Home volunteering I Volunteered at DSWD and here’s What I’ve Discovered and You MUST TOO!

I Volunteered at DSWD and here’s What I’ve Discovered and You MUST TOO!

Just a few hours and we bid goodbye for 2016 and are so excited to welcome 2017 with open arms and amazing parties with overflowing champagnes, extravagant fireworks, and hoping for the best the next day.

Ahhh while writing this post, I couldn’t help to remember all the blessings I’ve got for this year.
Big or small, it ALL MATTERS ON ME! And I could say that I am truly blessed – I might be hailing it with some glitz and glam literally, as I always what that feeling EXCLUSIVE – like YES, I AM DEFINITELY HAILING IT from the inside of my chest and sharing it maybe with some few people.

Yeah it was an amazing 2016 for me, with lots of glitz and glam sharing my stories with you and I am very much thankful that even if most of my posts recently are quite long and personally (and yes some mixed with a little kind of rant with class) yet you, my lovely readers all over the world are still here… still reading, some even shared my posts to your friends (THANK YOU VERY MUCH!) and I am truly grateful.

Okay, before I log off tonight to celebrate New Year’s Eve privately (okay actually I might not log off totally, but I will try lol) I would like to share with you what I did yesterday, one of the spontaneous decisions that I made and I considered very fruitfully, in a sense that it is very rewarding inside and out.

And have a much deeper meaning, more than what I’ve done for the past 12 months.

On the 29th of December and am still in the office, and I am so glad that I'm ready to close my work laptop. Before I hit the shut-down button, I suddenly thought our brothers and sisters in the southern part of Luzon, and how I wish that they are all alright (or somehow trying to feel alright) after the tragic devastation of Typhoon Nina (with international name Nock-ten) to numerous provinces that leads to the wreckage of livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people. And yes, I truly understand that kind of feeling, as I grew up surviving that many super typhoons for years and even now (thank God my family is okay, but yes, we will definitely do some construction this January, hahaha).

It was hard when you were in that situation. You won’t feel the pain during the moment… but you will definitely feel it, and the reality of its aftermath hours after that very moment.

And once you have released that pain and sadness of loss, the good thing about our brothers and sisters because they are really tough. They are survivors. With a very high resilience factor and I truly applaud that.

Ahh, 10 years have indeed passed since the last super typhoon that also destroyed my community in 2006. I was living back then in Legazpi City, enjoying my knitting session inside my apartment and not minding the heavy rains and the typhoon announced as I’m already used to this weather when suddenly I realized Typhoon Reming (with international name Durian) is different.

When I checked my apartment outside, flood is already high up to my chin (my community was never been flooded ever before) and I was forced to remove myself swimming in the sea of mocha-colored water, evacuating to my landlord’s second-floor apartment, staying there for a night until the typhoon has gone.

DSWD-NROC, DSWD Manila, DSWD Volunteers, typhoon nina 2016, typhoon nock-ten

I felt numbed that day. And I felt more sorry for our pet cats who are feeling so could with their kitties. (Well they survived don’t worry :D )

The next day, with the sun glaring so bright with a very clear blue sky like nothing happens – you’ll see the reality: WRECKAGE EVERYWHERE.

We’ve learned so many lessons… especially me. Stop procrastinating even it’s just a slight rain. You must have plans A, B, and C.

During those sad days, I’ve managed to still wear that smile and volunteered to repack relief goods for the families of Albay, in partnership with Aquinas University.

We gathered as many students and volunteers and helped out packing these goods, medicines, and clothing.

And it’s a common sight to see some volunteers controlling those tears to show, and staying strong because we must.

Fast-forward, my community starts to go back to our normal lives in a week, and became months, and years! – Thanks for that strong resilience flowing in our veins like blood. That’s why I strongly believe that our brothers and sisters will survive and cope again, just like before or even much way better!

This year, I wasn’t there when Typhoon Nina happened. And sometimes I still have that feeling that I wished I was there to helped-out.

But am here in the city, and I thought I should do the best that I can to helped-out, which is just accessible to me.

