projects in the Philippines. Through the MuCAARD-UK blog (mucaard.blogspot. com), Linda continues to post updates on their projects in the Philippines, along with stories of their visits to the sites. From November 2008 to January 2009, for example, Linda and Romy spent time visiting remote communities to bring medical
More recently, Linda reports, “We have supported a tree planting project in Damulog, [planting] falcata as a commercial crop and indigenous trees to protect the watersheds. We’re also supporting mangrove reforestation in Vincenzo Sagun, Zamboanga del Sur, [and] smaller animal dispersal and emergency grants to Marawi for IDPs during the conflict in 2008, before larger funds were released.” In a January 2010 entry in the MuCAARD blog, Linda wrote updates about the projects of MuCAARD that she herself visited during a Christmas vacation in the Philippines. For MuCAARD’s tree planting project, KAHOY, she happily reported, “I had a meeting with BISAP, the member team of MuCAARD who are implementing the KAHOY project. The good news is that they have had no problem finding farmers who want to plant
This could be another “small” effort, Linda might still claim, but as a continuation of the fulfilling time she had as a volunteer 30 years back, one that speaks of an unshakable commitment. It’s quite telling that Linda says that her favorite book is the allegorical 1950s novella The Man Who Planted Trees: in it, the hero rescues a desolate valley by replanting it with acorns and cultivating the trees one at a time. There is a lot in this inspiring story that resonates in Linda’s own work: she has planted her own seeds, too, in the adopted home that she found while volunteering. And, with her husband by her side, they continue to take on the massive task of development work one small project at a time, one task at a time, armed with a very rare kind of persistence that has enabled them to truly change lives.
She also mentions a vehicle grant that came from funds raised by a school in the UK and given through MuCAARD-UK to a primary school in the Philippines. “They continue to get very good use out of the vehicle…[They are now able] to get children and resources quickly and easily to the outlying villages… they can now travel to meetings, contests, and other events in the rest of the province. It was good to know that such a small grant can make such a difference.”
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falcata. In fact an extra 7 hectares were planted by farmers who weren’t eligible for the project.”
1978-1988
and agricultural services by riverboat. During that visit, the couple opened the schools which were built by the community residents themselves with materials donated by Join Together Society (JTS), a Korean Buddhist charity set up by a monk who had been a Ramon Magsaysay awardee. “JTS provided all the materials and the [local government unit, or LGU] organized the community to build the schools themselves. The LGU had to give food for work in some of the very remote villages and also send skilled carpenters to help, as the people had never built anything with saws and hammers and nails.”
1968 - 1978
Despite the difficulty in travelling, Linda says that she was always inspired by “the amazing scenery of Bukidnon and by working with people who were committed to justice, risking their lives during martial law.”
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Opposite VSO volunteers assisted in natural resource management projects like this one, creating artificial reefs out of tires
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The martial law era imposed many restrictions on the civil liberties of Filipinos, especially so in VSO’s second decade.
It wasn’t a surprise then that, in 1983, VSO volunteers were involved in a controversial issue about the Commonwealth Development Corporation’s (CDC) aid to the NDC Guthrie
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The martial law era imposed many restrictions on the civil liberties of Filipinos, especially so in VSO’s second decade. Many political dissenters and opposition leaders were illegally detained, starting with Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr., whose eventual assassination in 1983 would be the spark that would eventually lead to the toppling of the Marcos regime. While at the outset there was a veneer of seeming order and stability, the quiet proved to be temporary, borne out of fear of being arrested by the authorities. In reality, the grapevine was abuzz with talks against the dictatorship. Plots and more subplots against the government were being conjured up, written and then rewritten, some abandoned, then some hatched. The Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army found it easy to recruit members during this time. By large, the dissent and discontent against the dictatorship was building up and it was only be a matter of time when this would finally swell to a point of no return.
1968 - 1978
marine fisheries volunteers. However, from 1981 to 1985, VSOP’s only involvement was with the Vietnamese refugee camps in Palawan.
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Left Natural resource management was a focus for volunteer placements during this decade
1968 - 1978
1978-1988
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Opposite A volunteer holds a welding demonstration as part of Secure Livelihood project
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Plantation Incorporated (NGPI). The latter was accused of violating the human rights of indigenous peoples (IPs) in Mindanao over a palm oil project in partnership with the Philippine government. The controversy, as reported in The Observer, stemmed from NGPI’s alleged employment of paramilitary forces known as the Lost Command, as security guards on the plantation. The Lost Command has allegedly forcibly evicted more than 1,000 families from ancestral domain lands to make way for the plantation. The VSO volunteers wrote UK newspaper the Guardian about this and protested the human rights violation done against the Manobo tribe. The British media picked up the story, meriting a BBC feature. This also sparked a debate in the House of Commons, led by Mr. Dennis Canavan, a Scottish Member of Parliament calling to task the CDC for supporting what he would call an “anti-democratic regime.” Aside from VSO volunteers reporting this incident to the British media, one volunteer, Belinda Coote, was accused of channeling information to the London-based Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIRR) about human rights abuses in
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connection with CDC’s investments. Shortly after the incident, the volunteer was denied a previously approved extension of her contract/placement. The allegations, however, were rebutted by Timothy Raison, the British Home Office Minister at the time. Another development during this period that might be deemed as revolutionary was the implementation of the Small Projects Fund. This started in 1985 after a debate and numerous discussion, done mostly at the volunteer conference then spilling over to other meetings, on the need for project selection criteria whom to work with such as government and non-government organizations, formal and nonformal education and community-based and noncommunity based organizations. Then, in 1986, the Philippines caught the world’s attention once more because of the bloodless EDSA Revolution that saw people in the capital take to the streets to protest, eventually forcing Ferdinand Marcos to abdicate the presidency and flee the country. After 21 years, democracy was restored to the Philippines, as Corazon Aquino was sworn in as president. Ronet Santos, who worked with PARUD at the time says, “It was an exciting time. Because of the People Power Revolution, people were
In May 1986, an evaluation study was initiated by an all-Filipino team composed of Maureen Pagaduan, Emmanuel Luna, Ma. Josefina “Gigi” Manicad and Gus Miclat. By the end of March 1987, the evaluation report was completed. The results did not yield very optimistic results, but this honest look provided the program with solid recommendations how to move forward to improve VSO’s work in the Philippines. Over all, the evaluation results showed that the volunteer body felt what were done and how these were done were inadequate. VSO London guidelines were found too general and not Philippinespecific. The annual Country Policy Review was deemed shortsighted, as it looked only at what was happening on the ground and wasn’t looking at what should be happening. Furthermore, efforts appeared disconnected and piecemeal and gave the impression that the same ground was being
1998-2010 As a result of the evaluation, clearer directions were made. In October 1986, during the volunteer conference, a decision was made to create an Advisory Council to increase Filipino nationals’ involvement in the program. Thus, in May 1987 an Interim Advisory Council was established and a constitution was drafted to govern its existence. Later that year, during the Initao Conference, a report on the “Implementation of the Evaluation Report” was made. This discussion gave rise to the establishment of committees to coordinate more efficiently in-country training (personal development) and development education. The proposed constitution for the Advisory Council and the Policy Paper were also approved in this conference. Another result of the evaluation led to the creation of the Development Education Committee.
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covered without a coherent policy. This lack of firmness gave the partners the impression that VSO was a wishy-washy organization with no clear idea of where it wanted to go, how it understood development and how it wanted to do development. This negatively affected the program.
1978-1988
interested in the Philippines. We gave briefings to journalists, development experts, and church people from all over the world.” Also at this time, former VSO volunteers were very active in the Philippine Resource Center in London. When PRC closed down, they donated their collection to the London School of Economics.
1968 - 1978
Ronet Santos
It was an exciting time. Because of the People Power Revolution, people were interested in the Philippines.
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This committee was to coordinate the program’s development education activities, and one of its first actions was to apply for funding with VSO London to support the anticipated development education activities for that incoming year. It received a £500 grant to finance the committee’s plan. On a lighter note, volunteers already dabbled in the production of a newsletter for internal readership even prior to 1979. However, it is not precisely known how this started. But in 1984, the newsletter was revived in August under the title North/South; it was where development issues were at the forefront. The newsletter name was eventually changed to Halo-Halo (“mix”), referring to the Philippine summer dessert made up of a number of mixed ingredients heaped on top of crushed ice. Just the same, this newsletter featured and assortment of development articles, VSO business matters and other social chitchat.
1968 - 1978
As a final word, this decade can be best seen as the decade where VSO operations in the Philippines became more structured and institutionalized. VSO experienced its own radicalization and awakening in a decade that led to a revolution.
In June 1985, the VSO business office took over the production of the newsletter; it was back to being called, simply, The Newsletter. Serious attempts were made to keep the newsletter afloat. But the changing of the volunteers, that rhythm of come and go, sometimes prevented the seamless continuity of
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A pat na Dek ada V S O Ph i l i pp i n e s 1 9 7 8 to 1 9 8 8
Right A volunteer demonstrates land surveying skills to local colleagues
this documentary testament of VSO activities in the Philippines through the years. But luckily, someone always revived it just in the nick of time. As a final word, this decade can be best seen as the decade where VSO operations in the Philippines became more structured and institutionalized. VSO experienced its own radicalization and awakening in a decade that led to a revolution. The evaluation couldn’t have come at a better time as the EDSA revolution provided many other organizations with the impetus to rethink itself and find ways to make itself relevant in a changed Philippine social and political order. Dick Bird wrote in Never the Same Again that “a bond often grows up between co-trainees thrown together in perceived adversity, and lasts. Some settings accentuate this. Volunteers posted together in clusters, in towns, or even more so, in their places of work, will relate closely to each other… Cast afloat on a very turbulent sea, the sense of being part of a group became significant, and they drew closely together.” This was certainly true of the volunteers and staff who served in this radical and turbulent decade.
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Cas e S t u dy
Tambuyog (1986-2001) The Call For Unity in the Coastal Areas by Monalinda B. Cadiz The Tambuyog Development Center’s significant contribution to fisheries sector development is the result of a decade-long data gathering concerning the political, social and economic situation in coastal communities, and the status of various aquatic resources and the coastal environment; this formed the basis for their initiative on Community-based Coastal Resource Management (CBCRM), an alternative model of development that is anchored on an interdisciplinary approach that addresses development through increased empowerment of local communities in the management of natural resources. Through the involvement of international volunteers who share their technical expertise, VSO Philippines has been able to support partner NGOs like Tambuyog in building capacity of NGOs and communities in effective management of coastal resources.
A pat na Dek ada V S O Ph i l i pp i n e s 1 9 7 8 to 1 9 8 8
Since its inception 25 years ago, Tambuyog has undergone a dynamic evolution over the past decades. In 1988, Tambuyog decided to become a national research NGO; two years later, the organization began implementing its sustainable development framework, taking the result of research studies back to the community to empower the primary stakeholders through extensive community organizing. The pilot area was in Prieto Diaz in Sorsogon, where the tripartite focus was on the technical aspect of coastal resource management, the empowerment of communities, and governance of stakeholders in the fishing grounds. The focus of Tambuyog evolved from emphasis on pure research to building institutional capacities of the NGO itself and its stakeholders, an approach “demystifying the natural sciences,” says current Tambuyog Director Pepe Tanchuling.
In VSO’s Tracer Study of CBCRM Volunteers, the general placement objectives cited by partners like Tambuyog were the following: 1) Rehabilitation, conservation, protection and management of coastal areas; 2) Establishment of communitybased resource management systems (e.g., research development and planning, organizing and leadership development and institution building); 3) Resolution of resource use conflicts and other open access issues in the coastal area; 4) Enforcement of fisheries ordinances and creation of control/ regulatory mechanisms against illegal and destructive fishing activities; 5) Implementation of socio-economic/livelihood projects to augment/ supplement income and alleviate poverty of fishing households; 6) Delivery of basic social services; and 7) Women empowerment. In the same study, all of the NGO employers— which, besides Tambuyog, included the Center for Empowerment and Resource Development (CERD), Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM), Leyte-Samar Development Workers Association
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Tambuyog’s partnership with VSO was a timely opportunity for both organizations, as, on its third decade in the Philippines, VSO implemented the program Skills for Environmental Sustainable Development (SESD), which included the placement of volunteer experts that provided technical assistance to partner organizations. The environmental focus of SESD thereby meant that majority of the placements were in natural resources management. And since many NGOs like Tambuyog by this time focused their initiatives in the coastal areas where marginalized, landless fisherfolk did not have access to natural resources apart from fisheries, marine biologists were posted in many of these NGOs.
1978-1988
The word “tambuyog“ in the regional Philippine language of Pangasinense refers to a carabao’s horn, symbolizing a call for unity. Founded in 1984, Tambuyog started when researchers from the University of the Philippines conducted research and organized communities along the Lingayen Gulf in Pangasinan with the goal of bringing development initiatives to fisherfolk who were then a gravely neglected sector.
Furthermore, in the tail-end of the 1990s, efforts were focused on trade issues, owing to the ratification of the GATT-WTO at the time, and heavy social relations with the trade and private sectors.
1968 - 1978
Opposite Photos of Tambuyog’s stakeholders in fishing communities
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There was increased environmental awareness among the PO leaders and members, which helped strengthen their resolve to pursue the establishment of a marine sanctuary.
(LABRADOR), Bohol Integrated Development Foundation (BIDEF), and Service Bureau for Small Fisherfolks, Inc. (SBSF)—viewed CBCRM as an integrated and holistic approach that attempts to bring together socio-political and economic aspects of development with biophysical elements. CBCRM emphasizes that environmental problems have social and technological dimensions. VSO’s partnership with these NGOs was anchored on the premise that local communities and NGOs have strong backgrounds in community organizing and mobilization, but consider themselves weak in the technical component of carrying out CBCRM programs. The NGOs and local communities at the onset did not have in-house technical capability, aggravated by the difficulty of hiring local marine biologists and fishery experts, thereby prompting VSO to come into the picture. From the late 1980s up to the late 1990s, the advanced status of CBCRM programs implemented by Philippine NGOs like Tambuyog resulted in a high demand for volunteer marine biologists. Of the almost 20 deployed who were in-country up to early 2000, six were assigned to Tambuyog beginning in 1986. As formulated by the CBCRM employers and expressed in the job request forms, the main objective of all the placements was to provide
A pat na Dek ada V S O Ph i l i pp i n e s 1 9 7 8 to 1 9 8 8
Opposite The empowerment of women in coastal communities is one of the goals of VSO volunteers placed within Tambuyog
technical support for the successful implementation of CBCRM in the different project sites. “Technical support” in this case meant a range of assistance, including the development of participatory resource assessment methodologies and actual conduct of marine and aquatic resource assessments; the conduct of technical researches for the formulation of coastal resource management plans; identification, implementation and monitoring of resource management projects and measures; monitoring of coastal resource management plans including environmental impact assessments; conduct of trainings and seminars on environmental awareness for members of the community; and the conduct of feasibility and pilot studies of alternative or supplemental livelihood projects. Tambuyog and the other CBCRM partners also intended to sustain the work that would be done by the volunteers by building the capacity of local staff and the community. Hence, in order for the work of the volunteer to be sustained in the long run, volunteers needed to carry out capability-building activities through skills sharing to transfer their skills and expertise to the partner agencies’ staff and to the local communities. Fisheries Development Worker Michael Evans (1986-1991) was the first volunteer to be placed with Tambuyog; he re-volunteered in the same organization from 1998 to 2001, and would later
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marry Gladys Hinco, a senior researcher in Tambuyog. Director Tanchuling mentions that Mike was primarily requested to work on socio-economics research and livelihood development considering that Tambuyog, having started mostly with researchers during that time, needed a technical person to support the livelihood program. On top of these, Mike’s placement also contributed to biological research in Manila Bay, the result of which became a basis for a campaign for a closed season for fishery activities in the bay.
1978-1988
Director Tanchuling remembers a lull in their operations after Mike left, owing to the transition of Tambuyog from a local organization to a national one, and their subsequent move to a national office in Manila. By the time CBCRM was established, there was also recognition of the biophysical side of work and a challenge to support and define sustainable yield of fish, says Director Tanchuling. In 1995, with their new program Sustainable Coastal Area Development (SCAD) underway, Tambuyog requested for a marine biologist volunteer. Arlene Brooks (1995-1997) was assigned to one of the four SCAD program sites in the pilot area of Prieto Diaz-Sorsogon.
1968 - 1978
1988-1998
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Opposite Tambuyog supported community building and livelihood programs for fisherfolk, benefiting the members of the coastal communities
SCAD was a five-year area development program, whose major components included community organizing and institution-building; rehabilitation and protection of the coastal environment; establishment of community-based resource management systems; delivery of social services; and women empowerment. The program was formulated in response to the twin problems of the open-access nature of fisheries and the market
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A pat na Dek ada V S O Ph i l i pp i n e s 1 9 7 8 to 1 9 8 8
monopoly of fisheries, both of which lead to the degradation of the resource base, poverty and powerlessness of coastal communities. SCAD operated in 19 coastal villages in Prieto Diaz. At the time of Arlene‘s placement, a local organization for fisherfolk, known as Samahan ng Maliliit na Mangingisda ng Muntopar (SAMAMAMU), had already been set up, implementing coastal protection, rehabilitation advocacy and socioeconomic projects. Task Force Banyuhay had also been organised by the town council to enforce a fisheries ordinance. Arlene’s placement objectives were, first, to help develop the capability of the communities and program staff to assess, select and properly adopt and implement a resource use plan that will be the basis for the development, utilization, rehabilitation and management of their land and marine resources; and, secondly, to provide technical assistance on marine and aquatic resource researches of SCAD-Prieto Diaz. Arlene’s key duties included conducting environment impact assessment, resource appraisal and scanning, feasibility studies, and studies of resource utilization patterns; assisting in the formulation of research designs, writing and analysis of research and studies; data-gathering and field work in accordance with the needs and requirements of the research projects/studies; and conducting feasibility and pilot studies of supplemental livelihood projects. During this same period, Tambuyog did resource assessments, which were necessary for resource management planning, including designing and pilot-testing of a fish catch monitoring instrument and a fish catalogue or database. A site for a marine
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1998-2010 The implementation of SCAD in Prieto Diaz during the placement period significantly contributed to effective resource management, increased livelihood, and capability building of the community and the local staff. On resource management, a
Alternative and supplemental livelihood projects were also developed under SCAD. Several supplemental livelihood projects like crab fattening, prawn, milkfish and seaweed culture projects were initiated, demonstrating initial success except for the seaweed culture. These aquaculture projects would not only provide additional income to subsistence fishers but also help decrease pressure on the
1978-1988
Arlene was mobilized to enhance the technical capability of the SCAD program staff in the area, specifically by providing assistance in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the CRM plan and of supplemental or alternative livelihood projects, and by conducting training or skills sharing for the NGO staff, People’s Organizations (POs) and fishers, both male and female.
CRM plan for Prieto Diaz was formulated based on the resource assessments and other researches conducted. Tambuyog and the POs in Prieto Diaz lobbied for the adoption of the plan until the municipal government eventually passed a new municipal fisheries ordinance. There was increased environmental awareness among the PO leaders and members, which helped strengthen their resolve to pursue the establishment of a marine sanctuary. Awareness of the importance of research and feasibility studies also increased among the program staff and PO leaders. The task force Banyuhay, led by the local government, began to implement resource management actions, such as the setting up of a marine protected area based on the CRM Plan initiated by the program. Resource assessment activities were also conducted in two adjacent coastal towns that Tambuyog has identified as expansion sites.
