Between 5pm and 7pm every evening, both our sponsored children and volunteers squeeze into our small community center in BLISS Sagkahan to participate in our Child Sponsorship Program’s after-school tutorials.
The activity serves as an educational enhancement sessions and offers the children on our program the opportunity to benefit from the experience and knowledge of international volunteers, to practice their English and to allow our staff to monitor their progress in school. The nature of sessions varies from English comprehension lessons to Mathematics, Science and even non-academic classes which aim to boost confidence and self-esteem.
For individuals participating on one of our volunteer abroad in the Philippines projects, this offers a rewarding opportunity for them to go beyond their regular commitment and receive a much more well-rounded experience. For the kids, they get to benefit from the experience and specialized knowledge of volunteers and receive an additional boost that they would not get access to if they weren’t part of our program.
With a wide array of different books on offer, our children are also offered resources that they could not get anywhere else and are placed in an environment which promotes and rewards academic achievement. With a healthy percentage of our children regularly making the honors list, education is something that Volunteer for the Visayans wants to continuously address as a means to foster hope and endorse opportunities for children to eventually break the poverty cycle.
So what’s next?
In recent years, the opportunity for children to receive tutorials has only befallen to those children living in close proximity to our center in Tacloban City. By the end of the first half of 2012, VFV is planning to construct a new sub-center in barangay San Roque, Tanauan, Leyte so that the children enrolled on the project can have access to all the benefits that our organization can muster. The reality of this project reaching completion is still out of our arms-reach, but as I write this article, motions are already under way for the acquisition of accessible land on which our new sub-center could be built.
Similar services will also begin to be gradually offered to the children enrolled on our Dumpsite Project in barangay Sto. Niño, Tacloban City as our second community center approaches the end of its construction phase.
With the wheels in motion, we can only pray that our success continues. We will continue to reciprocate the donations from our long-term supporters by continuing to offer the best and most sustainable means of assistance to disadvantaged and low income communities, in the hope that one day families can break the bonds of poverty and achieve prosperity.
If you’d like to find out more about sponsoring a child, volunteering abroad in the Philippines or helping to support any of our other causes, then feel free to contact our friendly local staff.