A VOLUNTEERS JOURNAL

My week started with the visit at the psychiatrist in Manila. Eight girls had an interview there and I accompanied Rhoda and Eresa for monitoring them. I spent the whole day in the waiting room of the hospital and took care about the girls. There was not a lot to do, but it was interesting to spend so much time with the girls, just observing and getting to know them. Another nice experience was the visit of two mothers, which took the opportunity to see their girls while they are in hospital. It was overwhelming to watch the girls and their mothers interacting. They seemed to have a very good relationship and the girls were very happy. We also brought two new girls to Preda, one accompanied by her mother, the other one alone, only carrying a small plastic bag of clothes.

The next day we had a trip to Papaht and Maporac Community, together with the SETEM group. It was a nice trip and I enjoyed walking in the mountains very much. We were lucky because the sun was shining. The purpose of the visit was, I guess, to get to know the life and problems of the Aetas as a minority in the Philippines. It is our mission to carry this knowledge home to Europe and explain their situation and problems in the Philippines.

We got a lot of information about the work of Preda and other organizations which is a great support. I hope this help is going to be sustainable and that one day, those people will find a way to cope with their daily needs on their own. In Maporac, Salvador the chairman, suggested to come back again over the weekend. First I rejected, because of the amount of people, we were. I changed my mind and decided to join the other volunteers and the SETEM group to spend one weekend in the Maporac community. Salvador and his community members were great hosts and everyone got the opportunity to sleep in one of the communitie’s family. Despite their poverty we had a great time and we tried to cause the minimum effort for them. We cooked for a lot of people and also took care about a feeding program for the community¹s children. Masarab! Thanks to Von, our organizer, it was a successful trip apart from some long term discussion about food and cooking

My recommendation for the next visit would be a smaller group than we had. It is quite exhausting for us and I guess for the host (especially Salvador) to deal with so many people, even though they would never admit or show it. It is just my impression. I learned a lot about the Aetas, though we have spent only two nights there. It was an unbelievable experience to live in such traditional way and I hope we also were able to give them back a small amount of what they gave us! Before leaving home we had a tree planting project in another community, which was fun and gave a great feeling because of the direct way of helping.

This week I have spent the first day in the boy’s home which I enjoyed a lot. The boys were grateful, motivated and most of them accessible. Me and Sarah, we were making a memory game with them. Afterwards we tried to play it and I could observe the boy’s impulsiveness, very well. I also realized the difference to the girls. It is much easier to handle the boys, they seem to be happy when they get attention and some exercises. The girls are more closed. Many of them, depending on their condition, do not like to take part in exercises because they have to deal with their problems a lot. The girls are victims, while some of the boys are prosecutors themselves. This makes a big different and while reading the case summaries it is unbelievable that these boys were able to commit such crimes. They were too young for the kind of punishment they achieved. Every child has to be given some room for improvement and process because they were only victims of their environment they had to deal with.

I had another therapy session with the girls with the support of Rhoda. It was very nice and I think the girls enjoyed it as well. The session report is attached. Because of the girl’s and boy’s musical sense, I had the idea of some kind of music therapy. I don’t know if I am able to do it anymore because unfortunately my time in Preda is too short. also do not have any experience with it but I did some research and I would love to try it. It would be very interesting to work with voice and instruments as another form of communication and maybe there is a way to educate one of the psychologists in this kind of therapy.

 

Johanna Hirte is a student of Psychology in Innsbruck, Austria and a Volunteer to Preda Foundation Inc.