1968 - 1978
sanctuary was also identified during this period, with an information-education campaign in the 19 coastal barangays on the significance of coastal ecosystems, fishery laws, and other coastal management information. Tambuyog also conducted community consultations on resource management options, and monitoring instruments for the fishpond culture project were designed. Tambuyog also monitored water quality, temperature and salinity, fish catch monitoring instrument design and trial implementation for SAMAMAMU’s fishpond project.
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fisheries. With Arlene’s support, the resource management cooperative was able to procure a water pump from the British Council. The pump proved very useful in the preparation of the fishpond. Tambuyog’s technical capability and image was enhanced among other NGOs and government agencies in the area through the SCAD Program. Members of the fishing cooperative were provided with training to develop skills in making feasibility studies and simple profit and loss (income statement) calculations. The manager of the cooperative appreciated learning about other cost items involved in aquaculture projects and equipment needed for the fishpond. Three other volunteers were placed in Tambuyog in the 90s: Sarah Curran was assigned in Palawan from 1996-1999; Lucy Conway was a volunteer marine biologist based in Sarangani in 1998; and finally, Genevieve Broad was assigned to Prieto Diaz from 1998 to 2003, with the primary task to develop a system in monitoring fish catch. At the end of Genevieve’s placement, she managed to get funding to publish results of a study she conducted, and which eventually resulted in the publication of Fishes in the Philippines. The book has since become instrumental in training for conservation and management, and is now being
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used by many organized fishing communities to help them monitor marine resources accurately, efficiently, and in a standardized fashion. The book also won the National Book Award from the Manila Critics Circle. Tambuyog, as a CBCRM partner, also collaborated on add-on activities under VSO’s SESD. These included sectoral workshops and cross-visits which provided a forum for CBCRM practitioners and implementing NGOs to standardize operational techniques and build a consensus which would help CRM practice to develop further in the Philippines. One of these workshops was conducted in 1993 and resulted in the publication of Our Sea, Our Life, which provided an overview of CRM, from grassroots initiatives to the role of the academe, and the legal, biophysical and economic facets of the development approach. On the other hand, the impact made by volunteer placements, still VSO’s primary support, depended on a few variables: 1) the quality of employer’s program and ability of the employer to supervise the volunteers; 2) the technical preparation of the volunteer on tropical coastal areas; 3) orientation received by the volunteer on the socio-cultural contexts; 4) ability of the
Furthermore, it was noted by partners that the extent to which capacity-building is achieved is largely limited by the presence or availability of a counterpart staff and the extent to which the counterpart staff internalized his or her role; and by the degree of interest to learn the technical aspects of CBCRM. On the other hand, community members seemed to have a more generalist view of the purpose of the volunteer placement. Leaders of people’s organizations who were respondents in the tracer study said that volunteers came to help them solve their community problems and needs. They paid less attention to the technical roles that the volunteers played, although these were also mentioned; this suggested that community members expected more from the volunteers. In general, however, the placements were considered largely successful. Tambuyog recognised that a volunteer brings in an “added perspective” to the program and organization. “The challenge of having volunteers is to find the perfect match for the volunteer’s skills and the needs of the organization,” says Director Tanchuling, having experienced the slow transition
For the ultimate beneficiaries of the volunteering placement partnerships of Tambuyog and VSO, the local communities and the NGOs felt that volunteer placements improved their capacity to conduct resource assessment, resource management planning, in establishing marine protected areas and in monitoring the status of these. In particular, volunteers helped NGOs and local communities become aware of the finite character of coastal resources and improve their understanding of CRM problems and issues, learn about methods and tools to assess and monitor the status of coastal resources, and developed their capacity to undertake coastal-based livelihood projects. Volunteers have also helped develop the community’s networking and advocacy skills. The volunteers assisted in improving working relationships and coordination among the different stakeholders, including government, academic and research groups, other NGOs and people’s organizations, and development and donor agencies.
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of some volunteers in being able to provide the expertise expected of them. Nonetheless, there were also volunteers who quickly learned the ropes and immediately contributed to the work of the organization. Thus, in his overall assessment of the NGO’s experience working with volunteers, Director Tanchuling underscored their invaluable contributions through the years.
1988-1998
volunteer to appreciate and understand the management practices of their employers; and 5) the ability of the volunteer to communicate in the local language.
1978-1988
director tanchuling
The challenge of having volunteers is to find the perfect match for the volunteer’s skills and the needs of the organization.
1968 - 1978
Opposite Besides providing support to ultimate beneficiaries such as these fishermen, Tambuyog also mobilized communities and people’s organizations
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Linda McClintock
OUR STORIES to TELL
Over the past 40 years, VSO has sent hundreds of volunteers to the Philippines. Each one of them has their own story to tell—of the people they have encountered, of the lives they have helped transform, of how their own lives have been irrevocably shaped by the time they spent in the country. Sadly, there are not pages enough to share all these stories. Here instead is a selection of volunteer features to help complete the VSO Philippines mosaic and illustrate the richness of the Philippine volunteer experience.
Linda McClintock was 24 years old when she arrived in the Philippines in 1976. She had always wanted to be a volunteer and applied to VSO after completing her master’s degree in Social Work from Southampton University. VSO posted her to Mindanao where she worked as a community organizer for a community-based health program (CBHP). Linda’s work required her to conduct training in five remote villages in Bukidnon. Linda recalls that travel at the time was far from easy: “[There were] no asphalt or cement roads and [there were] wooden bridges on the highways. [It took] 5 hours to drive 80 kilometers.” Her next posting took her to Davao where she worked for Kahayag Foundation as coordinator of a program for Muslim women in Marawi, Malabang, and Cotabato City. The program aimed to create opportunities for women who too often were illiterate, impoverished, and unaware of their rights under Islamic Law. To describe these assignments as challenging is a gross understatement, but Linda persevered and watched as her efforts bore fruit. She shares a story from her first posting: “A year after we’d been visiting Salawagan, Quezon, Bukidnon, we did an evaluation of the CBHP and the small cooperative store we’d helped the community set up. There were lots of issues and problems but at the end one of the
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Apat na Dekada our stories to tell
farmers got up and said in Cebuano, ‘Before you came to work with us, I was like our water buffalo; you could have put a ring though my nose and wherever you pulled, I’d follow. But as a result of the CBHP and the coop, I now know that I am not a scarecrow. Even though I am poor and humble, my thoughts and feelings have value. I am a person.’” According to Linda, living in the Philippines changed everything for her. “I stayed in the Philippines for 13 years, [got] married in the Philippines to a Filipino… [Our] two children didn’t speak English until they were 5 and 7 and we returned to the UK.” After nine years as a VSO volunteer, she continued her development work in the Philippines. In 1984, she and her husband Romy Tiongco helped co-found the Philippine charity Muslim-Christian Agency for Advocacy, Relief and Development, Inc. (MuCAARD), which is dedicated to encouraging sustainable development in Mindanao. The Tiongcos are still very much involved in the organization. In 2006, they set up MuCAARD-UK to support the work of MuCAARD Inc. Today, Linda is a manager for Christian Aid in the UK. Her husband, Romy, worked as a VSO trainer for years, and their son, Zac, has been accepted as a VSO volunteer and was posted to Cambodia in 2010.
Philip Sykes
Philip Sykes also came to the Philippines in 1976. The 22-year-old was a newly qualified sheet metal worker from Oldham, Lancashire, who VSO posted to Mindanao as a fabrication mechanics instructor at the Mindanao School of Arts and Trades in Cagayan de Oro City. During his three-year stay, he established Fabrication Mechanics as a core course within the school and polytechnic state college. “Cagayan de Oro was a small city in terms of development and infrastructure, however, notable developments happened over my three-year stay,” says Philip. “[I was] impressed with the people and [their] positive attitude given the nature of the infrastructure and lack of equipment to do the job, [but] this is what VSO is all about—getting on with the job and [finding] the people to make things happen.”
paul farbon
Another accomplishment Philip speaks of with particular pride is his role in the reintroduction of football in the southern Philippines. “[I was] the head coach of the Northern Mindanao Football Association (1977–79) of Region 10 and Northern
Among other things, former VSO volunteer Paul Farbon is the heart and soul of his unofficial, oneman Jeepney Promotion Foundation. It was in 1991, during his posting in Occidental Mindoro, that the vehicular king of the Philippine road first captured his fancy. Paul admitted in an interview with a Philippine newspaper, “I’ve been fascinated by many aspects of Philippine culture, especially the jeepney… It’s not only the design, but also the pakikisama [camaraderie] that goes with riding in it… Everybody makes space for old women and small children; there always seems to be room for one more.” The Oxford-educated agriculturist and environmental activist worked in the Philippines as an agricultural advisor for the now-defunct Mindoro Institute of Development. “The NGO no longer exists,” says
Mindanao and led the school’s team to the Palarong Pambansa finals in 1978.” Philip credits many dramatic changes in his life to his VSO experience. “Prior to my volunteering, I was a relatively innocent, small-town guy with a very set life and career pathway. VSO gave me the chance to break that mold, to think on my feet, and turn ideas into action…Returning to the UK, my career path changed completely. I worked in the field of social services, supporting adults with a wide range of disabilities to [help them] find employment.” Philip’s career in social services lasted 26 years and involved a number of programs for the social and economic integration of disabled people. Over the years, Philip returned to the Philippines frequently and has maintained his VSO network. “We’ve had innumerable reunions and I’m in regular contact with the majority of the former volunteers who were based in Mindanao.” Philip has since retired from Social Services and lives in Camiguin Island where he runs beach resort Golden Sunset with his wife, Susan Mira, who he first met during his VSO posting.
Paul, “but it’s good to see that, on the whole, life for the farmers has improved, with better homes, more security of tenure, and a strong sense of greater empowerment.” Paul returned to his hometown of Norwich to teach environmental issues at an elementary school, but he has returned to the Philippines a number of times to do work for VSO Philippines, and to speak at conferences organized by the Philippine Department of the Environment and Natural Resources, local government units, and the environment organization Haribon Foundation. Paul also makes it a point to return to Mindoro and visit the communities he helped “and to see my two godchildren!”
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Bettina Robers Angie Bamgbose Genevieve Broad page
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Still obsessed with the jeepney, during his last visit to the Philippines in 2003, he commissioned the fabrication of his very own jeepney, christened, via the traditional marquee on top of the windshield, “Strangers in a Strange Land,” and outfitted with seats that unfold into a bed, water tanks on the roof,
and an entertainment system that includes a karaoke player. The Philippine media ran stories on Paul and his jeep, as he embarked on an epic three-month journey to drive the jeep from mainland Southeast Asia all the way to the UK.
Volunteer work can be intensely affecting, as Dutch forester Bettina Robers experienced during her posting in Nueva Ecija, Central Luzon, in 1997. She had been tasked with helping the Aetas resettle in Fort Magsaysay after having been displaced by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991. As Bettina introduced contour farming in the area and planted trees to further prevent erosion, she lived with the Aetas who accepted her as part of the community. Bettina, however, had difficulty accepting certain conditions; namely, the discrimination against Aetas that she kept encountering during her stay. In a newspaper feature on her work with the Aetas,
Bettina expressed outrage at tour group organizers who disrespected Aeta customs and traditions, and at military officials who used Aeta village grounds for dangerous military exercises, and at a government that did not safeguard the Aetas’ rights to their ancestral domain. Her frustration was all the more heightened by the Aetas’ passive acceptance of the situation. Her feelings of helplessness eventually led to her decision to leave the community after three years, although she continued to volunteer with VSO Philippines and was posted at the Palayan Rehab Center.
Angie Bamgbose of Norfolk, England, was a British social worker who came to the Philippines in 2000 to work with physically and sexually abused girls. Assigned to the Cebu Hope Center in the Visayas, she introduced creative therapies such as painting to help the girls in her care. She also worked toward the establishment of new counseling rooms. Her presence at the center was not only a comfort, but also an inspiration to some of the girls who saw her as a role model and expressed interest in becoming social workers like their “Ate Angie.”
all experienced abuse, pain, and neglect, I found it so hard not to cry,” she admitted in a newspaper interview. “Even now I find it overwhelming, but I look at their strength, not only to survive, but to laugh and play and really flourish.”
Angie, too, was inspired by the girls at the center. “When I arrived and stood among 100 girls who had
Angie supported VSO’s peace-building program by working on the emotional recovery and gender mainstreaming. Her work included a genderprofiling project in 18 Maranao communities. Angie also worked with NGO Maradeca, which helps women gain additional income and manage their savings, and helped found a women’s cooperative, Obaera.
It is clear that our VSO Philippines volunteers have empowered and inspired. One volunteer in particular won accolades for her work: Genevieve Broad, a marine ecologist from the UK who came to the Philippines in September 1998, worked
with fisherfolk in Sorsogon province, helping them implement strategies for marine resource conservation and sustainable fishing. In 2003, Genevieve published a book entitled Fishes of the Philippines: A Guide to Identification of Families.
Apat na Dekada our stories to tell
Not only is the guide an invaluable resource for communities and NGOs involved in marine conservation, it also received the 2003 National
Book Award in the Science category from the Manila Critics Circle.
ian & sharon harvey
Ian and Sharon Harvey had come to the Philippines in 1988 to work as agricultural advisors. VSO posted them in Quezon province where they worked with local NGO Center for Ecological Development And Recreation (CEDAR). In September 1989, their home and project office were raided by the military. Four of their colleagues were imprisoned and charged with subversion. Arrest warrants were issued for the Harveys, who were, fortunately, on holiday in Australia at the time.
The military alleged that Ian and Sharon had visited a camp of the insurgent New People’s Army and, while there, donated funds and shot video footage for propaganda material. However, the visit was said to have occurred in December 1987, which was a year before the Harveys arrived in the Philippines. VSO has been working to have the Harveys’ names cleared and arrest warrants lifted, but, until then, the couple will not be able to return to the Philippines. Ian and Sharon continued to work with VSO Vanuatu in the South Pacific, as training officers for the Young Farmers’ Association.
Minh Van Nguyen
Award or no award, all our VSO Philippines volunteers have done work worthy of recognition. They have devoted years of their life to helping others and have made sacrifices that few are willing to make. However, in our four decades of existence, there have been a few volunteers who gave much more than just time and talent. Two lost a precious liberty; one, a life.
The death of volunteer Minh Van Nguyen and the deaths of his parents, Thuanh and Julia, are among the saddest moments in the history of VSO Philippines. Minh—a Cambridge-trained engineer with a doctorate in solar technology from Nottingham University—came to the Philippines in 2001. During his placement at SIBAT, Minh conducted and assisted in the pre-feasibility studies for renewable energy in at least four rural communities in Northern Luzon and Bicol; at the time of his death, he was working on a Watershed Conservation & Management and Micro-Hydro Development in a small fishing village in Bicol.
energy. Around the time of his birthday in October, his parents came to visit him and the three set off for a series of trips that would take them to El Nido, Batanes, and Bangkok. Sadly, the Nguyens never completed their journey. The plane that should have taken them from Manila to Laoag City crashed in the Manila Bay just minutes after take off. Minh was 30 years old.
Quiet but well liked, Minh spent his time at SIBAT helping local engineers create alternate sources of
Minh was memorialized in a eulogy prepared by VSO Philippines. In it they spoke of his kindness to others and his sense of fun. “VSO volunteers and staff listened to the staff of Minh’s partner organization SIBAT speak of Minh as a peer and professional; a friend and a companion… he had led a full and good life, in spite of his youth. And if we still recognize his death as untimely—it means only that we wished for more.”
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1998-2010
WORKING AMIDST CHANGE
The new democracy enters a period of recovery that was as challenging as it was hopeful by Boyd Hagart-Alexander
The late 80s and 90s were a period of recovery and rebuilding for the Philippines, just beginning to settle into the hard-won
1978-1988
democracy brought about by the popular 1986 EDSA Revolution that had thrown the country into the international spotlight. With President Corazon C. Aquino leading a reform government, there was a lot of optimism in the air, as the Philippines began to regain the confidence of international investors and foreign
1968 - 1978
governments. Still, there were also great obstacles to be overcome: recovery was hampered by the national debt, widespread corruption, a persistent communist insurgency, and an Islamic separatist movement in the south.
Previous page Volunteer Will Jones examining a plant with a local colleague page
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The program was called Skills for Environmental Sustainable Development (SESD). SESD ran from December 1990 to December 1994, and added value to placements through technical assistance and development education components. The former component funded 50 per cent of the global costs for 19 volunteer placements focused on environmental sustainable development.
At the start of Richard’s tour the number of volunteers were quite low, but with the prospect of funding from the EU, he was able to employ a new program officer, Gigi Manicad (1989-1992), to boost the number of placements. The program office was also supported by Cynthia Honorio (1987-1992), as Administration Officer and assisted Elen de Leon (1986-1999) on administration. With assistance from the Advisory Council (later to be renamed the Consultative Group), established during the May 1987 Volunteer Conference and composed of local NGO managers and personalities, placements were identified and the number of volunteer requests rose significantly.
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Although the majority of SESD volunteers were not of UK origin, both Geoff and Ronet worked collaboratively on a program linking UK environment organizations with Philippine NGOs. This approach was successful and very innovative for its time, as it worked actively for a two-way rather than a one-way relationship: as much expertise and information traveled southwards as northwards.
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In the third decade of VSO in the Philippines, the direction of program development was significantly influenced by Field Director Richard Bennett (1988-1991), and the previous Field Director Jamie Mackie (1985-1988), then working in the Program Funding Unit in the VSO head office in London. At the beginning of his tour, Richard, in collaboration with Jamie, applied to the European Commission for funding to support the program. However, as funding was only available for programs and not for funding volunteer placements, the funding proposal was packaged as a development program supported by volunteer placements.
The concept of a project was two-fold: In the Philippines, volunteer experts, supported by addon program activities, would provide technical assistance to the partners. Between the UK and the Philippines, it was planned that the experience of the volunteers would then be maximized through development education, which would be disseminated by the other partner organization in the project, the Philippine Resource Center (PRC), through Geoff Nettleton in London and Ronet Santos in Manila.
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On the international stage, the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the 1993 Earth Summit, put new focus on issues related to the environment and sustainable development. Unprecedented in terms of both size and scope of its concerns, this second global environment conference—following the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment— UNCED signaled a major realignment of economic development goals and environmental concerns. The resulting document, Agenda 21, was a broad blueprint for sustainable action worldwide.
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Up until this period, VSO had very much worked under the auspices of the British Council, even working out of a room in their offices.
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Right Volunteer Lisbeth Kalus participating in a weaving program
Due to the selection of partners and the advanced status of Community-Based Coastal Resource Management (CBCRM) programs practiced by NGOs in the Philippines, there was a high demand for volunteer marine biologists, with more than 18 being deployed up to 1998. Long-lasting partnerships were developed with CRM practitioner NGOs such as the Center for Empowerment and Resource Development (CERD; also originally known as Community
The Philippines was also wracked by a series of natural disasters during that decade: Baguio experienced a devastating earthquake in 1989, with a lesser earthquake in Manila in 1990; and Mount Pinatubo, just north of Metro Manila, erupted in 1991, causing the evacuation of Clark Air Base and heralding the departure of United States military forces from permanent bases in the Philippines. Sheila Young (1988-1991), Disaster Response Desk of RDC-Kaduami was in Baguio during and after the earthquake, and with her host NGO was able to take up relief activities immediately. The field office spent several days unable to contact her, to reassure her family she was safe, largely because
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Unsurprisingly, with the environmental focus of SESD, the majority of the placements were in natural resource management. Furthermore, several Filipino NGOs had identified that the most marginalized of the poor in the Philippines were characterized as being landless in the provinces with no access to natural resources and who were forced to either find their livelihood in fishing on the coast, or in clearing and cultivating the public-owned upland forests.