So yeah, I phoned DSWD (Department of Social Welfare & Development) because I knew that will are needing many volunteers, and yesterday 30th of December, leaving my glitz and glam personality at home and was in the cab heading to the DSWD-NROC warehouse in Chapel Road, Pasay City Philippines.

I didn’t mind paying Php208.00 for my transportation as I need to reach my destination on time. And also, because I don’t how to commute using public transportation means, lol.

So, after my quite heavy breakfast (as I know I will be working that day) and driving almost an hour to reach the warehouse, I arrived at 9:54AM and registered as a DSWD Volunteer!

I saw many volunteers also waiting for the instructions. Volunteers include these teams of police under training, volunteers from the Philippine Navy Army, students and teachers' volunteers from different schools, and some volunteer civilians (like moi). At 10:00AM we are headed to the second floor of the warehouse, inside their office to attend the orientation that lasted 30-minutes, guiding us on what we will expect, and everything necessary.

Volunteers will be given assignments for the day, and that is also according to the volunteers’ capability. If you are a volunteer below 18years-old it is encouraged that you are accompanied by your elders/parents to volunteer because let’s face it that shit happens sometimes.

But for volunteers 18 years old and above, you will be asked to sign a waiver stating the following:

(1) That you are knowingly, willingly, and freely volunteer to perform any or all of the following in connection with the disaster-response operations of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) at its National Resource Operations Center (NROC): repack food kits or relief goods, load and unload supplies, or operate machines.

(2) You understand that these activities involve risks that may result in physical injuries.

(3) You shall not hold the DSWD or any of its personnel liable if you should suffer any physical injury while performing volunteer work.

I think that this is fair – you come in as a non-paid volunteer so make sure to also guard yourself at any harm. But if you are the kind of person who is accustomed to suing somehow (ala cases in the American reality TV Judge Judy) then back off.

DSWD is still looking for volunteers – either you are a local citizen or not, as long as you are physically and mentally fit then please contact their office because they need your help!

At the back are thousands of boxes that we need to assemble for the FFP or Family Food Pack, or in a layman’s term – relief goods!

I've joined the volunteer group to help in packing the FFP boxes manually, but DSWD also has THE MECHANICAL PRODUCTION SYSTEM, a machine that does the packing in a faster mode. We are here to help the machine to achieve its quota in a specified time frame!

Volunteers lined in two waiting for further instructions. DSWD has strict rules to implement and as a volunteer, it is our obligation to employ those rules. This is not your typical classroom volunteer works, because this aims to save real lives.

During the orientation, our team captain mentioned to us that we are targeting more than 50,000 families and of course we need to deliver! So we are targeting to produce more Family Food Packs (or simply FFP or the oldie term, relief goods).

We are aiming to produce the first option: FFP boxes that consist of the following: 6 kilos of rice, 4 cans of sardines, 6 sachets of instant coffee, and 4 cans of corned beef = all these in one box that is good for two (2) days. Each one family (1) family will receive these boxes accordingly with the help of our DSWD volunteers and employees and with the local government unit currently deployed onsite.

So yesterday our assignment is the make sure we pack these in boxes in a well, good quality.

Making sure no spilling, no broken cans inside, no broken labels, and best of all no expired goods inside. It’s forbidden!

Oh BTW, these supplies are coming from the government’s budget, from the peoples’ taxes, and not from donations of some foreign agencies.

The amazing part of volunteering is not only to get the experience to be a volunteer-at-work but also to meet new friends along the way! I had an opportunity to meet this group of teachers from Llano High School in Caloocan City Metro Manila. They are awesome teachers that gave their precious day volunteering at DSWD. They said that they had invited some of their co-teachers, unfortunately, they couldn’t make it. Luckily they did! And I am truly lucky too to meet them. I’ve asked them if I could join their group as I am there solo, and they happily welcomed me.

At around 10:30ish we arrived at the next warehouse where our batch of volunteers are assigned to repack this instant coffee in sachets. It was indeed overwhelming and soo exciting!

At first, we are kind of doing it slowly because we are still familiarizing the technique, until we did it on and on and we managed to create our own reliable system to repack the coffee, hahaha teachers are really creative huh!

At 12:00noon it’s time for our lunch break and our group managed to repack 11 boxes. Yey!

