Maglipay akong kinabuhi

Enjoying my life.

I appologize for my blog neglect this month. My attention has been diverted by six day work weeks and a mystery illness. Plus, sitting in front of my computer all day working on a manual/letters/proposals does not make writing a blog entry appealing at the end of the day. The last three weeks, my life here in hot, humid Cebu has been as follows:

CABRAD Program planning

Just for a little refresher, the CABRAD program is a project I have been developing over the past six months with my HCA and community partners. The vision of the program is for youth involved-in, or at-risk of being involved in, gang activity to increase self-worth to become self-reliant and active community members through skills training, education, and community collaboration. A few failures overshadowed by accomplishments certainly make the target start date, August, more realistic.

Win #1 Vocational Programs: At the beginning of the month, my supervisor and I reached out to the scholarship officer from the Center for Industrial Technology and Enterpise (CITE) about developing a partnership for vocational training. We went into the meeting with high hopes for introducing the program and starting a dialogue. Not only were our anticipations realized, but the officer offered up the services of the community-based education unit to teach CABRAD participants cell phone repair, computer repair, etc. along with basic life skills. I am confident this parternship will come to fruition, but there is still a lot of work to do between our two agencies to get it going. My supervisor was also able to secure support from a sewing training program, that also sets up post-training jobs, for interested participants. We are still trying to link with more vocational programs in order to offer other courses of interest such as welding and electrical wiring.

Win #2 Life Skills: The most important sector of the program has been the most challenging to get going thus far: life skills. For those not so certain of what life skills are, they include the following non-exhaustive list: character building, values formation, tembuilding, communication, interpersonal relationships, self-awareness, assertiveness, substance use, and so on. In developing the program, we decided it would be best to have local youth leaders do peer-to-peer life skills activities. For that, local youth leaders from the SSG (Supreme Student Government), SK (Sangguniang Kabataan, a barangay youth council), and the EYO (Euphrasia Youth Organization) would need additional training. Invitation letters were developed and sent out for the SSG, SK, and EYO to attend five, two-hour trainings. All the participants confirmed to come. With a plan of activities in hand, my counterpart and I sat waiting the first Sunday…and waiting. Only two participants showed up, unsure of where their fellow trainees were. We twidled our thumbs for an hour before calling it off. A second round of reminders commenced with confirmation, again. With materials ready and enthusiasm, my counterpart and I sat waiting…again. Forty-five minutes late, four participants showed up. I joked around with them for awhile before determining no one else was coming. My counterpart and I knew we needed to explore the reasons as to why there was a lack of participation. These youth are supposed to be local leaders, right?

To start, this program is the first initiative by Euphrasia that does not involve benefeciaries (sponsor children). Purely grassroots community work is difficult to get off the ground. Soliciting verbal support was the easy part; igniting a fire in community members to not only want change but initiate it is tough. Euphrasia won’t always be around to do the grunt work, so informed and trained community members are necessary for sustainability.

My supervisor, counterpart, and I held a meeting with the SSG at the school a couple days later. We found out about the SSG's many conflicts on the weekends and lack of support by their parents to be working with “dangerous” peers. Due to the overwhelming support by the school principal and counselor, it was agreed that the SSG could be excused from class and use the airconditioned computer lab each Friday for two hours to be trained as life skills facilitators, then to hold life skills sessions with the in-school gang-involved youth. Our first session kicked off two days later with full participation and much enthusiasm! Now only to work on training the facilitators for the out-of-school gang-involved youth…

Some of the SSG members completing a teambuilding activity

SSG, myself, and my counterpart Nestor (in red)

Win #3 Enrollment: Another positive of the program, my counterpart and I held an informal meeting with about ten youth gang leaders to elicit their interest and support in the program. Their response, “Where can I sign up?” I developed an enrollment form and a few days later we were getting participants signed up. Twenty-one showed up, even some new faces, bursting with energy and hopefulness. The enrollment was mostly for our sake, to get background on family, education, and interests in order to best cater the program to their needs. The local high school is working to enroll 20-30 in-school youth and we are still adding more out-of-school youth.

In progress…: I am putting the finishing touches on a Life Skills Manual. Most of the activities taken from other PC resources and an amazing manual with Cebuano translations made by a past PCV. I’m picking and choosing the most appropriate activities for this population. If I have the time, I will attempt to translate the English only portions (about 30% of the manual currently). My counterpart and I are also submiting a proposal to the Barangay Council to elicit funds and facilitators for parenting sessions to be held monthly with the parents of the CABRAD participants. Also still arranging tutorial sessions for the in-school participants, community service activities, and funding.

It’s been a roller coaster starting a brand new program, but I have grown immensely from it. My patience has stretched further than I ever imagined and I’ve learned to expect the unexpected. I heard the community-wide call for this program and I am here to see it through, with a few nudges along the way.

HIV/AIDS Advocacy

EDC was approved for our $200 grant submitted to Peace Corps for funds made available by USAID! I spent a significant amount of time writing the grant, which came out 12 pages long. Even though $200 is a small grant, it was good to get grant writing practice, not only for me, but my co-workers as well. The grant only coverss 13% of our budget for a two day HIV/AIDS Training of Trainers for 30 participants. I also submitted the grant to the Regional Office of the Department of Health. Recently another PCV developed a partnership with the HIV/AIDS Coordinator for Region 7 at DOH. He was enthuasiastic to work with PCVs and within two weeks 12 PCVs from Region 7 came together with him, 25 Red Cross Youth, and 5 DOH Youth Advocates, to develop strategies for working together on HIV/AIDS prevention. The coordinator asked for grants to be submitted, and so I did. I was also able to discuss a partnership with the Red Cross Youth, asking them to help in facilitating the Training of Trainers in August. It’s great to have a network in place for this secondary project.

A couple of the Red Cross Youth

IO/CBT

In the midst of all this, I was offered a position as a resource volunteer for Batch 270’s Initial Orientation and new Center-based Training. One of the best parts, I’ll be facilitating alongside two of my closest friends Blake and Kate. We will get to spend time with our old TCF Jufer and get to know the new bunch. I’ll be gone from site for ten days but I am incredibly excited to help pave the way for the new batch.

Mystery sickness

The only downside to June has been this mystery illness I am carrying. It started as a fever, moved to a cold, then upper respiratory infection, and now supposedly asthma. I have been on a slew of medications which all only seem to mildly help. I do not think it is asthma, more likely I am suddently allergic to Cebu. Hopefully some relief will come soon. For now, the medical melodrama continues…

The Fortunato’s

Once again, I continue to be showered with Filipino hospitality. The family whom I rent a detached room from treats me like a granddaughter, even though officially I am a “renter” and they are the “landlords.” My morning breakfast is never dull, full of fruit and interesting conversation with Tita (Aunt) Carmen and Tito (Uncle) Javi (90 and 82 respectively!). I go into the house disoriented with a bed head, yet am always greeted with a “Good Morning pretty girl!” from Tito. We all chat about American politics, Filipino history, and family. I place my laundry out each day and come home to it neatly placed on my desk after being washed, dried, and ironed. With my recent mystery illness, I returned Saturday to new curtains, sheets, and a thoroughly cleaned room/bathroom. I am so spoiled. The household help, along with the Fortunato’s, are always trying to offer me food and see what I need. They ask what I am up to, but not in an intrusive way. It is such a perfect balance: freedom and privacy with a host family experience.

Drinking buko, my favorite

Well, if you are still reading by now, I commend you. I will try to make the entries more frequent and exciting for those interested. For now, all else I have to say is: life is good.