Extension and Research for Development) and Tambuyog Development Center through the initial placement of Fisheries Development Worker Michael Evans (1988-1991). As a reminder of the potential dangers of the placement, however, a volunteer for CERD, Fisheries Ecologist/Biologist Sunil Kadri (1989-1991), with his counterpart Lemuel Juanillo, gained notoriety when they fell victim to dynamite fishers in Samar and required airlifting to Cebu for decompression treatment and hospitalization.
Next Page Photo from VSO archives; this is a typical coastal community of the period, to which many natural resource management volunteers were posted
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Up until this period, VSO had very much worked under the auspices of the British Council, even working out of a room in their offices. In fact, in the early days of VSO in the Philippines, it was British Council officers who actually managed the program before VSO set up the position of field director. The final stage of disengagement, done with much goodwill on the sides of both parties, was the relocation of VSO Philippines into separate offices in 1988/1989.
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Opposite Painting by visual artist Boy Dominguez, who created this piece for VSO’s Kaugnay
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Left Volunteer Conchie Korte (1991-93) enjoys a ride in a jeepney
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Left to right, opposite Volunteer posted at the Community Crafts Association of the Philippines working with a colleague; Children from a coastal community where natural resource management worked
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she prioritized working in immediate relief efforts over her family’s worries. On a lighter note, Marine Resource Specialist Colin Woods (1991-1993), working with Haribon, was dogged by natural disasters. In his quest to identify pristine coral reefs for protection and management, Colin travel from coast to coast, from the South China Sea to the Pacific. First Colin and his colleagues identified a pristine coral reef off Capones Island in Zambales, only to see it buried two weeks later by volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Then traveling with his colleagues to Catanduanes, they identified another unique reef—only to see that destroyed by a passing typhoon. And when he voiced his concerns about breathing in volcanic ash, the medical officer in London informed Colin that ash was the least of his concerns; he should instead be concerned about the toxic gases from the volcano during eruptions, and he was advised that if he found himself in such a situation he should “run as fast as possible in the opposite direction!” On a political level, things were not easy for President Corazon Aquino, who endured several attempted coups mounted against her fledgling government. None of the attempted coups directly affected the VSO program or volunteers, but the program office
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eventually had to expand its security guidelines for volunteers, and there were detailed and lengthy discussions at the Volunteer Conferences. Everyone was concerned about the vigorous counterinsurgency program in many parts of the countryside, which included the intensive use of vigilante groups, and the possibility of a coup eventually being successful in overthrowing the government. The experience of Ian and Sharon Harvey (1988-1989), volunteer agriculturalists who worked with Center for Ecological Development And Recreation (CEDAR) on the Bontok Peninsular in Bicol, served to underscore the potential dangers to volunteers. CEDAR was opposed to a road that was to be put through the forested mountains, contrary to the interests of the local military commander. Fortunately, Ian and Sharon were on holiday when, in 1989, the military targeted CEDAR as a revolutionary organization, raided its offices and detained its staff. Despite their absence, both the volunteers were labeled as subversive and warrants for their arrest were issued. Neither Ian or Sharon were able to return to the Philippines. But there were also positive developments on the governmental level. It is important to highlight the partnership between volunteer agencies and the Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency (PNVSCA). Led by Director Mrs. Virginia P. Davide (1986-2001), PNVSCA provided assessment of every placement and facilitation of the mandate of
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1998-2010 In the meantime, the wider impact of internal conflict on local people, particularly children, were being addressed by a number of NGOs, and volunteers Ruth Lehmann (1991-1993), training and
However, although VSO continued to support partners in Mindanao, shared concerns over the peace and order situation in Mindanao saw a drop in the placement for a number of volunteers; for the first time, a greater percentage of volunteers were placed in Luzon and Visayas. Frequent power outages were common in the early 90s, and communication by telephone landline could be quite erratic. This caused frequent frustrations in the field office, with unexpected power cuts lasting anything from 30 minutes to eight hours at any time of day. It had one director drawing up budget proposals by and by candlelight in order to meet the head office’s deadlines. As a result of the first Gulf War, too, the price of oil jumped and subsequently caused an increase in basic commodities, such that the volunteers’ allowances had to be doubled overnight. The lack of infrastructure and utilities in the Philippines weren’t only an inconvenience to the field office, it was also a great hindrance to development
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Despite the focus on natural resource management, volunteer placements also continued in education and health, and VSO explored ways that volunteers could best serve the beneficiaries. Kenneth Durdy (1989-92), agriculturalist, and Moira Killeen (198992), health worker, were placed in Datu Piang under Father Jun Mercado’s Dar El Salam Foundation, an advisory member of the consultative group. Despite Father Mercado’s knowledge of the area and involvement in cross-faith dialogue, the first night that Ken and Moira stayed in their house in 1989 in Datu Piang their house was hit by machine gunfire. Despite this initial incident, both volunteers not only completed their placement but extended their stay in the community until 1992. They were always very well-advised by local colleagues about impending problems, and were usually able to move temporarily from the area before fighting began. Of course, their placement was a continuing security worry for the Field Office.
rehabilitation specialist, was placed to work with Children’s Rehabilitation Centre (CRC) in Davao, and Johanna (Hans) Buwalda (1992-1993) was with CRC in Legazpi, Bicol.
Next Page VSO volunteer works with a local counterpart on basket-weaving as a livelihood project
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every volunteer to serve with their host organization in the Philippines.
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Left A scene from a typical rural placement; photo from volunteers’ archives
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Opposite Fishermen working with partner organization Tambuyog set up an artificial reef with the help of VSO volunteers
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and investment. With the election of President Fidel V. Ramos, the issues of infrastructure began to be addressed. The policies of President Ramos created confidence in the business community and a corresponding increase in investments, specifically with the intention of making the Philippines a Newly Industrialized Country (NIC) by 1998. However, although his administration’s economic policies resulted in a healthier financial position for the Philippines, the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 was to cause a drop in the value of the Philippine peso and the previous rate of development was significantly effected. With regard to the partners of VSO, the early 1990s heralded a debate as to the direction of grassroots development, and with the change of administration, whether NGOs should look for the opportunities that may occur by working with government. The debate was fierce, and resulted in the realigning of NGOs’ projects and their beneficiaries. As the conflict continued, the question was raised internally whether VSO should expand to work with government institutions that had more secure funding and held the key mandate to implement projects in their area of responsibility.
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For VSO International, 1992 heralded its first corporate plan Investing in People, and united the many people who make up VSO with a clear direction for the five-year period from 1992 to 1997. There was a diversification of activity with the development of new initiatives, such as a new volunteer program in Eastern Europe, set up in response to urgent reconstruction and recovery needs during a transition period. This was complemented by new volunteering arrangements, such as shorter placements of three to eighteen months, and opportunities for students to enhance their learning with practical overseas experience. In order to meet the growing demand for skilled volunteers, VSO also established partner agencies in the Netherlands and Canada. VSO Philippines had very little involvement in short-term placements at this point, and even youth volunteers of the Overseas Training Program (which later became known as Youth for Development, or YFD) who were introduced in 1997 did not come under the auspices of the Program Office until 2002. Few volunteers were posted through the VSO Canada, but a significant number of Dutch volunteers were placed in the program.
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The young man and the sea British Volunteer Stuart Green’s life-changing experience
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by Monalinda B. Cadiz
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“My VSO days were the best...Before I volunteered I wasn’t sure what I was going to do in my life; afterwards, my life’s road map was very clear.” And this is why, after three years as a volunteer , Stuart Green stood his ground and decided to live permanently in the Philippines, the country where he found his life’s path. In 1993, Stuart, then a 22-year-old who had been working at a marine lab doing marine surveys in the UK, didn’t think he was going to find a placement with VSO, so he decided to go backpacking around Southeast Asia. After five months backpacking in the Philippines—including three months in southern Mindanao and Central Visayas—and getting to know
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Stuart’s placement came at a time when the Philippines was full of hope: Fidel V. Ramos had succeeded Corazon Aquino as president in the country’s first fully democratic elections in decades, and leftist-leaning NGOs were finally beginning to work with the government and with the private sector. “I was working for an influential priest, Fr. Romeo Dompor [then the head of BIDEF], and so there was lots of optimism and potential in the air,” Stuart remembers. Stuart joined BIDEF at the time when the NGO was addressing issues such as coastal environment
At the onset, he felt inadequate to do the work, which focused on education and capacity building, and on marine laws and conservation, for the huge area of Danajon, which covered over 250 sq.km. of coral reef, mangroves and seagrass beds spread over 15 municipalities from four Provinces (Leyte, Southern Leyte, Cebu and Bohol) and whose resources were depended on by well over 200,000 people. Additionally, there were many other challenges that he needed to face as a new volunteer: there was the Visayan language that he needed to learn, the local food to get used to, and even, in some places,
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Stuart was sent to fill a crucial post at the Bohol Integrated Development Foundation (BIDEF), a local NGO working in community-based Coastal Resource Management (CRM) in the Central Visayas. He was tasked to work up in the North West Bohol, in the Danajon Bank Double Barrier Reef—one of only six such coral formations in the world. And yet, as Stuart says, “[Danajon had been] literally blasted to pieces since the 1950s, and it could be termed ‘the center of the center of illegal and destructive marine fishing techniques’ for not just the Philippines but the world. Here is where dynamite fishing began in the 1940s, cyanide fishing began in the late 1960s, and where fine mesh nets and even the baby trawl began their destructive ways in the Philippines”
Stuart was to work with the towns of Talibon, Bien Unido, Loon and Calape. Much was expected from him because of the size of his area of responsibility: he had more than 25 islands to work with, all of them with communities in which there were “serious social problems, but where everyone smiled a lot and drank lots of tuba [coconut liquor]” and had plenty of time to teach Stuart about how to fish and the history of the locale. The towns had diverse concerns and needs, ranging from research to strategic programming and technical assistance, from awareness-building to networking, funding, and training. Stuart’s role was to conduct assessments of the resources in each site and identify areas where Marine Protected Areas could be established and set up the system to manage them in partnership with the Local Governments and Communities in the area.
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his future placement country, he finally rang home to check in with his parents and they said—hurry up and come home VSO rang and you are going out there in again in 5 weeks. So Stuart headed home, said hi to everyone and then goodbye again and embarked on a substantial chapter of his life.
degradation, rampant illegal and commercial fishing, declining fish catch, and widespread poverty among fishers in 17 coastal barangay (villages) on the northern coast of Bohol. BIDEF’s programs then were focused education, training and livelihood assistance, along with the consolidation of local organizations. Stuart was expected to assist in the establishment of a CRM system and in the promotion of sustainable utilisation of coastal resources. He was tasked to design and implement a Community-based Coastal Resource Management (CBCRM) plan and help propagate this plan to the fisherfolk.
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Left Stuart Green, volunteer Coastal Resource Management Adviser, at work in his placement
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Stuart was to work with the towns of Talibon, Bien Unido, Loon and Calape. Much was expected from him because of the size of his area of responsibility.
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the absence of toilets. “My biggest challenge were [dealing with] the islands with no toilets, running down to the shoreline or nearest mangrove forest at 5am and cueing up with the kids to leave my own fertilizer, [which was] amusing!” he laughs. “It was quite an experience at the time. The kids used to poke fun at me.” But there were also more serious issues: the widespread practice of dynamite fishing, and the great challenge of convincing people to look beyond the needs of the present and conserve their marine resources for future generations. The first order of business was to understand the people he needed to reach and get into their mindset. “I was determined to learn Visayan and how to make a dynamite device from an empty Coke bottle, some fertilizer, a match and some candle wax.” His first day at work gave him a foretaste of the many vivid, sometimes funny, experiences to come. Stuart remembers that, with Dr. Gulayan, he journeyed to Tahong-tahong, a beautiful whitesandbar in the middle of Danajon, where fishers had put up camp. After quickly tying up the boat when they arrived, the boat driver disappeared into the camps. “Gilde always followed his nose, and if there was food, he would find it,”says Stuart. Gilde returned minutes later, running up to Stuart with a big smile and clutching a grilled fish. Stuart asked what kind of fish it was, and the driver replied, “butete,” which the newly arrived volunteer dutifully wrote down in his notebook. A discussion between Gilde and Dr. Gulayan ensued, but Stuart wolfed down the whole fish, washed down with the local tuba. When finally home later that day, Stuart looked
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Opposite Stuart Green at work in the northern coast of Bohol
up “butete” and found out it was puffer fish—the second most poisonous vertebrate in the world. “I had eaten a whole fish, and that is why Dr. Gulayan exchanged words with Gilde, but all is well that ends well,” he chuckles now. But I have never eaten puffer fish since and will always be beware of butete.” Every day brought something new: “The people, the personalities, the politicians, the fishers, the children, the colors and the potential—every day was different, every day we went somewhere different, we saw different areas and met fascinating people all over the place. [I began to realize] that the definition of ‘poverty’ could be a hundred different things, but that most of the people we were meeting were very happy despite their situation.” All these new experiences were an “absolute contrast” to the life he knew before. “It couldn’t be more opposite. My friends were fishers and politicians, and anyone would enter into a conversation with me. In the morning just leaving the house would take 45 minutes by the time I had said good morning to the fishers, the neighbors and pretty much everyone along the road as I made it up to the town on my bike.” Despite his initial apprehensions, Stuart brought with him a passion for conservation that enabled him to raise awareness in the communities he worked with and summon up the commitment from people of all walks of life to save Danajon. A famished man in a run-down canoe over a oncebeautiful reef, homemade dynamite in his hand that will help him bring home a bigger catch that will
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While he helped build capabilities of organizations and mold potential leaders, he developed in himself the keenness to determine workability of a project and potential community leaders, a rare yet crucial management skill.
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enable him to better provide for his family: How will this man understand that his children’s own children might not have a single fish in ten years, when the reefs and the ecosystem within it are totally destroyed? “The challenge was convincing people to look beyond today’s needs and think longterm and plan out conservation…,” says Stuart. Through his advocacy and the linkages he established between different individuals, groups, and communities, Stuart involved diverse stakeholders in advocacy activities, rubbing elbows with policymakers and representatives from many institutions, along with the fisherfolk and community leaders that he mentored; he also involved the next generation, through activities like essay contests and puppet shows; and publicized as much information by producing all kinds of print materials and getting media mileage. Working primarily with Dr. Gulayan—whom Stuart describes as a “tower of strength and experience”—Stuart also contributed to the development of the Bohol Sustainable Integrated Community Coastal Area Development Program (BOSICCAD), BIDEF’s CBCRM framework, and the establishment of fish sanctuaries and mangrove reforestation projects. He helped implement these through a systematic process that started with research and ended up in the implementation of programmatic activities that resulted from the studies. NGO and PO members were trained in the technical aspects of resource management, from planning through monitoring and evaluation,
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to enable them to sustain the gains of the project. Other crucial aspects of development were also integrated in the project framework, including health and watershed management. Stuart was likewise helpful in conceiving livelihood projects for the organizations he worked with. Going even beyond his placement terms, he directly managed to get funding for projects of small fisherfolk organizations. His penchant for resource generation and networking was also advantageous to BIDEF, in which colleagues considered him an expert in developing project proposals and establishing strong linkages with funding agencies. While he helped build capabilities of organizations and mold potential leaders, he developed in himself the keenness to determine workability of a project and potential community leaders, a rare yet crucial management skill. He was highly regarded by community leaders not only because he was an effective mentor, but because he exuded genuine affection for them and was thus considered a “real friend”. “Volunteering taught me that with enough passion you can get things done, that the best development work is done with a tiny budget, and that with just a bit of encouragement you can make huge things happen. It has also taught me how to sniff out ‘development workers,’ and that development concepts and ideas that are just talk will never be workable on the ground,” he muses. Stuart’s two years in the Philippines turned into three—as he extended his placement to continue his
There are many differences between Stuart Green and the protagonist in Ernest Hemingway’s classic The Old Man and the Sea. But then again, they fought the same fight to master themselves, at sea, which in the end enabled them to conquer their fears and become masters of their own destinies. Marking his 17th year in the Philippines in 2010, Stuart Green lives in Bohol with his wife, Mia Manuelita C. Mascariñas-Green, and daughter Zoe Grace. He currently works with a variety of marine organizations for his company Blue-Green Inc.
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to make sure program and projects are planned, implemented and evaluated well.
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work—and then, surprisingly, into two decades...and counting. After his work with BIDEF, he has worked in various sectors, including government, NGOs, funding agencies, the private sector, and different development agencies. The work he does now is “a conscious move across into the government sector, through communities, municipalities, LGUs, provinces, the Department of Environment and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources to some extent. At the end of the day the marine management work is the mandate of the government, so I wanted to work within their sector and see if I could get things done from within.” Still working in the rehabilitation and management of coastal areas, but nowadays taking a step back
However, the change of focus of development funders and practitioners to Eastern Europe caused concern for local NGOs. The funding environment was to change, and financial sustainability for NGOs was not to be as easy to obtain or as secure as before. Following the tour of Richard Bennett, there was a spate of short-term field directors, which included the terms of Bernie Ross (1991-1992) and Patricia Scotland (1992). However, in 1992, Field Director Patricia “Trish” Nicholson (1992-1995) brought stability to the program. Trish, with the help of the newly appointed Program Officer Vinia Abesamis (1991-1996), was able to operationalize the Philippine-based program add-on activities of SESD. These program add-on activities, through sectoral
workshops and cross-visits, were able to provide a forum for coastal resources management practitioners and implementing NGOs to standardize operational techniques and build a consensus which would help CRM practice to develop further in the Philippines. A significant vehicle for this was a four-day workshop on CRM organized in collaboration with UP College of Social Work and Community Development and with partners in NGOs and in people’s organizations, held at Silliman University, Dumaguete in February 1993 . This resulted in the publication of Our Sea Our Life, which provided an overview of CRM from grassroots initiatives to the role of the academe, as well as the legal, biophysical, and economic considerations. Brian Haber (1993-2008), the administrator for general services, became endeared to the volunteers as the longest-serving member of the office staff. When Cynthia left VSO, the vacancy of the finance position was initially filled by Babes Balce and then eventually
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Some of the Dutch volunteers had trained specifically in development and brought different perspectives to the program.