We spent an hour of lunch break and the DSWD office provided us some humble free lunch and drinks. We are satisfied, and even during lunchtime, a new batch of volunteers is coming! It is really great that there are many people willing to give time to help out.

After an hour's lunch break, we went back to the warehouse and continue our work. We’ve managed to do it faster and at 2:55PM we’ve finished a total of 36 boxes!

At 3:00PM our team captain announced an afternoon break, and we headed back to the main warehouse to have a 15minutes snack break. Again, DSWD provided us free humble snacks and we happily enjoyed it. Ahh am telling you, you will never get hungry volunteering here at DSWD. They provide everything. They also have clean comfortable rooms.

Sometimes, making your hands dirty gives you a very rewarding feeling. Never mind those broken nail polishes because it’s easy to replace, lol

Currently, DSWD operation is round the clock, 24/7 non-stop. So you may also come and be a night-shift volunteer!

After our afternoon break, our team captain changed our assignment and she let us help in assembling the FFP boxes in Warehouse H. We need to be more extra faster to assemble the boxes!

In Warehouse H is where the final packing is being done. Some groups are assignment to weigh and pack the rice, other groups are assigned for packing the FFP contents and sealing the boxes.

Volunteers are responsible to make use that everything’s of good quality. Rice should be weighed in two bags, 3 kilos each to form the 6 kilos target weigh, bagging and making sure it is well sealed and no spilling.

Kuya (big brother) is explaining to us how to assemble the boxes and the proper taping. Also, we explained that all boxes MUST BE STAMPED WIT ITS EXPIRATION DATE, and no boxes shouldn’t be missed. Boxes will be stamped twice (the expiration date is April 2018).

How do they determine the expiration date for the boxes?

Answer: The goods inside with the earliest expiration date are the date that should be stamped outside the boxes.

So somebody is doing the stamping and others are assembling the boxes!

Yeah, am nailing it! I’m a PRO on assembling boxes!

You know what? This is another way to get off yourself online, turn off your Spotify, and chit-chat with fellow volunteers. Trust me it is really good and refreshing!

But do you think these works are simple? Huh, it is NOT! Now I pay huge respects to people who do manual boxing because it is really not that easy especially if you need to produce hundreds of thousands of boxes in a short period of time.

Some groups of volunteers are doing the final packing of FFP and sealing it tightly read to deliver for our clients!

And those boxes are being placed here after the inventory. Every day 33 10-wheeler trucks are leaving the warehouse to deliver these FFP boxes!

Tired yet happy! I am honestly so glad that I became part of producing these FFP boxes and definitely, I will visit the DSWD-NROC warehouse again very soon!

Watch my video clip in action!

Yesterday was such an another amazing experience for me to have an opportunity to help our brothers and sisters the way I can. It was Friday of 30th December, and I was spontaneously hail a cab and visit DSWD-NROC in Pasay City, to be a volunteer, helping these good people on packing the FFP (family food pack) for more than 50,000 families who are victims of the recent #TyphoonNina. I've learned a lot... from being patient, the humbleness of the people, and the eagerness to help, even it takes you travelling hours from your place to the warehouse. And I believe there are still many willing to help! DSWD-NROC operation is round the clock, 24/7 (as of this posting, volunteers are now going to have their 3:00AM snacks!) Everyone is invited to become a volunteer (18yo and above), either you are a local or non-local. More stories on my blog very soon! #dswd #volunteer #volunteerism #volunteerph #lifestyle #lifestyleblogger #helpinghands #bloggeratwork #instagood #socialawareness
A video posted by BLAIR VILLANUEVA (@blairvillanueva) on Dec 30, 2016 at 11:01am PST

Want to be a volunteer too? DSWD-NROC is in need of more volunteers!

Call DSWD at (02) 556-0664 / (02) 511-1259 OR 0917-810-9950 and look for Mr. Riki Ong, and ask for a schedule! Volunteering is FREE and we encourage you to tag your family, and amazing circle of friends to be part of this huge cause.

If you are a guest currently vacationing here in the Philippines, and you want to be part of the cause, feel free to contact DSWD and the contact numbers above. You are all welcome to help!