As Filipinos, we take pride in our values because it reflects who we are as a people. We may recall our old tradition of community unity and participation through bayanihan, where neighbors would literally help carry your entire house to its new location. The values of helping each other and working together towards a common goal are deeply rooted in us, and it continues to manifest in present times.
Thankfully, we no longer need to break our backs carrying houses in order to care and help our community. There are numerous non-profit organizations, corporations, and even ordinary people who have decided to get engaged in order to contribute solutions to the needs of their communities.
Think about this: we get affected when we learn about communities hard-hit by calamities. We get angry when supposedly protected forests, waters, or endangered species are harmed. We could not resist giving some loose change or our own food to beggars we pass by on the streets. What will happen if all of us would take a similar step further and get a little more involved?
Be inspired
The Citizen’s Disaster Response Center (CDRC) promotes community-based disaster management in the country through preparedness and mitigation, emergency relief, and rehabilitation programs in the most vulnerable areas. CDRC is based in Quezon City and is in need of volunteers who could be part in its disaster volunteer teams, emergency response work, resource generation, and partnership program.
The Story Telling Project, founded by Rey Bufi, aims to help children in their formative years become passionate readers and enthusiastic learners through storytelling. They reach out to remote communities to help underprivileged children learn and embrace the culture of reading and writing. They need volunteer teachers, story tellers, assistants, and artists.
Tahanang Balik-Alay is a shelter for poor and abandoned elderly established by the Uplift Community Development Foundation, Inc. in Taytay, Rizal. They welcome volunteers and visitors who would like to share their time and resources with the elders. They are also in special need of doctors who could regularly visit the shelter to diagnose the elderly who are vulnerable to sickness.
Get involved
These three organizations are just some of the active partners of iVolunteer Philippines who is holding the biggest Volunteer Expo in the country on March 5-6, 2016 at the Glorietta Activity Center, Makati City. The event brings together over 25 non-profit organizations involved in diverse advocacies which might resonate with each one, such as Youth and Education, Poverty, Disaster, Health, Elderly and Persons with Disabilities, Environment, Animal Welfare, Governance, as well as Culture and Sports.
The act of doing something good out of your own free will, for the benefit of others, and without expecting anything in return is modern bayanihan and heroism in its sincerest form. Keeping bayanihan alive through volunteering is part of who we are as Filipinos. Our collective efforts will create tremendous positive changes for a better Philippines, which definitely makes each of us a hero in our own right.
Visit go.ivolunteer.com.ph to learn more. Pre-register for the GO! Volunteer Expo event and discover how you could get inspiration to empower and nurture the advocacy you would like to support. iVolunteer Philippines, a non-profit organization established in 2009 and powered 100 percent by volunteers, is actively advocating for volunteerism and volunteer education in the country. ADVT