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The VSOP program already had a strong environmental base; around half the placements at this time were in agriculture, particularly with indigenous groups on poor hill land struggling to adapt to loss of land through deforestation and other encroachments. The increase in the number of volunteers and partners, especially PO partners, encouraged both VSOP and NGOs to focus on the effectiveness of skill-sharing methods. This issue was addressed in August 1993 by a five-day workshop titled Sharing Technology Transfer held in Silang, Cavite. The three major areas addressed by detailed case studies were health, by Brenda Jenkins (1990-1992), health technologist placed with the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM)-in Bataan; Mangyan agriculture, by Rob
By 1994, VSO Philippines started engaging in placements and partnerships where government and NGOs were cooperating, including European Union community-based projects, initially with three engineering volunteers with the South Mindanao Agricultural Project (SMAP), in Mindanao, but also later volunteers placed with Western Samar Agricultural Resource Development Program (WESAMAR), in Samar, and the National Integrated Protected Areas Program (NIPAP) in Palawan and Manila. VSO Philippines also initiated a strong partnership with Dr. Socrates with an initial four physiotherapists and health trainers. The success of securing the funding for SESD program was applauded by VSO International, and as a pioneer country office successful in securing program funding, VSO Philippines was encouraged to submit further applications. Trish took up the challenge and, with suggestions from local women’s organizations, developed the proposal for a gender program entitled Integrated Skills for Women In Development (ISWID). The focus of ISWID was to engage the wider role of volunteers in addressing gender throughout the
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Part of the SESD add-on activities was to encourage volunteers to carry out and write up their own research in collaboration with their employers and their associates. For example, in 1994, while working with Labrador and CABDEC, Jim Hancock produced the report Putting Fishing Folk First, which addressed local processes involved in community-based coastal resource management. Paul Mincher (1989-1993), volunteer ecologist, with Kinaiyahan Foundation Inc. (KFI) used this facility to do forestry research.
Vos (1991-1993), agriculturalist with AMPFOD; and children’s rehabilitation by Joanna “Hans” Buwalda (1992-1993), a rehabilitation worker with Children’s Rehabilitation Center.
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taken up by Ellen de Leon. On October 21, 1993, the 25th anniversary year of VSO in the Philippines was celebrated in International House, UP Diliman.
The increase in the number of volunteers and partners, especially PO partners, encouraged both VSOP and NGOs to focus on the effectiveness of skill-sharing methods.
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Opposite A public demonstration in support of gender awareness, participated in by ISWID
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In 1995, Geoff Brown, who had previously been a program officer in China, succeeded Trish as country director. By this time, the program had more or less doubled in size, and Geoff was able to bring a new approach to the program, moving the office to accommodate a larger staff and systematizing systems to effectively implement the ISWID program with the help of newly hired Program Officer Barbara Fortunato (1996-
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whole country program, and specifically to place gender-focused volunteers with the local party organizations. The country office also took the concept on board in its own internal administration, making use of the self-evaluation tool for gender awareness developed as part of the program. The ISWID program was implemented between the years 1995 and 1999, and was funded by the European Union and the British Department for International Development (DFID) that aimed to contribute to local initiatives in raising gender awareness and empowering women. ISWID included sponsorship for volunteer placements, gender training, conferences and a south-south volunteer exchange program. The program funding enabled a forum in 1996 which allowed over 60 participants to exchange practical experiences in integrating gender issues in development work; this culminated in a resource document, Gender: Everyone’s Concern published by VSO in 1997.
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Opposite Photo from VSO volunteers’ archives: community members harvesting leaves used in making thatched-roof huts
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The funding environment was to change, and financial sustainability for NGOs was not to be as easy to obtain or as secure as before.
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Opposite Fishermen engaging in freshwater aquaculture as an alternative livelihood activity
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This page Photos from volunteers’ archives showing scenes from rural and coastal communities: fish drying in the sun (far left); sugarcane fields being cleared by burning (left)
1998). Through consultation with partners and volunteers, Geoff explored placing volunteers outside the established VSO partner group. VSO started engaging in placements and partnerships with local government units, such as with the placement of Andrew Foster (1997-2001), small business adviser and enterprise development specialist, with the Maydolong municipal government in Eastern Samar. In 1996, VSO Philippines conducted a consultation with partners that validated the SESD evaluation recommendations and the focus on the environment of volunteer placements. Due to the success of the SESD program and the sizable number of environmental sustainable development placements, the demand among partners for volunteers working in environmental sustainable development remained strong. This demand, along with the precedent of securing program funding, led to the submission in April 1997 of a second proposal for a program with environmental sustainable development placements, called Skills for Community-based Resource Utilisation and Management (SCRUM). The acronym “SCRUM” was thought up by Geoff while stuck in traffic in Manila—it is a term in rugby that also reflects the
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situation in natural resource management, wherein resources are so scarce that various stakeholders try any tactic to get a hold of these scarce resources, just as in a game of rugby. The focus of development education, first highlighted by SESD, was further encouraged by Geoff throughout the program, and volunteers were stimulated to learn and develop their understanding of the Philippines and development issues, as well as share insights about their own culture with Filipino friends and colleagues. He enlarged the resource center and, as the volunteer newsletter Sulat had begun to dwindle with the end of SESD, hired Ronet Santo to be development education coordinator in 1996 and lead production of the renamed Kaugnay. Ronet was to go on to become a program officer (1997-1999) and become a champion of NRM in the Philippines program. Nela Santiago was to continue the coordination of development education until 2000. SCRUM was implemented from January 1998 to March 2002, with Project Officer Jocel Pangilinan (1998-2007). During the term of the project, a further program was proposed, still emphasizing environmentally sustainable development but specifically to support placements with a regional
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Left and below Freshwater fish aquaculture cages in a fishing community; VSO programs like SCRUM emphasized environtmentally sustainable development
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focus, called Sharing and Promotion of Awareness and Regional Knowledge (SPARK) submitted in 1999. SPARK was implemented from January 2000 to December 2004, with further funding for an extension of the project from January 2005 to March 2007. For the anniversary of 30 years of VSO in the Philippines, VSO Ambassador Richard Wilson hosted a video showcasing the focus of the Philippine program on gender, NRM, and enterprise development. Richard, with his dry wit, interviewed Marine Biologist Stuart “Estong” Green (1995-1999) about his work in communitybased coastal resource management in Bohol with BIDEF; Kate Knight (1996-1998) explained how she had increased incomes of fisherfolk weavers in Baliran, Leyte through household product design working with CCAP; while Elles Santegoets (1995-1997) toured Richard through the red-light district of Davao, introducing the sex worker beneficiaries she worked with and thus explaining her gender work with her host organization Talikala.
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In 1997, following the change in leadership of the British government, DFID commissioned a study to produce a white paper on the work of VSO overseas. The conclusion of the study was that the future direction of VSO should be that of a development organization, rather than just a volunteer-sending agency. This advice from the major funder to VSO was duly incorporated in the second strategic plan that would direct the focus of VSO in its final decade in the Philippines. The placement of volunteer Simeon Hart (19972001), a special education volunteer who is deaf, with the Philippine Sports Association for the Differently Abled (PhilSPADA) helped the country office staff deepen their understanding of working with persons with disabilities. It is from the work of Simeon that the future Disability program of VSO Philippines would develop. The publication of one VSO’s key and in-demand publications rounded off this decade: produced in 1998 in partnership with the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) and Popular Education for People’s Empowerment, Inc. (PEPE), Creative
In a move that is going to have long-term implications for VSO‘s presence in the Philippines, VSO International started desk research in 1998 to look for centers to recruit south-to-south volunteers with the newly set up Volunteering Development Department, and Geoff strongly advocated that the
Philippines be considered as one of the two pilot southern recruitment bases. In 1997/1998, VSO Philippines was active in celebration preparations for the UN International Year of the Volunteer, and had meetings with the local volunteer infrastructure, hosted by PNVSCA, that led to the suggestion of a study tour to the UK. A proposal was submitted to the newly set up Volunteering Development Department, but was turned down due to funding constraints. Geoff continued to work at this concept, and during a visit to the UK in 1999, was able to get a budget to host the first UK National Volunteering Study Tour. This has since developed into what is now a significant strand of VSO’s work supporting the development and strengthening of national volunteering in all the countries VSO works in; this is partly inspired by the strength of volunteering and voluntary action in the Philippines.
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Training emphasized sharing skills in a workshop environment, and was written by the workshop management team that included Carl “Ed” Edwards (1995-1998), regional science advisor for the Regional Science and Techology Center (RSTC) in South Cotabato; Shiobhan O’Malley (1996-2000), environmental educator with the Palawan Council of Sustainable Development Office (PCSDO)/NGOs for Integrated Protected Areas, Inc. (NIPA) in Palawan; Joy Rivaca-Caminade, information officer of IIRR; and Cathy Rosario (1995-1998), research and communication worker with the Foundation for Huwomanity-Centered Development (FHCD) in Baguio.
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Right Photo taken during Simeon Hart’s placement with PhilSPADA
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It is from the work of Simeon that the future Disability program of VSO Philippines would develop.
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Right For over 50 years now, PRRM has been committed to rural reconstruction and local democracy in areas like this
c as e s t u dy
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Sharing Skills, Reconstructing Rural Lives
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by Monalinda B. Cadiz “Rural reconstruction in the Philippines is a classic story of a movement. Its embodiment, the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM), speaks of a tradition that dies hard.” Twenty years after then PRRM Vice President Isagani Serrano opened a 1989 presentation with this claim, PRRM, the pioneer of local NGO work in the Philippines, still figures as a dynamic organization in the fight against poverty. For more than 50 years, PRRM has pioneered programs for rural development and local democracy in the country, and has undergone several cycles of birth and rebirth, coinciding with the ebb and flow of the country’s own history.
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Volunteer placements, then as now VSO’s main approach to development, offered a diversity of expertise ranging from mechanical engineering to coastal resource management and community banking. Six international volunteers were placed with PRRM beginning from the early 1990s to 2000. The first VSO volunteer was Cathy Shutt (19891994), who worked as community banking and
Because access to electricity, which is used for both household and agricultural purposes, is one of the main problems in the province, SRDDP’s banner project was the provision of renewable energy through microhydro power generator, a technology that uses falling water as a source for electricity generation. Sustainable energy development ran through the different themes covered by SRDDP, such as sustainable agriculture, alternative trading and marketing and social infrastructure building. It was in 1992 when renewable energy became part of the programs of PRRM’s Ifugao branch, with the introduction of the 12-volt microhydro battery charger, also known as “Firefly,” in Cambulo, Banaue. Knowledge of the technology was still at an early stage, and therefore a demo model was developed first by Jan Poltergeist in an attempt
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As PRRM was undergoing this crucial period of renewal, VSO supported the NGO’s efforts in rebuilding its programs; through the years, PRRM’s mission has evolved to focus on enhancing the capacity of rural communities in the planning, advocacy and implementation of sustainable development, through an integrated program of education, livelihood, health, habitat environment, and self-governance. In the 1980s, Isagani remembers, VSO reached out to NGOs like PRRM, supporting them with volunteer placement partnerships as well as with opportunities for discussion on development issues in venues such as annual conferences.
Meanwhile, in the Cordillera highlands of northern Luzon, successive volunteer placements worked on one of the most important and enduring contributions of VSO volunteers directly to the community. In Ifugao Province—a relatively poor region, with 35 percent of the population living below the poverty threshold—PRRM’s program started with the Sustainable Rural District Development Program (SRDDP), which aimed to foster popular democracy and sustainable development by focusing on protection and regeneration of the upland natural resources, promoting indigenous cultural systems and improving farmer livelihood and quality of life.
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Isagani remembers how political prisoners like himself were transformed into instant international celebrities because of the worldwide interest in the Philippines in the wake of the iconic People Power revolt. Though the interest of international audiences who listened to Isagani and Boy speak in forums all over Europe centered on their experience as political prisoners, the pair also carried with them the news of PRRM being revitalized—little different from the situation in the entire country in this period of transformation.
business advisor at PRRM’s sister organization, the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), in Silang, Cavite. The IIRR was set up by Dr. Y. C. James Yen, considered father of the rural reconstruction movement, in the mid-60s. Through international trainings and extension, the institute spread the idea and practice of rural reconstruction that flourished in the Philippines, which inspired the formation of similar national movements in Colombia, Guatemala, Ghana, India and Thailand.
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Founded in 1952, PRRM underwent a hiatus in the late 1970s to the early 80s, just as the Philippines was also going through a period of great turmoil and polarization. The NGO then had no program, no staff, and no budget. But after the EDSA revolution of 1986 and the restoration of democracy, former political prisoners Horacio “Boy” Morales and Isagani Serrano led the rebuilding instead of PRRM.
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As PRRM was undergoing this crucial period of renewal, VSO supported the NGO’s efforts in rebuilding its programs.
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to deal with possible technical problems and get acquainted with the technology. Originally Jan’s placement objective was simply to help introduce a form of sustainable agriculture. His most significant contribution, however, would be developed during the last 10 months of his two-year placement. On Jan’s 34th birthday, his first prototype of the Firefly microhydro power charger produced electricity for the first time. Johannes would write in his blog, “...and I was a happy man.” By November 1992, people in 13 households were already using the plant, most of them hiking for one or two hours to recharge their batteries. Some six months after Jan’s placement ended and he had left the Philippines, the prototype that he built broke down. In an attempt to repair it, the power charger was even more damaged. The community had to wait for Simon Taylor (1994-1998) to arrive for the charger to be repaired; but by that time, many of the batteries were in poor condition because they had been left discharged for so long. Johannes, already back in Holland, assisted Simon through long letters on technical matters; eventually, Johannes built a second prototype that VSO shipped to PRRM. In the meantime, Simon installed at least four more such chargers while working in Ifugao. For a bigger microhydro power generator, Simon worked alongside Luis Cabigat, a local engineer who was at that time also volunteering for PRRM as a consultant in microhydro technology in Bangbang, Ifugao. Louis had been trying to develop a microhydro
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Opposite Community workers helping in the installation of water pipes
plant, but could not develop a functioning machine because he did not have funds. Simon applied for funding of the project and provided technical assistance as well. Simon was able to generate Php96,000 for the project, an allotment from a PRRM program funded by the Dutch NGO NOVIB . While the amount covered the materials needed, the community of Bangbang also provided counterpart resources through 200 days of free labor, while the municipality of Hungduan added Php20,000 as its counterpart to the project. These combined efforts turned into a 3kw microhydro plant, directly providing 220 volts of electricity to 27 households out of a total of 112 households in Bangbang. Household beneficiaries were chosen based on their distance from the plant, provision of labor as a counterpart, and capability to provide their own bulbs for lighting. As the first microhydro plant developed by Jan was named Firefly, the new model was named Dragonfly. Inaugurating the power plant amidst a great deal of publicity was then Vice President Joseph Estrada (who eventually became president of the Philippines), doing the honors. Dragonfly became the first microhydro plant that provided direct off-grid electricity in Ifugao. While working on Dragonfly, Simon also helped establish a microhydro fabrication shop through a grant from the British Embassy. The shop was utilized later by Luis Cabigat in the expansion of microhydro technologies in the province. In 1996, PRRM conducted training sessions on community organizing and technical skills, to
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enable the community members to run the plant; community members were given three days of training on community organizing, three days of basic financial management, and a week of training on housewiring practicals. The trainings were part of the standard social preparation by PRRM, which was later taken over by Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement (SITMo), a local group founded by ex-PRRM staff and other members of people’s organizations. The graduates of the training program formed the Gode Electricity Organization (GEO) in 1996, before the plant was officially inaugurated and turned over to the community; the group was comprised of ten community members in charge of maintenance and policies for operating the plant. In 2002, as the SRDDP program ended, strategies for continuing the movement were developed. SITMo became PRRM’s partner organization in Ifugao in carrying out the integrated area development program. SITMo aimed to preserve the cultural and natural heritage of the Ifugao people with various programs, campaigns and projects, and carried on with the renewable energy program initiated by PRRM. The microhydro project would later expand to Nueva Ecija with a bigger model. Simon married an Ifugao resident and lived there for a time; he continued to work for PRRM after his VSO placement, and rendered assistance to SITMo as well, even clinching an International Ashden Award for Renewable Energy for best practices for his entry titled Microhydro Power for Villages in the Historic Rice Terraces of the Philippines. The Ashden Award, given to organizations that implement exemplary sustainable energy projects that help to alleviate poverty, sustain the environment, and preserve the local culture, netted SITMo a Php850,000 cash award that allowed the organization to enhance the existing program with funds for additional microhydro projects in the province. When SITMo applied for the Ashden Awards in 1996, their
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microhydro projects were providing power to about 160 families in 11 villages. The benefits of access to electricity extended far beyond the obvious. Electricity of course helped people undertake activities in the evening, such as studying and weaving baskets and brooms (which was the most common source of income for the families in these communities), and communal functions and occasions like village meetings and weddings. But SITMo also pointed out that electricity also carried with it some environmental benefits: before electrification, most households used kerosene lamps for lighting, and SITMo cited a study that showed that the average rural household used about 9 litres of kerosene for lighting annually, which produced some 280 kg of CO2 per year. SITMo estimated that the microhydro systems replaced about 75% of kerosene use, resulting in a total annual savings of about 32 tonnes of CO2. Larger electrical schemes like the Dragonfly also enabled the use of electrical equipment in small businesses, bringing increased opportunities for income generation. SITMo further noted that about 30 families benefited from the microhydro mills through increased profits from selling crops processed without the considerable time needed to pound rice and coffee by hand. SITMo also makes a case for electrification of the communities being a key factor in discouraging young people from migrating to the towns; this “urban drift” was blamed for a decline in the local farming economy and the gradual deterioration of the ancient rice terraces. Furthermore, the microhydro projects, according to SITMo, have brought together the people within each community as they have come to realize the opportunities for improving their situation through cooperation.
Leo narrates that he came in as a biologist in a CBCRM project but ended up not doing much biology, sensing that sensing that “the issues were about people and not about fish,” he says; in his first few months, one would often hear him say, “The fish can take care of themselves.” At the same time, when talking to fishers, he learned how much mainstream fisheries biology theories did not apply to the reality of fish and fisher interactions.
Leo’s immediate supervisor was the PRRMBataan branch manager, and his counterpart staff included seven community development workers who composed PRRM’s CRM team. Leo’s placement made possible the conduct of resource assessment, Participatory Rural Appraisal research work and formulation of the CRM Plan for Orion. The plan included a cost-benefit analysis of each management strategy and a menu of options for resource management. Additionally, Leo also provided advice on institutional development and implementation of the CBCRM process. This included identifying specific sites for mangrove reforestation, artificial reefs and fish sanctuary and drawing up technical designs for these. For Leo, there were three major highlights of his placement, focusing on the actual impact of the activities that were done in Orion. First, he cites the way the fisheries management plan actually
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IN THE MEANTIME, AWAY FROM THE UPLANDS, PRRM also addressed concerns of fishing villages in coastal areas. The NGO put in a request with VSO for a volunteer for their Bataan branch; and so Leo van Mulekom (1993-1995) worked on the CommunityBased Coastal Resource Management (CBCRM) component of SRDDP in Orion, Bataan. Leo would later continue as a volunteer in the Philippines with other organizations, having enjoyed his first placement in the country.
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He further learned that the maximum sustainable yield concept, so central in fisheries biology, has very limited value in the fishery he was looking at particularly in his placement. After a few months, Leo transformed into what he called a “fisheries political analyst,” rather than a fisheries biologist.
