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Women at Work International Members assisted with the fundraising for Alana Tobias Webb to work with Australian Volunteers International from 4th December to 2nd February 2008.
On returning to Australia, Alana spoke of her amazing and inspiring experience at the 2008 International Women's Day Festival - Youth Leadership Forum.
Her message was to encourage other young people to contribute their time and expertise for the betterment of other young people in under privileged areas.
Members of WAWI are very proud of Alana.
Alana with Children and Workers.
The highlight of her experience was assisting to coordinate a festival for children.
En route home Alana was involved in a motor bike accident and spent a week in the out patient ward in a local hospital getting treatment for her burns. Now home Dr Peter Widdowson of the Lotus Institute is treating Alana’s burns. Dr Widdowson was formerly the head of the burns unit in a renowned NZ hospital. This has not deterred Alana and she is continuing her studies to become a fitness instructor. In 2009 she will embark on further studies in Community Service.
Alana was in Melbourne 2nd – 5th May 2008 fund raising with AVI for future projects.
Thank you to all the members who supported her. You will also note Alana is wearing our "I'm not Gossiping I'm Networking tee shirt in the Philippines.
Alana wrote to Women at Work in January 2008 from the Philippines to explain to us her activities,
Bahay Tuluyan is the organization which Australian Volunteers International Associates with in the Philippines. AVI, this year has 11 females involved in the BT projects plus a team leader from Oz and 2 local team leaders. We are divided into two different children centres for street children. One in Laguna province which is an all girls centre and one in San Antonio which is a boys centre. I am located in San Antonio. We have projects that we run in our own centres, for example reading every night with the younger children and playing different games or acting out the stories to get the children diligent with comprehension skills as most can read the words but can't comprehend the meanings.
A friend Julia and I are working each night with the older children in a job finding; resume writing, goal setting workshop. We are amazed by how well the boys respond to their goal setting. It was a quite emotional actually because all their goals consisted of in some way working with street youth in the future. We have one who wants to be a journalist so he can one day write for children's rights, one boy who wants to be an architect and one day build a home for street youth, one boy who want to join the army so he can influence people and fight for children's rights. It is amazing the potential these boys have. It is sad though to realize that their dreams aren't easily achieved. All of them must go to college to work. Even to work at MacDonald's here you must go to college and even be of a certain height. These children are street youth with little support from their family if they even have family. They need money to support them through college and to get to college and the likelihood that they will obtain the money or a scholarship is not very high. However we are working with them to give them confidence and interview skills, so that they can hopefully find a way to accomplish these dreams. I believe in them wholly with my heart!
We have spent Christmas with the children that could not go home in Sta Mesa in Manila another centre set up for the street youth of Bahay Tuluyan. We sent the children that could go home with a bag of groceries each to make sure that they would be fed over their Christmas break, because in reality is that many don't get fed due to poverty. The groceries were kindly donated to BT.
Then it was Christmas camp where all of AVI volunteers, organized activities for the children consisting of team building, trust games, educational and recreational activities. This helped develop the group. It was a harrowing 3 days but worth every second. It was very successful in my eyes as we achieved so much and the children responded to all activities in more than you would expect of a child that has been through amazing obstacles in life.
Our final and biggest event is a street festival, located around the Museo Pombata in Manila on January 26th 2008. The festival's target is 1500 street youth with the motto 'Equal and Included' in a hope to educate street children on many different issues. The main issue is Rescue, which I will now explain.
Here in Manila children are 'rescued’ the government puts quotas on removing children from the streets and throwing them in 'jail' or 'detention centres' where they may stay for some time without being let go. Most 'rescues' are between 12am and 4am meaning the children are usually asleep. They are then beaten close to death in some cases, ones of which some children relayed to me on this trip. One of the Buhay Tuluyan children died this year during a ‘rescue’. (Please do not print this story).
Now this is normal in Manila and this is why our group and other Ngo’s are getting together to put on this street festival in January. We want to give a voice to these children that are forcefully 'rescued' to beautify the streets... we want them to learn that 'rescue' does not need to be a traumatic experience and that rescue can mean to be saved.
We are running 40 booths with three different categories being Recreational, Educational and Service Booths.
We will offer fun educational approach to nutrition, learning, well being, child rights, government and environmental issues. We will also have a medical and dentistry tent on hand where doctors can administer antibiotics to the youth (We are still looking for donations of antibiotics and vitamins if any one can help). We will also have a beauty tent to rid them of nits in a way that they feel they are being pampered and also a nail booth to help clean them up a little more. We will also provide food on the day organized by the Hari Krishna.
It will be a big day with many volunteers from different NGO's. We will be having a foot print banner made with the print of every child to show government and the children that they are ‘Equal and Included’.
This is where we are working at the moment very hard planning and organizing.
Thank you kindly for your interest, as awareness is the only way things may change for these beautiful children.
Don't hesitate to email me for further information,
Kind Regards,
Alana Tobias-Webb
Our Women at Work representative Alana Tobias-Webb
Country: The Philippines
Project: 4 December 2007 – 2 February 2008
These projects include:
At two children’s centres (Tiaong and Kibo) situated in two villages about two-three hours to the east of Manila in the Laguna and Quezon Provinces, renowned for volcanic lakes, nearby beaches and fresh water springs. The two villages are close to the bustling university city of Los Banos.
This project offers the opportunity to work with local communities and street children from Manila, to develop friendships and help improve the lives of children through interactive projects such as Street Theatre workshops, helping out on a street based Mobile Unit, research and advocacy projects, along with helping out with renovations to improve facilities at the children’s centres.
Partner Organisation: Volunteers will work with our in country partner organisation Bahay Tuluyan. The mission of Bahay Tuluyan is to:
Team structure: Team of young Australians, aged 18 – 28, working alongside Filipino community development workers and hosted by the local organisation. Australian and Filippino Team Leaders oversee the team. The team will be divided into small groups (approximately 5 people) to work on specific activities with the street children and staff from Bahay Tuluyan.
Accommodation: Accommodation will be in a dormitory style while staying at the children centres in Manila, Quezon and Laguna provinces and/or a home stay with a Filipino family during your orientation stay in Manila. All accommodation will be very basic.
Project Work: The themes for the project are youth empowerment, advocating for children’s rights through interactive learning techniques, and addressing environmental health issues. Projects may also include options for small-scale construction and renovation work to improve the children’s facilities.
Some of the type of activities for the project may include…
Broader Context: The project comes under the auspices of AVI’s partner organisation in the Philippines, Bahay Tuluyan Children’s Foundation. Bahay Tuluyan means ‘House of Welcome’ in Tagalog (Filippino language). The organisation is a non-government social development organisation focusing on children and youth welfare, advocacy and rights, through services including community education and training programs, research, and planning and social analysis.
Fundraising: Volunteers are asked to seek community support and sponsorship of $4,500 to fund their placements. Women at Work members supported Alana's fund raising for this project.
Contact TAFW on 07 55 611 477.