Volunteer In The Philippines

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JJReyes
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My wife and I regularly donate small amounts of money to help poor children or those who have special needs.  We recently discussed about being more pro-active by becoming involved as volunteers.  I found through the Internet that there are programs based in the Philippines, but they want money.  For example, one group charges a USD $299.00 registration fee plus a program fee of $220.00 for one week participation up to $2,250.00 for 24 weeks.  Extra costs include visa, airfare, travel insurance (mandatory), vaccinations, criminal background check, in-country trips or tours, transport to and from placement, transfers to the airport, and pocket money.  Another website asked up-front for a $500 donation plus participation fees and expenses.  

Does anyone know programs who may welcome help from a couple willing to donate a few weeks of their time?  We are not interested in digging ditches, building homes or other manual work.  During a visit to Ecuador, we would join a group of retired expats during weekday afternoons at a restaurant.  Students from a nearby college would show up for conversation English.  Everyone purchased their own drink or snack.  The arrangement was informal.  The only expense was a small ad in an English language weekly paper seeking volunteers.  I believe the restaurant owner paid for the ad because some would stay after for an evening meal.  Something similar would be fun.

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scott h
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17 hours ago, JJReyes said:

 Another website asked up-front for a $500 donation plus participation fees and expenses.  

Now a days philanthropy is a rich mans game it seems.

17 hours ago, JJReyes said:

For example, one group charges a USD $299.00 registration fee plus a program fee of $220.00 for one week participation up to $2,250.00 for 24 weeks

IMO, unless your dealing with a church group (and then I am still a bit skeptical) someone, somewhere down the line is making a pretty good living running charity groups.

18 hours ago, JJReyes said:

 We are not interested in digging ditches, building homes or other manual work.

What type of volunteer work are you interested in? If we think about it, most charity organizations usually provide expertise in advising the locals how to improve their situations, (engineering, agriculture, medical treatment and the like) or build stuff. Unless we are ready to roll up our sleeves and dig in, folks our age can usually help more by just giving money. 

Because frankly, with all respect, sitting in a coffee house, chatting with a bunch of rich college kids sounds more like going to High tea or a garden party than doing volunteer charity work.

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Lee1154
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Before I came here two years ago, I did an internet search for hours trying to find a volunteer organization to work with here.  I ran into the same issue.  All of them wanted to be paid insane amounts of money to volunteer my time.  I looked into getting a visa associated with being a volunteer and did find out that it has to be with a Philippine Govt. approved organization.  Then I emailed everyone that I could find an email address for asking for help finding a list of these approved organizations.  After two years, still no replies.  Personally, I gave up.

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JJReyes
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2 hours ago, scott h said:

What type of volunteer work are you interested in? If we think about it, most charity organizations usually provide expertise in advising the locals how to improve their situations, (engineering, agriculture, medical treatment and the like) or build stuff. Unless we are ready to roll up our sleeves and dig in, folks our age can usually help more by just giving money. 

At 70, physical labor would be difficult for me.  It's preferable to pay P500 to a Filipino laborer as a compensated volunteer.  More work can get done this way rather than for me to do the manual labor.  

2 hours ago, scott h said:

Because frankly, with all respect, sitting in a coffee house, chatting with a bunch of rich college kids sounds more like going to High tea or a garden party than doing volunteer charity work.

The students who benefited from the English conversation interaction with foreigners would disagree.  The area where the restaurant was located was not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination.  

2 hours ago, scott h said:

IMO, unless your dealing with a church group (and then I am still a bit skeptical) someone, somewhere down the line is making a pretty good living running charity groups.

 We are also skeptical of church based group.  Main purpose for their activity is religious conversion rather than trying to help. 

Edited by JJReyes
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sonjack2847
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It is very admirable to help those less fortunate than ourselves in the Philippines.

But I wonder how many of the people who do this help the less fortunate in their country Where there are homeless needy people also.

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scott h
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15 minutes ago, JJReyes said:

At 70, physical labor would be difficult for me. 

That I can understand JJ. 

You can do what we do and volunteer to help out at Barangay functions. Every two years they have a Komedia play where we help out. And some out reach programs through our local credit union. But to be honest they normally don't want us to be there handing out stuff but donate money to the event. 

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Snowy79
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 My friend does a lot of charity work for Footsteps Philippines. ( I think that's the name) 100% donation based and every peso goes to those in need. It's predominantly helping the Mangyan. Providing shoes and school supplies, a few toys, gifts etc. If you donate anything the money gets spent and full receipts provided. No one gets a wage and you don't have to pay to help. 

Too many of the charities today are businesses, especially churches.  I was going to volunteer to help construct houses and repair mechanical things in Napal.  It would have cost me thousands of pounds Sterling for the pleasure of carrying sand bags up and down mountains all day.  As a thank you they would be kind enough to allow me to pay even more money for a guided trek. Having been to Nepal a nights accomodation is as little as £1.50. They wanted about £15. 

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Tukaram (Tim)
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Before I moved over here I looked at some volunteer "opportunities".  I was very surprised how much some the companies charge you to participate. You pay for your own travel, plus $2,000 a month?!  Forget that. 

I was involved with the Rotary club for a while.  It got a bit boring for me because we did not do any actual charity work... just hired people, using money donated from the US & S Korea.  We got some nice work done, like building an elementary school after Yolanda, but all we really did was show up for photo ops.  Then, they wanted extra money for every little thing - a mandatory party at p500 a head? No, thanks. I got to hang out with judges and the governor... but it got expensive...

Now, my wife and I work with the police in a small mountain province.  We collect money, books, toys, school supplies, anything we can to help out the kids.  The police do it on their own, and do not charge for participation. So far this has been a good arrangement. 

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GeoffH
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3 hours ago, sonjack2847 said:

But I wonder how many of the people who do this help the less fortunate in their country Where there are homeless needy people also.

 

I donate to various Australian based charities and I'll throw a $1 or $2 coin in the tins or hats of homeless on the streets in Melbourne and in the rattle tins of people fund raising at street corners.  And I am a monthly sponsor for CanTeen (a charity that helps teenagers in Australia with cancer).

I don't do volunteer work in the Philippines (that would be a breach of my Visa) but I make a habit of putting the coin change from my supermarket purchases in the Red Cross Philippines in their tins at the supermarket because I used to be a Red Cross member.

But honestly... there are children in the family here that struggle with education fees, I prefer to pay those directly to the school (or via a trusted family member who'll show me a receipt) and I've helped with hospital bills also.

I dunno... I just do what feels fair.

 

 

 

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