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Right Sharon Taylor outside the SITMo Office Below The work of volunteer Simon Taylor helped win the Ashden Award, which came with a Php850,000 grant
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‘Things changed for the better,’ Leo van Mulekom reported after his visit to the project site three years after his placement ended.
energized and united the fisherfolk despite conflicts among them. Second, predictions made in the management plan, including catch-volume, fishing time, and reduced costs of fishing, actually appeared to have been realized. And third, “things changed for the better,” Leo reported after his visit to the project site three years after his placement ended. He further cites some practical indicators of the positive change. During his visit, he noted that seagrass and shark populations were back, and that grouper appeared in catches. He also noted that there are more stationary gears than before—these are cheaper to use, and less destructive. Also, people were also taking advantage of more stable sources of additional income, such as mussel culture. Leo also noticed boats with fresh paint, which he takes to indicate that fishers now have more available money and time, and even that there were fewer canned sardines in the village shops, which for him indicated that more fresh fish were being consumed by the community. The CBCRM Tracer Study credits Leo’s placement for the fact that the community had become more aware of the principles of local resource management and its potential benefits. Prospects of expanding the program to include other coastal areas surrounding Manila Bay were also encouraging. POs were provided with a clear perspective and direction for resolving fishery and rehabilitation problems, by ensuring that various
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Opposite PRRM also addressed concerns of fishing villages in coastal areas
activities fit within a larger framework. The experience provided them with internal discipline and the capacity to further develop CBCRM. Guidelines provided by the placement that focused on CBCRM approaches resulted in increased awareness and experience of the NGO on project management. There was also increased confidence in approaching funders, who were also beginning to recognise PRRM-Bataan’s expertise in CRM. On Leo’s end, the volunteer says the placement allowed him to gain additional professional skills, particularly in handling the interface between institutional and technical (social and biological) processes, project objectives, and resource economics. Personally, he says, he developed increased sensitivity to “what people do not say”—which is a common trait among Filipinos. This must have become useful for him as he continued to work in coastal resource management in another local NGO after his placement through VSO. Leo was also cited for sharing his knowledge and skills with PRRM-Bataan staff and PO members. He is particularly credited for helping the local staff and PO deepen their understanding of the theory and concepts and practice of CBCRM. Leo also pointed out the need for introducing public relations as a strategy to “protect” the CBCRM project, and clarifying women’s contributions to fisheries management and rehabilitation.
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1998-2010 She later joined PRRM as Assistant Director of the Conrado Benitez Institute for Sustainability, the education arm of PRRM which was established in 2002. Sharon leads and helps in the development of PRRM’s basic and thematic courses on sustainable development, production of case materials, and actual running of the courses. Recently, she has been PRRM’s focal person for PRRM’s major project with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)—the component of vulnerability and adaptation (V&A) assessment for the Philippines’ Second National Communication (SNC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Her other involvements in PRRM advocacy work include lobbying for the immediate passage of the Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) Bill, on top of other responsibilities.
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Towards the end of the 90s, another VSO volunteer was placed at PRRM in its head office in Manila. Sabina Akpinar (1998-2000) was an ecotourism specialist and was placed at PRRM to set up ecotourism packages. Ecotourism was a PRRM program that presented an alternative to mainstream tourism. Areas included the mountain province of Ifugao, the historic provinces of Bataan and Nueva Ecija, and the beach havens of Camiguin, Marinduque, and El Nido. Currently, PRRM is repackaging the program into different areas, an initiative that includes the introduction of organic farming tours and “clustering,” packaging nearby areas together in one itinerary for visitors.
The last VSO volunteer to be assigned with PRRM was Dr. Sharon Taylor (1997-2001), a marine biologist placed in the coastal province of Marinduque. Sharon helped in the development of PRRM’s CBCRM.
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Leo’s counterpart staff developed a clearer understanding on the technical aspects of CBCRM relate to the socio-economic aspects. He inculcated the value of “the time factor” as well as having varied options and alternatives in project implementation. The volunteer’s optimism and encouragement fostered a “we can do it” attitude among the staff.
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Apat na Dekada glob al xchange
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Global Xchange works with teams of up to 18 young people with equal numbers coming from the Philippines and from the UK. The participants in the Philippines are recruited from Luzon Visayas and Mindanao, and the teams are formed with their British counterparts to reflect diversity in terms of geography, ethnicity, ability, education and gender. Together, in cross-cultural counterpart pairs, they live with host families and work in host
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Like World Youth, Global Xchange is a fully reciprocal program, which reflects contemporary
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The program has been developed out of a highly successful exchange program in Canada called World Youth.
values, building mutual respect and understanding between young people from the Philippines and from the UK. As our world becomes ever more interdependent, it is essential that communities develop a global perspective and interact positively in a diverse world. This is what Global Xchange seeks to support.
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to working for positive change and can make a positive impact on local communities.
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Global Xchange is an exchange program that brings young people from the Philippines and from the UK to live alongside each other and work together as volunteers so they can share their learning with their host communities.
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VSO Philippines, together with the British Council and VSO Bahaginan, was part of the Country Management Team that managed and implemented the Global Xchange Program from 2004 to 2009, which enabled young people to deliver tangible contributions to the practical development needs of disadvantaged people and their communities, while promoting international understanding in ways that are generally beyond the scope of established global education programs.
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Right GX volunteers Rebecca Miller and Kalayaan Anjuli Gatuslao at a Gawad Kalinga build, Iligan city
VSO Philippines co-managed the program in Mindanao, and led the placement development in three communities from 2005 to 2009, through the VSO PEACE
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Mindanao Program. Global Xchange and the network of partners in Davao, Iligan and Cagayan de Oro delivered a total of 6 exchanges with counterpart communities in the UK: 2005
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1988-1998
1998-2010
into the 21st Century
VSO enters a new era that requires a paradigm shift to confront new challenges by Ana Marie O. Dizon with contributions from Christine Bantug
The dawn of the 21st century ushered in with a great many
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challenges that saw VSO Philippines confronting a globalized world mired in the aftermath of major political upheavals both domestic and international. On the domestic front, the period saw the election of a populist president, Joseph Ejercito Estrada, in the face of widening gap between the rich and the poor; the launch of an all-out
1968 - 1978
war in Southern Philippines against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF); and a high-level corruption scandal in government that led to an uprising that toppled Estrada and installed his vice president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
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The combination of these factors led to two major reviews and a recasting of VSO Philippines’ strategic plan that started in 1998, which sought to identify its priorities given the constraints and considering both VSO’s redirection as an international volunteering organization and the socio-economic condition of the Philippines. While the country appeared to be relatively better off compared to its poorer neighbors in the region, such as Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia, the depth and severity of poverty in more than 40 of the Philippines’ poorest provinces had actually worsened during the four-year period of the review (VSO Philippines Country Strategic Plan, 2004-2009). Government projections and claims of rapid development and declining poverty, brought about by growth in the services sector and international remittance of overseas workers, overlook the fact that inequality and the vulnerable situation of the poor remains at the heart of the problem. In Poverty in the Philippines, a 2005 study published by the Asian Development
Internationally, by this time VSO began to set its sights on making a greater impact as it looked into the new millennium. In its July 1998 issue, an article in the VSO newsletter announced, “Over the next five years, VSO will prioritize the needs of the more disadvantaged and promote new forms of partnership. By learning from our experience, VSO will continue to expand the main two-year program and develop new initiatives...By 2003, VSO aims to have a distinctive reputation as a development
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Bank, Karin Schelzig cited data from the Philippine Statistical Yearbook and Family Income and Expenditure Survey preliminary results, concluding that “the Philippines exhibits a highly inequitable distribution of income. Despite a very slight improvement in overall distribution since 1997, in 2003 the share of income accruing to the richest 10 percent of the population was still more than twenty times the share of income of the poorest 10 percent. Since 1985, the richest quintile of the population has consistently commanded more than 50 percent of total family income in the country, with the poorest quintile at less than 5 percent.” Add to this a situation of increased vulnerability in terms of underemployment, lack of labor rights and illegal migration for the urban poor; along with climatic changes, disasters, environmental degradation and volatile commodity prices for the rural poor. These shocks have historically and continually inflicted havoc on the lives of the poor in the country, which, in combination with inequality over control and access to resources (land and income) continue to fuel labor unrest, the leftist insurgency and the separatist movement in the south of the country.
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On the world stage, there were the 9/11 attacks in the US and the consequent “War on Terror,” the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and escalating conflicts along religious lines; the global financial meltdown that led to a contraction of international donor support for development work; and a continuing international debate on the reality of global warming and its potential impact. This was also the period when pandemics caused by the avian flu, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and AH1N1 caused fear and major disruption in travel, particularly in East and Southeast Asia.
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Internationally, by this time VSO began to set its sights on making a greater impact as it looked into the new millennium.
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From recruiting just a small number of Filipino professionals from the Philippines in 2000, VSO Bahaginan presently recruits professionals from across Southeast Asia.
agency which works through volunteers, and as an innovative organization able to respond to changing circumstances and opportunities in the next millennium.”
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Aligning with this directive, VSO Philippines chose to concentrate its efforts on the following areas: Secure Livelihood—Natural Resource Management (NRM) Gender Small enterprise development Disability Participation and Governance—focused on engaging with government; peace-building efforts, which was anchored on governance, were especially focused in Mindanao. As an operational methodology, VSO made use of the focus area approach, identifying regions and provinces with Human Development Index lower than the national average, to focus on them for greater impact and maximized use of resources. A programmatic approach was used as well, one that is focused on partnerships and not on placements, on the organizational and institutional development of strategic partners and not service delivery. It is worth noting that VSO Philippines is one of the first country offices to adopt a programmatic approach in its work, starting in the late 1990s, while VSO International started when its strategic plan Focus for Change took effect in the early 2000s. To maximise impact, VSO Philippines also used a clustering approach within its geographic focus areas that linked various organizations falling within the same program for greater synergy.
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The period also saw a bold shift from working primarily with local NGOs to partnerships with local government units and strategic national NGO partner organizations such as Sibol ng Agham at Teknolohiya (SIBAT), Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC), Center for Empowerment and Resource Development, Inc. (CERD), and others, to help ensure the sustainability of interventions. A change in leadership occurred with the passing of the torch from Geoff Brown to the new country director, Pancho Lara, the first Filipino to hold the position. By this time, VSO had also started the South-South Volunteering program, which paved the way for the recruitment and sending of Filipino professionals as international VSO volunteers. This eventually evolved to become VSO Bahaginan, the Philippine recruitment base of VSO International. From recruiting just a small number of Filipino professionals from the Philippines in 2000, it presently recruits professionals from across Southeast Asia and supports the development of a recruitment office in China and the development of national volunteering efforts in Central, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. In 2000, VSO initiated a five-year regional project in the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand in support of organizations and communities implementing community-based natural resource management (CBCRM). This project became known as Sharing and Promotion of Awareness and Regional Knowledge, or SPARK. The initiative aimed to promote sustainable livelihoods of natural resourcedependent communities, which resulted in the integration and sharing of VSO’s Secure Livelihood
Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) volunteers provided technical assistance in coastal resource management, enterprise development and agroforestry. The VSO SPARK program assisted nine barangays with livelihood projects. SPARK also conducted a resource assessment of marine protected areas and hopes to accomplish a community-based resource assessment of
Towards the middle of the decade, the Program Manager for Secure Livelihood then, Christine Bantug, noted that funding opportunities in the Philippines had become even scarcer. Faced with such tough times, VSO International encouraged country offices to support their own programs through their own resource mobilisation efforts. However, official development assistance had become more focused on Mindanao—particularly on peace-building initiatives to reach the poorest of the poor, which was part of the counter-terrorism strategy within the region. In 2000, as a result of the government’s all-out war in Mindanao that displaced hundreds of families and had put many communities at risk, VSOP developed the Technical and Organizational Skills for Civil Society Action for the Displaced and AtRisk (TOSCADAR) program. The program aimed to support civil society actors in their effort to meet the needs of communities affected by the war that broke out between government forces and the Moro
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Secure Livelihood, interchangeably referred to by its focus, Natural Resource Management, accounted for almost half of all placements around this time, mostly located in Visayas and Mindanao. Its execution was highly programmatic, with volunteers able to transfer capabilities and help improve capacities accompanied by substantial resources for learning, exchanges and scholarship, and project support. A 1997 feature from the SPARK newsletter contributed by the Provincial Planning and Development Office of Eastern Samar effectively described the integrated development and capability-building support VSO provided:
barangays in the Matarinao Bay area in order to consolidate information towards improved resource management. Significantly,VSO also initiated stakeholders’ access to the EU funding facility. SPARK Newsletter, Issue 25 (2007)
Next Page Country Director Pancho Lara on a placement visit with Mindanaobased volunteers
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program experiences across the three countries. In the Philippines, longtime-partner organization ESSC was identified as the hub for learning and information dissemination among partners in the country, to support the sustainability of outcomes from the SPARK project.
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Right Workshop Conference on Gender in Small Enterprise Development (SED) organized by Swiss Contact, VSO Philippines and Helvetas (September 6 to September 8, 2000)
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As an outcome of its organizational strategic review, VSO International released Focus for Change in 2002, laying out VSO’s strategies for the next 10 years. Focus for Change identified six development goals that link the priorities of its partners, international development targets and VSO’s distinctive competence. These six development goals are focused on: Education, HIV and AIDS, Disability, Health and Social Well-being, Secure Livelihood, and Participation and Governance.
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Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and established a field office in Iligan City near the affected communities and its local partners. To support its operation given the absence of program funds, TOSCADAR accessed resources from the European Union (EU) through its Aid to Uprooted Peoples Fund (EUUPF) for peace-bulding work in Mindanao (2001-2004). However, given the security situation, it became difficult for VSO to recruit international volunteers; this meant that programmatic work had to be implemented without volunteer placements, and subsequently, necessitated the recruitment of a number of national volunteers to assist in the program. By the end of TOSCADAR, (which was replaced by PEACE-Mindanao) there were a total of three international volunteer placed with partners and four international program office-based volunteers who shared skills and expertise across all partner organizations.
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The VSO staff and the available resources were deemed able to support and prepare partners towards the closing of the program office.
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Opposite In 2002, VSO’s strategic plan laid the six development goals as its focus for the next decade: Education; HIV/AIDS; Disability; Health and Social Well-Being; Secure Livelihood; and Participation and Governance
VSO was also looking at the practicalities called for by the times, conducting a strategic resource assessment using the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) to help decide whether to close or expand its programs. As a result of the relative improvement in the Philippines’ development standing, VSO decided to close its program office in the Philippines. While this was the main argument for the decision, VSO also cited other factors. First of all, given the tougher fundraising climate internationally and the Philippines’ improved standing, there was the need to shift resource generation locally. Second, the protracted nature of conflict and the non-signing of the peace agreement between government and the Mindanao Islamic Liberation Front had raised concerns about the security of placement areas. Third, the VSO staff and the available resources were deemed able to support and prepare partners towards the closing of the program office. Given this, VSOP crafted its country strategic plan (CSP) to align with the new strategic direction mandated by Focus for Change, with a time frame from 2005-2009. VSOP had already projected the decrease in volunteer number from 40-45 to 32-36 for the period, and was set to reveal its exit strategy from the Philippines by 2009.
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In the meantime, VSO Philippines’ country strategic plan for 2004-2009 identified the following development issues that guided its programming focus: 1. Poverty in the Philippines is not merely about depressed incomes. It is about unsustainable and inSecure Livelihood brought about by limited choices and lost opportunities. Working on Secure Livelihood is therefore crucial. 2. An increasing number of rural and urban poor define their poverty in terms of physical insecurity, the lack of peace and understanding at the community level, and their enhanced vulnerability to violent conflict and instability. Working on peace building as part of participation and governance is important. 3. Inequality has become a more important issue for an increasing number of poor people who are often discriminated upon, or treated unfairly due to their disabilities. Helping people with disabilities is critical. 4. The low-level capacities in governance and capabilities in organization development and sustainability reduce opportunities for disadvantaged people to participate in local governance or to sustain participation in markets. Capacity and capability building in organizational development and effective governance is central in inducing change.
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5. Disadvantaged women and children are the main victims of poverty and inequality, and are often marginalized and excluded from development. Hence, initiatives that mainstream gender issues should be an inevitable component of VSO’s cross-cutting work. Also in 2002, VSOP had undertaken an exercise to assess how closely the program office was working with the disadvantaged. It was concluded that a majority of the volunteers were working on the symptoms of the problems rather than the causes; additionally, VSOP felt that important objectives were also being left behind. For example, it was deemed important to move beyond marine conservation and begin working with communities to ensure sustainability and Secure Livelihood. For its programs, VSOP chose to retain Secure Livelihood, Peace-Building and Disability, with Gender as a cross-cutting theme. In terms of its exit plan, a sustained and systematic capacitybuilding of partners—particularly in resource generation and fund-raising, and transfer of skills in program planning and development, in monitoring and evaluation, and in learning strategies—was identified as the priority.
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Opposite James Stanton, volunteer placed at Balay Integrated Rehabilitation Center for Total Human Development (BIRTH-Dev), answers questions from Ambassador Peter Beckingham in Lanao del Norte (left); Musa Sanguila (in t-shirt), head of Pakigdait Alang sa Pagamoma sa Kanlinaw, speaking to a volunteer (far left)
Right VSO Chief Executive Officer Marg Mayne delivers a message from headquarters for the VSO Philippines closing ceremonies
Romulo “Billy” dela Rosa, Peace-Building program manager, wrote in the 2005-2006 PEACE-Mindanao Annual Report that the program had “opened lines of communication; linked with local partners; deployed volunteers and implemented programs towards the creation of a culture of peace, mainstreaming of gender issues, the enhancement of organizational capacities of its partners, the promotion of economic resilience, disaster preparedness and emotional recovery; and strengthened networking, lobbying with government units and public advocacy.” One of VSO’s key contributions under this program was support towards the increased capabilities
Additionally, in 2005 the Philippines began to participate in VSO’s Global Xchange Program, a six-month exchange program for young adults that allowed participants from different parts of the world the opportunity to work together and learn about development issues firsthand. With the Philippines as one of the exchange countries, Continued on Page 113
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In a July 7, 2005 article, the Philippine Daily Inquirer identified VSO Philippines as the only foreign volunteer group that continued to send international volunteers to Mindanao during the period when a significant number of foreign governments declared Mindanao as a no-go area due to constant terrorist threats of bombing and kidnappings. But even in the midst of regular British Foreign and Common Office advisories against travel in Mindanao, VSO Philippines’ security protocol is recognized by the office of the UK ambassador to the Philippines, and PEACE-Mindanao continues to receive support from the Global Opportunities Fund: Engaging the Islamic World program of the UK Foreign Office.
Next Page VSO Philippines was identified as the only group that continued to send international volunteers to Mindanao during the period when many foreign governments declared Mindanao as a no-go area
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After the strategic review and planning process, the peace program came out strongly as an area of need and opportunities. Based on its previous achievements under TOSCADAR, VSOP was on the lookout for partners to work with in Peace-Building, with cross-cutting linkages with Gender, Education, and Advocacy. As a result, Peace Enabling Actions for Community Empowerment in North Central Mindanao (PEACE-Mindanao) was conceptualized with the support of the European Commission (EC) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) of the UK. The new Peace-Building program covered the areas of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur.
of partner organizations in providing emotional recovery interventions in communities affected by military conflict, especially among children recruited and used as soldiers. This intervention was delivered by James Stanton.
