Volunteering in Cebu: Rise Above Family Care Center

My two first weeks here in Cebu I am planning to spend most of my time working as a volunteer in the NGO Rise Above's family care center. The family care center is a place where sponsored children are taken care of by Rise Above workers and volunteers, where they take part in both fun and educational activities while their parents can use the opportunity to work. At the family care center the kids get to take a shower in the morning when they arrive, and put on a nice and clean uniform with the Rise Above-logo on which they use until the end on the day. In addition to the shower, they also are taught how to brush their teeth. Apparently many people here drink a lot of sweet drinks with a lot of sugar, but unfortunately they do not pay enough attention to their dental health. It is thus quite a lot of kids who already are having problems with their teeth here. After this first session the kids are divided into groups depending on their age, and they are having a couple of hours of regular classes with math, English and other subjects.

When I opened the door to the car outside the center I could already hear the voices of laughing and playing children. They all looked very happy to see us coming, and they greeted us one by one by taking our hand and lift it up to touch their forehead. We had arrived at the family care center just in time for lunch, and all the kids soon lined politely up to get their servings.
This day was quite a special day, because one of the local workers had brought a bunch of friends along who wanted to help out making some fun activities for the kids. After dinner we gathered the kids and our guest entertained them all with some funny games. The kids also contributed to the entertainment with a round of Gangnam-style, which seems to be their favorite dance.
The kids are so cute, and I'm looking forward to spending more time playing with them. I'll be back with more posts from my stay here, in the meantime, check out Raise Above's homepage at http://www.riseabove-cebu.org/

About Anette
Anette came to Japan as an exchange student in 2010, met the love of her life and got stuck. From her base in Tokyo she writes about her experiences as a full-time worker in Tokyo and about her travels in Japan and abroad. She's a free-spirited adventurer who enjoys both the great outdoors and her urban lifestyle.