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Peace-Building (under the Participation and Governance Goal)
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MY LIFE WITH VSO
A Personal Account by Francisco “Pancho� Lara, Jr. (1987-1996/ 2002-2006) PART 1: 1987 to 1996 I joined VSO in the late 80s as a member of its local consultative committee in the Philippines. Those were the aweinspiring days following the peaceful People Power revolution of 1986 and the restoration of democracy. Call it good politics or the inexorable march of change, but VSO was among the first international NGOs to harness the democratic dividend and the participatory urge of the times, deciding to establish a local council that would help govern its Philippine program. It was a clever move, and a useful one. The board was a good way of gathering information often unavailable in the mainstream media. Better yet, it was a way to identify potential volunteer placements. On my part, I felt useful being tapped to provide security advice and to present the peasant situation in countless volunteer conferences and meetings.
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At the time VSO had deployed most volunteers to civil society groups, and the organization felt less comfortable providing services to the State. It did not help that the image of the State was exemplified by the government agency in charge of foreign volunteer placements, the Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency (PNVSCA), an office which demanded a lot of coordination with very little support given in exchange. The agency had few staff members and even fewer resources—a big difference from the office nowadays. I can still recall Dr. Virginia Davide, the head of the PNVSCA from its inception to the mid-90s: She was quite strict, had a strong personality and an eye for imposing the rules. She formally inducted all arriving
I recall Paul Farbon, a volunteer who told me how his deployment in the Philippines had been fearful yet also exciting. I guess this was due to several dangerous occasions he witnessed, including a string of violent coup d’etats, the terrible earthquake of 1990, and the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991. He also nearly drowned during an annual volunteer conference, after a boat carrying him and his mates capsized. I wondered years later whether his Philippine experience had knocked out all sense of caution from this volunteer, as in 2004 he would pilot the first Philippine “jeepney” that would travel by land and sea from Manila to London—successfully.
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We discussed the important issues of the time, such as whether it was appropriate to deploy volunteers in government posts, or how we could assert VSO’s autonomy and independence when partners asked our volunteers to join political activities, like joining rallies and demonstrations.
Sometimes, though, I felt that volunteers were even more radical than their partners, though we eventually overcame those issues with compromise solutions. We decided to place a volunteer health worker in a government hospital, and we argued that “working alongside” local people didn’t really mean “marching alongside” them all the time. These decisions made PNVSCA very happy.
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The aversion to government placements though was also due to the times. NGOs were seen as having played an indispensable role in fighting poverty and fascism during the Marcos years, and deserved to be at the head of the queue in resource provision. Add to this the fact that volunteer members of the consultative group were working with NGOs in the direct line of fire, in militarized areas such as Quezon and the Cordilleras. So emotions ran high, especially as some partners were still facing harassment. The conventional wisdom was that putting volunteers in government offices was a waste of scarce resources.
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volunteers, rousing us all with the official hymn and a solemn pledge, turning our fresh arrivals speechless and sometimes cringing in fear.
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In those days there were often less than fifteen VSO volunteers in the Philippines, scattered across the country in various placements.
Demand-driven approach and natural resource management In those days there were often less than fifteen VSO volunteers in the Philippines, scattered across the country in various placements. It was difficult to appreciate VSO’s outcomes and impact, as VSO seemed to be in constant flux, the organization trying its best to respond to local needs, an original attempt to be genuinely demand-driven. Richard Bennett was Country Director at the time, and his tenure saw one of the earliest attempts to develop a coherent program that leveraged environmental concerns, human rights, and livelihoods at the top of the VSO portfolio. We still looked closely at “kites” thrown our way, but we were more discerning about actually getting a proper fit with local needs. Richard was aided by the entry of capable and highly motivated staff from the country’s NGO sector, including Gigi Manicad and Ronet Santos. The hiring of both were definite coups for the VSO country office, for it enabled the program to grow in scope and reach. Ronet Santos, in particular, would be at the head of the environmental shift and shape VSO’s future engagements in coastal and upland resource management in the Philippines and in other parts of Southeast Asia. Richard was followed by the stern but efficient Trish Nicholson, who made the country director job her mission in life in the years she stayed in the Philippines. I never really saw
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her having a laugh with us, nor dipping her feet in the naughtiness of the volunteers. She did bring in Vinia Abesamis, who was always warm, bubbly, and verbose, compared to her boss’ often inscrutable visage. Trish remains to my recollection the best example of the British stiff upper lip, though she did love to sing. It was a period of great fun and excitement. I met people working with VSO that became lifelong friends, including Angus Sargent, a Southeast Asia regional manager who has since passed, Tina Redshaw, who would later become the British Ambassador to Timor-Leste, and Geoff Brown, a gentle giant who always knew what was going on, but tried to maintain a kind demeanor and a huge amount of understanding. I still regret the day, more than a decade later, when I was told that Geoff had moved on to another development organization. He is probably the best-loved country director that VSOP ever had. I also recall appearing before an investigating panel at the House of Commons after newspapers in Manila reported the “nefarious” activities of a VSO couple, Ian and Sharon Harvey, who were accused of funding and transporting arms to the New People’s Army (NPA). Of course the charges were ridiculous. For people in the know, it won’t take long to realize that foreigners aren’t the best mules to carry firearms up the mountains. They’re magnets of attention in every checkpoint you passed to reach your destination. But it was the late 80s, the military was flexing its muscles, and you had to adapt to stay alive. So I found myself
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VSO Philippines helped facilitate the identification of organizations for placements and took charge of the security protocol. After hosting four batches without incident, an evacuation of all VSO volunteers, including the youth volunteers of the Global Xchange Program (whose coverage included Davao and Iligan in Mindanao), was carried out on the wake of fierce fighting government forces and the separatist Mindanao Islamic Liberation Front in August 2008. Despite the evacuation of the young volunteers and transfer to a safe location in Cagayan de Oro, the volunteers participated in the relief operations that aimed to provide food packs to families displaced and affected by the military operations. According to the GX volunteers, the fighting had made real for them the conflict in Mindanao and the need to wage peace.
Disability VSOP considered itself to be in a strong position to be involved in Disability work, by virtue of its
partnership with existing network of established organizations working on Disability issues in Manila and Cebu City. Though relatively small—with only about three volunteers per year at any given time, coming up to only a total of 15 volunteers within its lifetime—the program sought to maximize impact by working with strategically selected partners that were able to advocate at the national level, while demonstrating examples of best practice within the context of a local government setting at the provincial level. Through the example of Cebu City, with its exceptional commitment to become a role model in terms of inclusion, equal participation, non-discrimination, governance and empowerment for persons with disabilities (PWDs), VSOP hoped to create “best practices” examples in terms of integration and participation of PWDs that can be used to advocate for similar outcomes in other local government units (LGUs). During its program area review, VSO Philippines highlighted the following achievements: increased deaf awareness in Cebu City; the development
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To be sure, learning did not always connote understanding, oftentimes it made us ask more questions, or moved us into divergent paths. That was how I felt when I was asked to speak before an Asiawide conference of VSO in 1995.
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My first few years with VSO were enlightening as well as confusing. It wasn’t because of VSO itself, but because I was one among a growing
number of development workers with one foot inside an international agency, and another foot in civil society. Wide gaps existed in policy making, planning, monitoring, and evaluating. I was intrigued by the buzzwords too, and I tried them with NGO colleagues after VSO meetings. Try “input-output, outcomeimpact” for example. And what about “learnings.” Confusing, innit?
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being grilled by two MPs in Westminster, in defense of VSO and Ian and Sharon, who eventually had to leave their placements and move on to Vanuatu. Years later I would hear of Ian’s tragic death while working in that Pacific island. I guess some people consume all the excitement of life in an instant, for Ian certainly lived his life to the fullest in a shorter period than the rest of us. Years later I would recall the death of Ian as I stood over the coffin of another volunteer, Minh Van Nguyen, who died in an airplane crash in 2002.
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Left Isabel Isherwood, a marine biologist working on an environment data survey in the Mt. Guiting-Guiting protected area, Sibuyan Island, Romblon (May 2002)
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and adoption of elementary textbooks for the deaf, and the successful accessing of funds by Gualandi Volunteer Service Program (GVSP) from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to implement Filipino Sign Language (FSL) signing on a one-hour primetime news program on a major television network in the Visayas. This partnership was made possible with the track record established with the Deaf Child Worldwide project that funded the various activities implemented by volunteers such as the development of elementary school books for the deaf that was adopted by schools in Cebu, deaf awareness activities in the community, and publication of various educational materials for the deaf. It was also through the capacity-building work of volunteers placed in GVSP that enabled them to access CIDA funds, and to do project development and management. As part of its transition for its exit plan, VSO Philippines had worked closely with VSO Bahaginan for the latter to provide mentoring support to its Disability partners and to implement follow-through activities such as Volunteer Management System (VMS) training for partners such as GVSP, Organization of Rehabilitation Agencies (ORA), and Community Livelihood Advancement Network (CLAN).
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This program aimed to improve the livelihood security of the rural poor, particularly in the natural resource-dependent communities of Regions 8 and 13. Based on 2000 figures, Eastern Mindanao (Region 13 or the Caraga region), and Eastern Visayas (Region 8) showed very low human development indices, comparable to countries with low HDI overall. These provinces also ranked high in terms of poverty incidence, with those most affected being households that were largely dependent on natural resources to make a living: farmers, fishers, forest users, and indigenous communities. Because of limited economic opportunities, people still relied on traditional livelihood activities that are dependent on and even abusive to natural resources. This is evident in the remaining forest, marine, and freshwater resources in the Caraga and Eastern Visayas regions. This situation is further compounded by the typhoons that frequently devastate those areas, as well as the lack of physical infrastructures necessary in achieving economic growth and social development. Under this program, VSOP worked with partner organizations in government, such as the provincial governments of Eastern Samar and Agusan del Sur; the local government units in Eastern Samar, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Norte; the municipal government units in Eastern
Significantly, VSOP supported CERD in accessing funding from the EC in order to establish the Matarinao Bay Management Council (MBMC) as a formal, registered LGU alliance and to reactivate Barangay Fiseheries and Aquatic Resource Marine Council (BFARMs) for further education and organizing work at the local government and community levels to complement the work of the volunteers. This was significant as CERD took on developing the proposal upon VSOP’s request, even if CERD had never worked before in Eastern Samar. Thus VSOP started supporting partners in developing and implementing their resource mobilization initiatives.
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The exit strategy process started shortly after the launch of VSO Philippines’ CSP in 2004, as partners were made aware of the Philippine program office’s planned closure in 2010. In order to sustain the gains and achievements of VSO’s programs, three key gaps were identified: resource mobilization, especially for LGUs dependent on their Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA); knowledge management, in order to sustain knowledge sharing and learning across partner organizations; and national volunteering, for the continuing support for partners’ technical and organizational needs by harnessing local volunteers. The development of an exit strategy was taken up in 2005 as program implementation under the new CSP also proceeded. For this, incoming Country DirectorJulio Galvez Tan (2006-2009), taking over from Pancho Lara, was tasked to oversee the development of the exit strategy and the closing of the Philippine program. Three focused interventions as part of the exit strategy were conceptualized to complement VSOP’s Program Area Plans, and it involved the following: building the capacity of VSOP partners in resource mobilization (RM); promoting knowledge sharing and learning or knowledge management; and the development of a national volunteering program. Each of these interventions were at advanced stages of implementation, particularly the national volunteering development program, where at least two partners, Kapamagogopa, Inc. (for Peace-Building) and Runggiyan Social Development Foundation (Secure Livelihood and Participation and Governance), had fully operational volunteer management programs. Corollary to these is the partnership with VSO Bahaginan, which allowed the joint promotion of
Next Page VSO’s Peace-Building program came out as an area of need and opportunity in this decade; as a result, PEACEMindanao was launched
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Through these partners, VSO volunteers worked with farmers, fishers, forest users, and indigenous communities, working in complementary placements in support of partner clusters that sustained and strengthened existing natural resource management alliances. During the fiveyear period, strategic partnerships were prioritized, which included programmatic support not only for technical but also on organizational needs. For instance, Steffi Friedrich, a VSO volunteer working as an organizational development adviser with the provincial government of Agusan del Sur, was instrumental in the reorganization of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resource Office (PENRO) and in setting up its organizational processes (e.g. hiring, rationalizing staffing and structure), as part of her capability work in her placement.
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Samar and Surigao del Sur; and the Eastern Samar State University. VSO also worked with NGOs working at the national level, including the Center for Community Empowerment and Resource Development (CERD), Sibol ng Agham at Teknolohiya (SIBAT), and Environmental Science for Social Change; and NGOs working regionally, such as Runggiyan Social Development Foundation (RSDFI), Management and Organizational Development for Empowerment (MODE) and the Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC).
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MY LIFE WITH VSO A Personal Account by Francisco
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PART 2: Late 2001 to 2006 I was to return to VSO under different circumstances seven years later. It came in the form of a phone call from Dave Hampson, the outgoing VSO Philippines country director. Dave had come into VSOP after Geoff Brown’s long stint in the Philippines. He asked me whether I was interested in applying for the post of CD, after he was informed by Ronet Santos, who was still with VSOP at the time, that I may probably have the experience and skills—and the humor—to survive this job. It was a different time with different needs. I had just ended a stint in the agrarian reform department of a government which fell from the weight of plunder and corruption charges leveled against it. I was working as an agrarian reform specialist with the UN-FAO office in Manila, keeping my head down at a time when everyone who served in the corrupt Estrada government was suspect, and last on the line for any significant posting in the civil society sector. Then VSO called. It was soon after the turn of the millennium, and a lingering feeling of peace and goodwill still permeated the air, enough to give the “tainted” a chance for rehabilitation. The collapse of the Cold War a decade earlier, the end of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, and the sweeping reach of democratization in Southeast Asia was at its peak. The Philippines had re-established a fragile ceasefire with secessionist rebels in the South, and was beginning a new round of peace talks with communist insurgents. Thailand had recovered from financial ruin, and was beginning to re-establish its financial and manufacturing presence in the region. Malaysia was about to elect a post-Mahathir government. Meanwhile, Indonesia had deposed the dictator Suharto in 1999, and soon entered into peace agreements with rebels in Aceh, Sulawesi, Maluku, and East Timor. For the latter, a UN transitional authority had even been established that would soon lead to the creation of the state of Timor-Leste. Even the harrowing events of 9/11 and a destructive tsunami in 2003 could not stem the feeling of optimism. In Aceh it helped to facilitate a final peace agreement. It forced ASEAN to take a second look at the authoritarian regime in Burma, and though a regional policy of constructive engagement would fail to lessen the regime’s injustice and brutality,
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Right Pancho Lara attending a function for friends and partners of the British Embassy in Manila
These provided the backdrop when I rejoined VSO as country director in late 2001, feeling straightaway that the program had to prove its worth in the midst of an exodus of aid and attention. The biggest irony, of course, was that the millennium had also brought with it a new template for addressing poverty and inequality. The Millennium Development Goals put forward clear targets for reducing poverty and bringing prosperity to the underdeveloped world. The MDG goals also gnawed at the impression that the Philippines was a “middle-income” country, made obvious by the wide disparities in income, health, and education, and the absence of peace in
But, as the reasoning intoned, the region was now middle-income and should probably be less of a priority than the rest of the underdeveloped world. After getting hired I was informed by my regional manager that tough decisions needed to be made; later I discovered that those decisions included whether VSO should exit from the country altogether. But those decisions could wait; in the meantime I was placed at an advantage by my predecessor who had begun the shift into a direction that would inexorably prolong the life of VSOP, and had raised substantial funds to prime the shift.
Peace-Building and the country strategic plan Dave Hampson had taken VSOP in unexpected directions—following the onset of war in Mindanao and the felt need for peace builders, trauma healers, rehabilitation and livelihood specialists, and program development managers. EU funding had given VSOP a chance to become the only volunteer
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Being “middle income” would resonate across various development agencies and donors within the region. In a few years some of the big spenders would begin closing their programs and move elsewhere—often to sub-Saharan Africa, or in the conflict areas of the Middle East.
many parts of the country. And however much we at VSOP sliced it, we increasingly felt that there was another side to the story of a development miracle for large sections of the poor and disadvantaged in the Philippines—especially in Eastern Visayas and Mindanao. In these places there were hardly any miracles, only a lot of poverty and disadvantage, injustice and conflict.
1968 - 1978
it would force ASEAN to move closer to a human rights agreement and secretariat. In many ways, it was a period where the authoritarian urge that was so typical of Southeast Asian governments seemed to fade with market-led growth and the spread of telecommunications and the internet. For the first time, Southeast Asia actually felt like a haven of middle-income developing countries, a delayed reaction to the hype about an East Asian miracle a decade earlier.
1998-2010
Far right Pancho on a placement visit with former UK Ambassador Peter Beckingham
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These provided the backdrop when I rejoined VSO as country director in late 2001, feeling straightaway that the program had to prove its worth in the midst of an exodus of aid and attention.
service agency with a portfolio of volunteers serving in the conflict-affected areas of the South. Though largely unintended, this program would evolve to become one of the most strategic and credible interventions of VSO in the Philippines in its entire history. Nationally it was comparable to VSOP’s earlier involvement and leadership in the natural resource management sector. Internationally, it was comparable to the wide success of the VSO Africa campaign against HIV-AIDS . Of course, the program would have been in serious danger were it not for the vigorous support and constant attention given by at least three people within VSO: Penny Lawrence, Overseas Division Chief, Liz Holmes, SEA Regional Manager, and Shawn Vincent (Fundraising Officer). Penny travelled twice to the country during my tenure, visiting far-flung and conflict-affected areas in the South, at one point accompanying BBC World Affairs correspondent John Simpson. Her efforts paved the way for wider international recognition of VSOP’s work in peace-building, and turned VSO volunteers David Tanner and Angie Bamgbose into celebrities in Britain. The VSOP staff was so inspired by Penny’s short yet meaningful visits that we were probably the only country office that prepared a video extolling Penny’s contributions (to her mild embarrassment I suppose) to VSOP when she left to join OXFAM. Meanwhile, Liz Holmes joined several important and critical meetings we held with partners; she shadowed the entire strategy development process, and spent considerable time and effort visiting local
A pat na Dek ada V S O Ph i l i pp i n e s 2 1 s t c e n tu ry
Right A Secure Livelihood volunteer examines a fish catch
volunteers in their placements—in both far-flung and conflict-affected areas. It seems to me now that Liz felt the need to deal directly with our clients, spending considerable time away from the VSOP office to visit and engage with partners. This helped us spend less time in staff meetings and more time with partners. Liz was also headstrong, inquisitive, oftentimes stern, and quick to the draw in ascertaining cause and effect, strengths and weaknesses in program activities. We had frequent and loud debates, and long conversations on the phone. But she was always professional and an effective troubleshooter, our discussions were always substantial and arrived at potential solutions to problems, apart from getting her up to speed on the local gossip. Liz never wavered in her belief and her support for the Philippine program; she promoted our “experiences and learning” to other countries and regions, seconded Philippine staff to others in need, and recommended senior staff to other posts within VSO. She helped in very practical ways—whether it was to sympathize in the death of a volunteer, facilitate meetings, hire new staff, or co-author project proposals. It is a testament to her leadership that she is probably the only regional manager who has been able to develop strong friendships and ties with local staff, from senior to junior, high and low, and also with partners. She was sorely missed when she transferred to Southern Africa a year after I left VSOP.
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Far Left Rizalina Geografo, Executive Director of the Ranaw Women and Children Resource Center, one of VSO’s partner organizations
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Left The Annual Partners and Volunteers Conference was an opportunity to learn from one another
Shawn Vincent was always seen as a “pair of hands” that would help VSOP in its various applications to donor agencies. He played a critical role in developing project proposals, helping the PeaceBuilding team in designing applications, and constantly encouraging us to test out funding opportunities. Together with VSO Learning Adviser Tracy Martin, Shawn demonstrated a genuine and practical commitment to learning activities and joined enthusiastically in our meetings with partners and donor agencies. Tracy, on the other hand, never ceased to amaze us with her excellent skills in facilitating planning and strategy development meetings, and her constant efforts to flag the need to assess, evaluate, and learn. Years later, Tracy would provide the external advice and support when VSOP started to develop its exit strategy from the Philippines. Tracy would later rejoin VSO as CD in Nepal, while Shawn would leave VSO to join his family in Denmark. For VSO Philippines these events provided the backdrop behind the consolidation of work undertaken under the Focus for Change mandate. VOP staff saw the document as reflective of the global goals that would eliminate poverty and disadvantage. It was also seen, on a more operational level, as the basis for moving forward to consolidate VSOP’s own areas of involvement in the
A pat na Dek ada V S O Ph i l i pp i n e s 2 1 s t c e n tu ry
Philippines. This document guided me and my nine-person staff, with the prodding of London and the support of consultants from Accenture LTD, to accomplish VSO’s country strategic plan. We agreed to focus on Secure Livelihood, Disability, and Participation and Governance (Peace-Building). It was a time of great expansion and solid achievements, dampened only by the constant threat of program closure, or worse, of program irrelevance if we did not prove our results to be at par with the amount of funds we were getting, and the sort of claims we were invoking. VSOP asserted that we were the only volunteer organization with a solid presence in conflictaffected Mindanao, with volunteers deployed in innovative programs that included Secure Livelihood, Muslim volunteering, psychosocial support and trauma recovery, and peace advocacy. We also maintained that our program was at the head of secure livelihood work, in comparison with other volunteer agencies, that truly engaged in policy reform and coordination with local government units, ensuring project sustainability long after the program and its volunteers departed from the areas in Eastern Visayas and Eastern Mindanao.
Volunteer sending expands A couple of years before I rejoined VSOP, headquarters had also mandated the formation of VSO Bahaginan to serve as the frontline office sending Filipino volunteers to foreign destinations. This was a fresh move and an effective way for harnessing local skills for international needs, and was initially led by Barbs Fortunato. It was also an efficient way of managing volunteer and resource needs on both ends of the volunteering spectrum (local and international, accepting and sending) The birth of VSO Bahaginan expanded the portfolio of VSO in the Philippines, and gave it the added impetus and credibility to promote the principle and practice of “people working alongside each other,” whether in North-South or South-South
So, by 2003, VSO saw the Philippine program accepting foreign volunteers to meet local needs, while sending Filipinos (and later people from other Asian countries) to address foreign capacitybuilding needs. Theoretically and in hindsight the arrangement looked good on paper, but in reality things could—and did—get a bit dicey. I recall an instance when we were requesting coastal resource management experts while Bahaginan was sending out Filipino experts in the same skills area elsewhere in the world. It is neither easy to explain why the Philippines continues to send out doctors and health workers abroad when the global MDG goals for the Philippines clearly suggest appallingly low levels of ELB (expected life at birth) and high maternal mortality, and a ratio of one doctor to 38,000 Filipinos in the impoverished and disadvantages provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao.
V S O P h i l i ppi n e s 2 1 s t c e n t u ry Apat n a Dek ada
1998-2010 1988-1998
The creation of VSO Bahaginan also pointed to distinctly different areas of expertise between VSOP and the former, requiring different capabilities and capacities. Nurturing and managing a volunteer requires a different set of skills and capacities than identifying, preparing, and sending out volunteers. The requirement for skills in program area analysis and strategic planning, identifying and measuring the capabilities and skills of potential volunteers, preparing volunteers for international posting, handling and adapting to cross-cultural dimensions and constraints, troubleshooting, fundraising, and engaging with partner organizations, including the government, diplomatic posts, and international donor agencies differs between the two—a distinction that was effectively addressed by assigning separate responsibilities to VSOP and VSO Bahaginan.
1978-1988
VSOP also maintained its distinctive competence in natural resource management (sharing the credit for expanding the reach of coastal and upland area development projects across the country with partner groups based in the University of the Philippines and Ateneo University), and had a distinctive edge in disabilities work, in particular with the deaf and the hearing impaired, with concrete projects in Central Visayas that merged Secure Livelihood and a disability-rights approach. We further pointed out that these gains could not have been achieved without VSOP’s solid foundation in financial management, program administration, disability awareness and child protection issues, a strong gender-rights approach, and expanded toolboxes in benchmarking, strategizing, and learning.
arrangements. The work of Bahaginan also gave VSO in the Philippines a significant edge above the rest of the volunteer community, because it demonstrated VSO’s trust and reliance on the competence, experience, and commitment of Filipino development workers.
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VSOP, in partnership with long-time partner SIBAT, shared the credit for pioneering and extending the reach of sustainable micro and small-scale energy creation and distribution through communitymanaged hydroelectric projects in poor and disadvantaged communities in the Cordilleras and Quezon, with knock-on effects on primary education and health services in far-flung communities.
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A pat na Dek ada V S O Ph i l i pp i n e s 2 1 s t c e n tu ry
I spent my last year with VSOP applying the finishing touches to VSOP’s exit strategy. I did not oppose the closing of the Philippine program; rather, I welcomed it. Despite the earlier reservations of some program staff, we later concluded that national and local NGOs and their strong advocacy skills could be brought to bear in pressuring national and local governments to set aside funds to harness locally available skills and volunteers to meet developmental demands in poor and disadvantaged areas. The country’s schools and universities were certainly churning out the needed skills. Meanwhile, experienced Filipinos returning from overseas
Those who count It is often said that organizations determine priorities, but personalities turn these into reality. VSO Philippines would not have been able to initiate an effective and efficient shift to the new priorities without the motivation, commitment, and leadership of the people who were there at the time of its inception and evolution, including the partner organizations that worked alongside VSOP for a couple of years. The PNVSCA evolved into a full-fledged volunteer service organization, expanding its portfolio and providing more training input sorely needed by volunteer sending organizations. PNVSCA Director Joselito De Vera continues to preside over PNVSCA, and he has brought a measure of stability and has contributed the most to enhance the profile of the organization with donor agencies and diplomatic posts over the past eight years. Among VSO’s partners, SIBAT, the Philippine Association for the Deaf, and the Kalimudan Foundation stand out as the strongest partners in the three program areas at the programs’ end. In terms of staff, I noted earlier the role played by Ronet Santos in nurturing VSO’s distinctive edge in natural resource management, a competence
V S O P h i l i ppi n e s 2 1 s t c e n t u ry Apat n a Dek ada
1998-2010 1988-1998
This was apparent in late 2009, when massive flooding in Metro Manila led to the spread of subtropical diseases, accentuated by the calamitous spread of dengue and leptosprirosis across several provinces. The sorry state of the population’s health would be highlighted once again by the sheer lack of doctors and health workers, and ignite new calls from the Department of Health for a halt to the marketing of health workers overseas.
We agreed to a timetable for closing the program in 2010, and we proposed to ring-fence the PeaceBuilding program for possible extension. I distinctly remember my last act as CD: introducing the highly capable, experienced, and well respected Juju Tan to the staff, and later sending off an appeal to the UK to sustain the peace-building initiative. It was the end of August 2006, and in circumstances coinciding with my first departure from VSO ten years earlier, I was going to the UK for higher studies.
1978-1988
Some of these challenges were resolved by closer cooperation between VSOP and Bahaginan, lubricated by years of friendship with Malou Juanito, who is now heading Bahaginan as Executive Director. Later we agreed to a terms of reference on issues that included contested issues such as local volunteering (Muslim and Disability), global exchange and youth volunteering, and most critically, fund raising. Other issues were dismissed as non-starters not because they lacked traction and resonance, such as the Health issue, but because UK headquarters was so far ahead in doing them to hang on, look back, and change directions.
employment, or retiring from their posts in government and local NGOs could be harnessed to match academic learning with experience.
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Left Marawi is one of the conflict-affected areas where VSO’s Peace-Building program is active
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Left Representatives from partner organizations with the last batch of VSO Philippines volunteers at the Apat na Dekada closing ceremony (March 2010)
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that would be the basis for a larger regional project called SPARK (involving Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines). Jocel Pangilinan later joined VSOP to backstop the regional work led by Ronet, and became a valuable source of institutional memory and continuity in NRM, after Ronet ended his tenure. Meanwhile, Boyd Alexander, who joined during Daveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tenure as CD, oversaw the process of shifting from the old to the new program area, playing a leading role in institutionalizing the shift from NRM to sustainable and Secure Livelihood under the new CSP. Boyd continues to reside in the country, where he has a daughter. Christine Bantug joined VSO soon after Boyd left to work briefly with VSO in South Africa, and she is credited for turning the Secure Livelihood strategy into a functional program in Eastern Visayas and Northeastern Mindanao, penetrating and leveraging a clear-cut and workable arrangement for engaging with local government units. Among program staff, Chris demonstrated the most fortitude in managing cross-cultural issues with and among volunteers, and under her watch volunteer numbers in the Secure Livelihood sector increased. Chris worked with VSO for a while in Africa, and upon leaving VSOP joined an Australian aid program.
A pat na Dek ada V S O Ph i l i pp i n e s 2 1 s t c e n tu ry
We concluded that national and local NGOs and their strong advocacy skills could be brought to bear in pressuring national and local governments to set aside funds to harness locally available skills and volunteers.
The Peace-Building program in Mindanao would see a constant movement of program area managers, beginning with Arlene Mahinay and ending with Billy dela Rosa. Arlene established the program, assisted by VSO volunteer and later VSO staff Sharon Taylor, and their joint efforts led to the early success of the project. A wide network of partners was established, media attention was harnessed, and volunteers were mobilized across program areas. It was also the start of a novel approach that fused livelihoods and trauma counseling, with gender-rights promotion and political advocacy. Arlene is now country director in Nepal, while Sharon continues to work in the Philippines with the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM). Billy dela Rosaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work enabled the consolidation of partner initiatives at a time of exit, ensuring that capacity building needs continued to be met, and that funding is more judiciously applied to support partner initiatives, rather than the initiatives of staff and VSO volunteers. This move was eventually
Five years before VSOP ended its work in the Philippines, Ember Cruz was hired to work on the National Volunteering program and to coordinate local volunteering with Peace-Building (Muslim volunteering) and Disability. Ember’s involvement was critical to the VSO exit strategy, since local volunteering was targeted for devolution to Bahaginan. She left VSOP in early 2009 and now works as a freelance consultant.
Julie was among the last to leave VSOP, ending her tenure with VSOP as a reliable source of IT skills harnessed by other country offices in Southeast Asia, including VSO UK. She has continued her work with VSO as short-term IT staff for VSO Bahaginan. Meanwhile, Brian finally ended his career with VSOP in 2009, having been the longest-serving VSO staff member in the Philippines. He is now in the business of buying and selling used cars.
V S O P h i l i ppi n e s 2 1 s t c e n t u ry Apat n a Dek ada
1998-2010 1988-1998
Dolly Domingo was hired in 2002 to assume the administrative role and lessen the responsibilities of Gigi, and Dolly would assume other responsibilities, including responding and maintaining regular ties with PNVSCA and the Department of Foreign Affairs. She took on the role of transferring VSOP to its last program office in Manila, and in managing VSOP IT support and office receptionist Julie Garcia and VSO driver Brian Haber. Dolly is in semi-retirement in the province of Batangas, vowing to break her retirement only if VSO calls on her again.
1978-1988
Meanwhile, Joji Bonilla moved from Education to Disability under the new CSP, and was primarily responsible for establishing a strong relationship with existing Disability networks, haranguing staff to learn deaf-language skills, and creating a realistic advocacy plan targeting the national and local media on disability rights. Joji would later be seconded to other postings in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia, and return to the Philippines to pursue the residual objectives of the Secure Livelihood program. Former VSO volunteer Matt Hall took on the responsibilities of Joji in the Disability sector and worked tirelessly to tie up the loose ends of the program, including performing as a reliable ally and a sympathetic ear for volunteers dealing with the country office. He has returned to Britain with his wife Chat, who is of Filipino origin.
Behind the success of program area staff and the country office was a well-oiled machine that ensured the smooth functioning and continuous operations of the program office. The finance desk was headed by Gigi Nazario, assisted by Josie Parreno and both made sure that all funds were accounted for, spending was controlled, and financial commitments met on time. But Gigi did more than this, becoming a source of advice for younger staff, and by other finance staff including Bahaginan and other country offices. She was also sometimes the first contact in times of emergency. Gigi’s long track record with VSO made her a valuable resource that enabled her to continue working in other postings such as in Papua New Guinea and Malawi.
1968 - 1978
recognized as one of the most outstanding and empowering actions undertaken by the PeaceBuilding program office, effectively transferring power from VSOP to its partners. Instead of funding trainings and other activities which VSOP wanted to deliver (supply-side), Billy made sure that funds were instead allocated and provided based on the sort of training activities and other initiatives that partners needed (demand-side). Billy ended his tenure with VSOP in March 2010, and thereafter moved to Bali, Indonesia to work with a Dutch development agency.
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Left VSO Philippines Secure Livelihood Program Manager Jocelyn Bonilla and Peace-Building Program Manager Billy dela Rosa, who both served towards the closing of the country office, with VSO Bahaginan Executive Director Malou Juanito.
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Right Secure Livelihood Program Manager Jocelyn Bonilla delivers a speech during the Apat na Dekada closing ceremonies
Continued from Page 115
national volunteering as a development strategy or tool, the joint capacity-building of partners in volunteer development and management, the joint promotion of VSOP programs and partners with resource organizations, and the continuing links with VSOP partners beyond 2010. In October 2009, VSO Philippines merged with VSO Bahaginan, with Bahaginanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s executive director Malou Juanito overseeing the implementation of the exit strategy and capacity building activities jointly implemented with the National Volunteering (NV) Program of Bahaginan to directly support VSOP partners under the Disability, Peace-Building and Secure Livelihood Programs as part of the hand-over process. As VSO international volunteers took their final bow in 2010, the volunteering spirit will be carried on by national volunteers, even as Muslim volunteering is fast becoming an important tool in peacebuilding. According to Kapamagogopa, Inc. Director Mariam Barandia, KI volunteers are changing the social landscape in Muslim communities that do not usually get young Muslim professionals. Now there is an acceptance of youth volunteers even in
A pat na Dek ada V S O Ph i l i pp i n e s 2 1 s t c e n tu ry
organizations with an all-Christian staff, which also promotes cultural understanding through dayto-day interaction among staff of diverse ethnic and faith backgrounds. KI has benefited from the capability-building support it received from VSOP to establish a pioneering Muslim national volunteering organization in the Philippines. Prior to the closing of the Disability program, VSOP had successfully assisted Alyansa ng may Kapansanang Pilipino (AKAP Pinoy) in the completion of its national five-year strategic plan, which was a necessary condition for it to be able to continue accessing funds from the Christian Blind Mission (CBM). And as part of its mainstreaming initiative, it was able to increase the awareness and sensitivity of its partners in Secure Livelihood and Peace-Building programs regarding Disability through the conduct of Mainstreaming Disability workshops and discussion on the local government allocation by the LGU for the sector. Through capacity-building support and intervention, VSOP hopes that the Disability sector will now be more robust and capable in continuing its work in championing the cause of the Disabled in the country. At present, a dynamic partnership
As for its interventions under Secure Livelihood, VSO Philippines hopes that the strategic gains and achievements in terms of alliances built between government units and non-government organizations will continue and redound to the alleviation of poverty and disadvantage. As the work of VSO volunteers under this program has highlighted access to resources as a major root of conflict and poverty in the most marginal places in the country, it is hoped that the various stakeholders who have already come to dialogue through the efforts of VSO volunteers will continue to work together to address the issues. For instance, the work of marine biologist Edwin van Helmond in Lake Lanao had helped the fishers working in Laka Lanao measure the fish stock in the lake, and argue for the rehabilitation of the lake and against other possible threats to the lake ecosystem. Then there was Rogier Klaver, who worked with various stakeholders in Lake Lanao and opened venues for opposing groups to engage with each other and start building trust by working together.
On December 10, 2009 a Special Citation in International Volunteerism was awarded to VSO Philippines by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at Malacañang Palace in recognition of its 40 years as an “exemplary volunteer program … that serves as an inspiration to the volunteer community in the Philippines.” A month after, another commendation was bestowed upon VSO Philippines by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Rural Development “in recognition of its pioneering development volunteer work to help find long-term solution to poverty.” The award was given on 27 January 2010 during the 1st National Forum on Volunteerism as Strategy for Development. On March 4, 2010, VSO Philippines formally closed its programs with a celebration that included staff members from past decades, as well as volunteers who had served over the past 40 years; what they all have in common is that they have given their time to VSO’s vision— sharing skills and changing lives.
V S O P h i l i ppi n e s 2 1 s t c e n t u ry Apat n a Dek ada
1978-1988
has already been forged between these groups, with VSO Bahaginan as part of its National Volunteering support program.
1968 - 1978
Right VSO volunteers Paul Watts, Kathy Mulville, Boyd Hagart-Alexander (who had also served as program manager for Secure Livelihood), and Sharon Taylor
1988-1998
1998-2010
What all of them have in common is that they have given their time to VSO’s vision—sharing skills and changing lives.
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list of volunteers
THIS LIST IS BASED ON OFFICIAL VSO PHILIPPINES RECORDS. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ALL OMISSIONS THAT MAY HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY INCOMPLETE ENTRIES IN THE DATABASE. page
1
Abad, Victoria Canada
22
Barnard, Christopher United Kingdom
44
Boardman, Michael United Kingdom
2
Abera, Edlam United Kingdom
23
Barnard, Katherine
45
24
3
Ahmed, Huda United Kingdom
Baruah, Karabi Thailand
Boesveld, Harm Netherlands
46
4
Akester, Robert Canada
Bassett, Patricia United Kingdom
Bolas, Carl United Kingdom
47
5
Akpinar, Sabina United Kingdom
Bateman, Roy United Kingdom
Boot, Jayshree United Kingdom
48
6
Aldridge, Nichola United Kingdom
Batke, Niels Germany
Boot, Mark United Kingdom
49
7
Alexander, Richard United Kingdom
Battye, David United Kingdom
Bostock, Hugo United Kingdom
50
8
Allen, Peter Canada
Beazley, J United Kingdom
Botter, Ellen Philippines
51
9
Allerston, Victoria
Beeching, Tony United States of America
Bottomley, Susan United Kingdom
52
Bowers, Fritz
10
Amiani, Dominic Kenya
31
Beingana, Arthur Uganda
53
Boyle, Adrienne
54
11
Anderson, Grant
32
Bernier, Pascale
Bradley, Terence United Kingdom
12
Andrucci, Emma United Kingdom
33
Berry, Nicholas
55
34
13
Angus, Carolyn United Kingdom
Bijen, Carola Netherlands
Brady, Amanda United Kingdom
56
14
Archer, Glenn United Kingdom
Billingsley, Jean United Kingdom
Brayshaw, Anthony United Kingdom
57
36
Birch, Katherine
Broad, Genevieve United Kingdom
15
Arndt, Anette Germany
37
Birkbeck, John United Kingdom
58
Brook, Simon United Kingdom
16
Ashra, Nilam United Kingdom
38
Black, Alan United Kingdom
59
Brookes, Arlene United Kingdom
17
Atkins, Christopher United Kingdom
39
Blackburn, Daniel United Kingdom
60
Buckingham, Lucy United Kingdom
18
Auld, Robert United Kingdom
40
Blackburn, Mathew United Kingdom
61
Burema, Mirjam Netherlands
19
Baarda, Phil United Kingdom
41
Blais, Patricia United States of America
62
Buwalda, Johanna Netherlands
20
Bakker, Jill United Kingdom
42
Blankley, William South Africa
63
Buzza, Nick Australia
21
Bamgbose, Angela United Kingdom
43
Blofeld, Diana United Kingdom
Apat na Dekada list of volunteers
25 26 27 28 29 30
35
86
65
Cadahia Perez, Maria Spain
87
66
Cadiz, Anna
67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79
Cuppage, Clarinda United Kingdom
106
Duarte, Sonia
107
Curran, Sarah United Kingdom
Dubok, Helen United Kingdom
108
88
Duncan, Alastair United Kingdom
Cameron, David United Kingdom
Dabin, Helen United Kingdom
109
89
Durdy, Kenneth United Kingdom
Carney, Don United Kingdom
Dallyn, Stephen United Kingdom
110
90
Edwards, Carl Pakistan
Carney, Don United Kingdom
Davies, Adrian United Kingdom
111
91
Egirani, Davidson United Kingdom
Cassidy, Clare United States of America
Davies, Anne United Kingdom
112
92
Egirani, Davidson United Kingdom
Cavanna, Magda United States of America
Davies, Caroline United Kingdom
113
93
Ellames, Terence United Kingdom
Ciona, Christine Canada
Davies, David United Kingdom
114
94
Evans, Darren United Kingdom
Claridge, Simon United Kingdom
Davies, Gillian United Kingdom
115
95
Evans, Michael United Kingdom
Clark, Ella United Kingdom
Davies, Jamie United Kingdom
116
96
Ezobi, Solomon United Kingdom
Claydon, Kim Philippines
Davis, John United Kingdom
117
97
Collingham, Steven United Kingdom
Dennis, Gillian United Kingdom
Falkingham, Jan United Kingdom
118
98
Collins, Nina United Kingdom
Deren, Mariya United States of America
Fanthorpe, Victoria United Kingdom
119
99
Conway, Lucy United Kingdom
Dewar, Alexander United Kingdom
Farbon, Paul United Kingdom
120
100
Coote, Belinda United Kingdom
Dhingra, Surbhi India
Faucet, Jerome United Kingdom
121
101
Dille, Joseph Netherlands
Fennelly, Stephen United States of America
122
Fiebiger, Markus Philippines
80
Corbyn, Drew
81
Corcoran, Emily
102
Dobson, Rebecca
82
Cotter, Daniel United Kingdom
103
Dorama, Liesbeth Netherlands
123
Filer, Denis United Kingdom
83
Coultrup, Oliver
104
124
84
Cox, Timothy United Kingdom
Downing, Lesley United Kingdom
Finnis, Louise United Kingdom
105
Drummond-Smith, Andrew United Kingdom
125
Fletcher, Michael United Kingdom
85
Crook, Sally United Kingdom
THIS LIST IS BASED ON OFFICIAL VSO PHILIPPINES RECORDS. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ALL OMISSIONS THAT MAY HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY INCOMPLETE ENTRIES IN THE DATABASE.
Byrne, Rowan Republic of Ireland
64
page list of volunteers Apat na Dekada
131
THIS LIST IS BASED ON OFFICIAL VSO PHILIPPINES RECORDS. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ALL OMISSIONS THAT MAY HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY INCOMPLETE ENTRIES IN THE DATABASE. page
132
126
Flinn, Mark United Kingdom
145
Gourlay, Deborah United Kingdom
165
Henderson, Andrew Canada
127
Foot, Michael Canada
146
Graham, Mary
166
147
128
Ford, Veronica United Kingdom
Green, Karl United Kingdom
Henry, Elizabeth United Kingdom
167
129
Foster, Andrew United Kingdom
Green, Stuart United Kingdom
Hicks, Colin United Kingdom
168
Hodgson, Clifford
149
Foster, Andrew United Kingdom
Griffith, David United Kingdom
169
130
Hofman, Janette Netherlands
150
Frain, Mark United Kingdom
Gwyther-Jones, Elizabeth Philippines
170
131
Holland, Robert France
171
132
Franklin-Wealey, Nicholas United Kingdom
151
Habets, Maria Netherlands
Holmes, Simon Republic of Ireland
172
152
Hagart-Alexander, Boyd Philippines
Hutt, Audrey United Kingdom
173
Irving, Tony United Kingdom
148
133
Frech, Martin Germany
134
Friedrich, Steffi Germany
153
Hall, Charito Philippines
174
Isaac, Peter United Kingdom
135
Frijlink, Caroline Belgium
154
Hall, Matthew Philippines
175
Isherwood, Isabel United Kingdom
136
Gallagher, Anthony United Kingdom
155
Halliday, Douglas United Kingdom
176
Iyer, Sanchayeeta
137
Garrod, Christopher United Kingdom
156
Hamilton, Gervase United Kingdom
177
Jacobsen, Rijk Netherlands
138
Gatrell, Matthew Netherlands
157
Hampson, Karen Netherlands
178
Jenkins, Brenda United Kingdom
139
Gehrke, Brian United States of America
158
Hampton, Nicholas United Kingdom
179
Jenkins, Brenda United Kingdom
140
Gellner, John Philippines
159
Hancock, Jim Italy
180
Johnson, Kate United Kingdom
141
Gellner, John Philippines
160
Hart, Simeon United Kingdom
181
Jones, William Philippines
142
George, Charlotte United Kingdom
161
Harvey, Sharon/Ian United Kingdom
182
Jordan, Andrew
183
143
Gildemacher, Bernardus Netherlands
162
Hearne, Declan Republic of Ireland
Jordan, Georgina Republic of Ireland
184
163
144
Golder, Ruth United Kingdom
Heijnen, Remco Philippines
Judge, Stuart United Kingdom
185
164
Hemelaar, Johannes Netherlands
Kadri, Sunil United Kingdom
Apat na Dekada list of volunteers
Kanti Dey, Saibal
207
228
187
Kay, Brian United Kingdom
Lawlor, Louise United Kingdom
Mciver, John United Kingdom
208
229
188
Kias, Morten United Kingdom
Leask, Karen Philippines
Mclachlan, Ann United Kingdom
209
Leber, Katia
230
189
Kidd, Vanessa
210
231
190
Kiereini, Christopher Kenya
Ledger, Stephanie United Kingdom
Mehra, Badrish India
211
232
191
Kiff, Elizabeth United Kingdom
Lehmann, Ruth Germany
Mellors, Phil United Kingdom Merriman, Gerald
212
Lewis, Gareth
233
213
Lockwood, Richard United Kingdom
Miall, Roger United Kingdom
234
Lonsdale, Charles United Kingdom
Miller, James United Kingdom
235
Makokha, Vincent Kenya
Mincher, Paul United Kingdom
236
Monan, James Vietnam
India
192
Kightley, Nicholas United Kingdom
193
Killeen, Mary Unknown
194
Kineavy, Bromwyn United Kingdom
195
King, Richard
196
Kiptoo, William Kenya
197
Kis, Ferenc Hungary
198
Klaver, Rogier Philippines
199
Knight, Catherine United Kingdom
200
Kockelkoren, Robert Netherlands
201
Konings, Ronald Netherlands
202
Korte, Caroline Netherlands
203
Kumar Singh, Amit India
204
Kuuyuor, Titus United Kingdom
205
Kyanya, Bernadette Kenya
206
Lagoutte, Diana France
214 215 216
Marroquin, Jesus
217
Marsh, George Australia
237
Morrison, Alister United Kingdom
218
Martin, Linda United Kingdom
238
219
Massella, Antonio United Kingdom
Moysan, JeanFrancois France
239
Matteau, Yanick Canada
Muga, Evans Kenya
240
Mayers, Alexander United Kingdom
Muhia, Herbert Kenya
241
Mcbride, Phyllis Canada
Mukhida, Farah Canada
242
Mcbride, Richard Canada
Mulville, Kathy United Kingdom
243
Mcclintock-Tiongo, Linda United Kingdom
Mumby, Ruth United Kingdom
244
Mccusker, Marie United Kingdom
Mwai, Samuel Kenya
245
Mcdowall, Judy United Kingdom
Mwangeka, Nathaniel Kenya
246
Mcfadzean, Angus United Kingdom
Mwendwa, Kaleb Kenya
247
Mwesigwa, Philip Uganda
220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227
THIS LIST IS BASED ON OFFICIAL VSO PHILIPPINES RECORDS. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ALL OMISSIONS THAT MAY HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY INCOMPLETE ENTRIES IN THE DATABASE.
186
page list of volunteers Apat na Dekada
133
THIS LIST IS BASED ON OFFICIAL VSO PHILIPPINES RECORDS. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ALL OMISSIONS THAT MAY HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY INCOMPLETE ENTRIES IN THE DATABASE.
248
Nakada, Yasuo Japan
269
Phillips, Richard United Kingdom
290
Rogers, John United Kingdom
249
Namata, Judith Uganda
270
Plyman, June United Kingdom
291
Rogers, Maria United Kingdom
250
Namprakai, Edith Thailand
271
Portegijs, Johannes Netherlands
292
Rosario, Catherine United Kingdom
251
Neal, Patrick Canada
272
Purkis, Christine United Kingdom
293
Rowe, Amanda
294
252
Ness, David United Kingdom
273
Purvis, John United Kingdom
Saltmarsh, Peter United Kingdom
295
253
Newton, Emma United Kingdom
274
De Pyre, Lorraine United Kingdom
Santegoets, Elisabeth Netherlands
254
Nightingale, Maeve United Kingdom
275
Quadrio, Marie-Aimee France
296
Santos, Sara Portugal
255
Nijhof, Klaas Netherlands
276
297
Scott, Charles United Kingdom
256
Oatley, Eve United Kingdom
Quartey-Papafio, Robin United Kingdom
298
Seviour, Adrian Thailand
Okul, Odhiambo Kenya
278
Raja, Nimu United Kingdom
299
Sherazi, Masoma
300
Sheridan, Zoe
258
Olivier, Olaf Netherlands
279
Ramos, Silvia Philippines
301
Shutt, Catherine United Kingdom
259
Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Malley, Siobhan Republic of Ireland
280
Rawson, Wendy United Kingdom
302
Smith, Justin
303
260
Ooms, Jan United Kingdom
281
Ray, Diana United Kingdom
Smith, Rodney
304
261
Otway, Marguerite Canada
282
Reece, Julian United Kingdom
Snoxell, Mark Nigeria
305
262
Owigo, Samuel Kenya
283
Rijsdijk, Eric United Kingdom
Solar, Robert Canada
306
263
Owuor, Victor Kenya
284
Riley, Oliver
Sopp, Margaret United Kingdom
307
285
Ripley, Louisa
Pagare, Vijay India
Spencer, Carol United Kingdom
286
Roberts, Bettina Netherlands
308
Spencer, Elizabeth
265
Park, Jong-Yong Korea, Rep. of (South)
309
287
Roberts, Anne United Kingdom
Stahl, Oliver Germany
266
Parkin, Chris
310
288
267
Parnell, Edgar United Kingdom
Roberts, Mari United Kingdom
Stanton, James United Kingdom
311
289
Robertson, Ian United States of America
Stavrakakis, Sarah
312
Stocker, Catherine
268
134
Raj, Paresha
257
264
page
277
Parungo, Carlito Netherlands
Apat na Dekada list of volunteers
Stocks, Barrie United Kingdom
334
Troelstra, Harry Netherlands
355
Ward, Terry United Kingdom
314
Stocks, Margaret United Kingdom
335
Usher, David
356
336
315
Straver, Kees Philippines
van der Kaaden, Simone Netherlands
Wardman, Jeremy United Kingdom
357
Warren, Christopher United Kingdom
316
Strawbridge, Jill United Kingdom
337
van Duijn, Johan Netherlands
358
Watson, Stephen United Kingdom
317
Summers, Linda United Kingdom
338
359
Watts, Paul Canada
318
Summers, Robert United Kingdom
van Groenendaal, Yvonne Netherlands
360
339
van Helmond, Edwin Netherlands
Wauters, Jeroen Belgium
361
Wheeler, Wynton
319
Sutherland, Janette
van Mulekom, Leo Netherlands
362
Wijnen, Ilse Netherlands
363
Willekens, Charlotte Netherlands
320
Sweeny, Rita United Kingdom
340
321
Sykes, Philip United Kingdom
341
van Nguyen, Minh
342
Talbot, Genevieve Canada
van Ostaay, Monique Netherlands
343
364
Tanner, David United Kingdom
van Zon, Roswitha Netherlands
Williams, Robert United Kingdom
344
365
Tanner, Kate United Kingdom
Vaughan, Duncan Japan
Willis, Jake United Kingdom
345
366
Taylor, Sharon United Kingdom
Venroy, Leonarda Cambodia
Willmer, Abigail United States of America
346
367
Taylor, Simon United Kingdom
Vessey, Jason United Kingdom
Wong, Pablee Canada
347
Vetra, Angela Canada
368
Wood, Colin United Kingdom
348
Vold, Silje
369
349
Vos, Robert New Zealand
Wootton, Michael Philippines
370
Wuijts, Anne Uganda
371
Yeld, Robin United Kingdom
322 323 324 325 326 327
Tedd, Alice
328
Temperley, David United Kingdom
329
Ter Brugge, Marc Netherlands
350
Waddingham, Bernard United Kingdom
330
Thompson, Pamela Canada
331
Top, Henk-Jan Philippines
351
Wade, Roger United Kingdom
372
Young, Matthew United Kingdom
332
Toynbee, Diana United Kingdom
352
Walker, Robert United Kingdom
373
Young, Sheila United Kingdom
333
Tritton, Keith United Kingdom
353
Walsh, Alexandra
374
354
Ward, Peter United Kingdom
Young, Timothy United Kingdom
THIS LIST IS BASED ON OFFICIAL VSO PHILIPPINES RECORDS. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ALL OMISSIONS THAT MAY HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY INCOMPLETE ENTRIES IN THE DATABASE.
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...as the time has gone on, the work gets more satisfying as you see results of your work in the relationships you build with your colleagues, how they treat you, and in the results of the work itself, seeing projects running. Just the fact that we are here opens people’s minds, and with discussion and hard work we can contribute in a small way.” Mirjam Burema from the Netherlands, Another look at development, Kaugnay, Feb 1997, Issue No.5, p9. (Issue on Development)
I believe that the work that we do; our assistance to the underprivileged of Philippine society to better their lives is a noble endeavor. But it is also important to think of what we may also be able to do when we go back to our home countries. Mirjam Burema from the Netherlands, Another look at development, Kaugnay, Feb 1997, Issue No.5, p9. (Issue on Development)
...I have to say that my stay at ELF (Education for Life Foundation) has so far provided me with one of the happiest experiences of my working life. It has been a very rich, a very rewarding and a very fulfilling experience. David Battye, Reflections of an Annoying Bastard, Kaugnay July 1999, Issue No.17, p10. He worked at ELF as distance learning trainer.
in our own words
The argument of just what is development can still be debated although from my experiences one undeniable fact remains, which is also part of VSO dictum, and that is that one way or another, I have certainly aided in promoting international understanding during my stint as a volunteer. Alan Black, When Two Ends Meet, Kaugnay July 1999, Issue No.17, p37. He worked at Freshwater Aquaculture Center in Nueva Ecija from February 1997 to February 1999
If you really want to know the “hidden secrets of CBCRM,” go to a fishing community, sit in with a group of people, take out a pad and pencil and listen. You’ll soon find out that the practice is a lot different from the theory. But a lot more fun, too. Stuart Green, In the time it takes to land a fish, Kaugnay, Nov 1996, Issue No. 3, p4 (Issue on CBCRM)
No one warned me about the real dangers. They didn’t warn me about being too excited to sleep, living for six months on air and adrenaline. They didn’t warn me that after living and working in the Philippines, I would be forever in its shadow, yearning to recreate the excitement and fullness of life... Elizabeth Purkiss, Memories of Cagayan de Oro, Kaugnay July 1999, Issue No.17, p55. She worked as English teacher at Xavier University in CDO from 1970 to 1971.
Although I had seen images of Payatas many times on my television set from the comfort of my home in the UK, I was still unprepared for the shock to my senses that Payatas delivered. The stench was overpowering until I became used to it, but I never quite grew accustomed to the determination and will of the people to survive and thrive in such appalling conditions. Chat Hall’s Significant Change Story, Health and Nutrition Specialist for Haligi ng Bata Inc. (HBI)
I’m here to promote organic methods of agriculture and when Pedro asks what he should do, the only thing I can suggest is to spray the insecticide he has in his possession... I’m getting used to have my neat idealism struck down in the middle of a field when a farmer with a crop facing decimation asks for suggestions. Antonio Massella, A Day in the life of... A Bicol Experience, Kaugnay July 1999, Issue No.17, p19.
I have often tried to assess what, if anything, I achieved as a volunteer. I am forced to conclude it was a tiny pebble added to the cairn. I gained more, much much more, than I ever gave and, to my mind, the genuine opportunity to experience a different culture at firsthand is still one of the most important things about VSO. James Miller, Cebu is my home, Kaugnay July 1999, Issue No.17, p48. He worked as marine biologist at University of San Carlos, Cebu City from 1970 to 1973.
As a volunteer in the Philippines, I am often called on to say where life is better; in the UK or here. It’s a very difficult question, and there is no cut-and-dry answer. Carol Spencer, A few thoughts on life and education, Kaugnay, June 2000. Issue No.21, p1. (Issue on Education and Development)
VSO Bahaginan is a development organization committed to fighting global poverty and disadvantage through a wide range of volunteering development programs. We are a Member of the VSO Federation, together with other independent members located in Canada, Kenya, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. VSO is an international development organization that works through volunteers. Our vision is a world without poverty in which people work together to fulfill their potential.
Our Development Goals Education HIV and AIDS Disability Health and social well-being Secure Livelihood Participation and governance
Our Strategic Priorities Organizational development Excellence in volunteering for development Innovations in volunteering for development Generating financial resources Evolving strategic partnerships VSO Bahaginan is a registered Filipino foundation [registration number CN200309253]. 305 Pacific Corporate Center, 131 West Avenue, Quezon City 1105 Philippines Tel +63 2 3746450 • Fax +63 2 3762160 www.vsobahaginan.org.ph
VSO Philippines 1968-2010
Volunteering provides a uniquely effective means for people to take part in the work of global development in such a personal, tangible way that can change the volunteer as much as the beneficiary community he works in. It provides the opportunity for people of different backgrounds to come together, to contribute to positive and lasting change, to learn and grow even as they share their time and their skills. This is the work that VSO Philippines has done over 40 years. Editor Associate Editor
Kristine Fonacier Jay Neil Ancheta