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Photos of Kid’s Day, Mabuhay, Bohol, The Philippines

Asia, Fundraising, Philippines, Photography No Responses »

Apr 022014

This second gallery of photos from my time on Bohol is of a ‘Kids Day that All Hands Volunteers organised.

This was what we in the UK would call a school fete or fair. It was in a nearby village that had been badly affected by the earthquake, evident by people still leaving in ShelterbBoxes which are temporary emergency shelters.

My fellow volunteers organised a series of games such as tug of war, throw the wet sponge at a volunteer, wheelbarrow racing, etc.

: Arriving

: Toril Primary School

: 3 Leg(ged) Race

: Getting Ready

: Wet Face

: Hit the Bucket!

: Tip the Bucket!

: Wheelbarrow Racing

: Hairy Styling

: Face Painting

: Happy Kids!

You can see more photos of my time on Bohol here and here.

Photos of All Hands Volunteers, Bohol, The Philippines

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Apr 022014

Bohol is a smallish island in the southern area of the Visayas region of the Philippines. I was there during February 2014 to volunteer with a charity, All Hands Volunteers.
The local communities suffered a lot of damage to buildings during an earthquake in October 2013. All Hands were assisting by providing volunteer labour to bring down unsafe buildings and clear the debris to allow the homeowners or schools to rebuild.
It was hard physical manual labour but very satisfying, rewarding, fulfilling work that clearly meant a lot to the recipients.

There are three collections of photos from my time in Bohol. The first is of my fellow volunteers and the work we did.

: Project Bohol

: Jenny

: Franziska

: John & Doris

: Big Dan

: ShelterBox

: ShelterBox & All Hands

: Getting ready

: Loading tools

: Teams assembling

: Time to go

: Everyone on the Jeepney

: Leaving base

: View from the back of the Jeepney

: Home before

: Home after…

: Windows wall before

: Windows wall after

: Rear wall before

: Rear wall after

: Side wall before

: Side wall after

: Waiting for our ride

You can find more photos of my time on Bohol here and here.

Videos from the Philippines

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Mar 212014

I thought it would be a good idea to collate all the videos I took whilst volunteering in the Philippines in to one post so you can view them all together. Because I had very slow internet and wanted to upload them whilst I was there they are all low resolution videos and all short, around ten seconds to keep the file size down. Hope it gives a flavour of what life was like!

Jeepney! from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

I must break you! from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

How to carry a wheel barrow on a motorbike Filipino style from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

Loon School from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

Lin School – Wall down! from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

Lin School – Wall down from outside from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

Lin School – Double Wall from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

Lin School – The Wall from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

Lin School – Save the chickens from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

Lin School – Building 1 down from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

Lin School – Building 2 down! from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

Bohol scenery from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

Downtown Tagbilaran from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

Antequera from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

Cogan school from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

How not to pull down a house – Cogan school from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

Waving goodbye from DennersHQ on Vimeo.

The All Hands Family

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Mar 212014

I’ve wanted to write a post to summarise my thoughts, since I finished the volunteering. Every time I think to do it I get slightly overwhelmed by the number of memories that come rushing into my head.

When I left the island by ferry on my own; as it pulled away from the dock and got further out to sea, I suddenly felt that the experience was over and a wave of emotion washed over me.
I didn’t expect that but then again I didn’t expect the 3 week volunteering stint to be so rewarding on a number of different levels either.

To go back to January 31st, I was sitting in the airport in Manila waiting for my connecting flight to Bohol when I wrote down some thoughts about what was in front of me. My concerns seemed to revolve around getting enough to eat and whether the tent would leak.

Well I got enough food and the tent didn’t leak.

That wasn’t in the highlights though!

As ever with truly memorable experiences in life, it’s always about the people. Humans are social animals and as such we get greatest satisfaction from others rather than personal achievement.

My head is full of anecdotes from the three week period, so much happened and there is a lot of retrospective pleasure. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it at the time but I was clearly tired when I wrote the last post.

The first week everything was new and exciting, wanting to fit in and pull my weight whilst not pulling a muscle or two…

The second week, the routine and the tasks were familiar but my body had grown weary. I remember deliberately trying to get on a couple of jobs that wouldn’t be so physically strenuous so that I could try and recover somewhat. I wasn’t drinking at all as there is no way I could get up and do it day in, day out with the added anchor of a hangover.
Age catches up with all of us and being 37 I can’t do what I could at 27. Maybe there was a tinge of jealously at the twentysomethings who could drink each night and then get up and work harder the next day than I was able to!

The last week was incredibly satisfying, I had grown stronger, got to know others well and could look back at a long list of people/schools that we had helped. I guess that is why people find volunteering so rewarding because you get back as much as you put in. It’s not a selfless endeavour. It’s definitely a two way street.
I’ll take people saying “thank you for helping us” over money every time. I’d always reply, “that’s my pleasure” because it was and is.

I’ve just noticed that my last working day on site was a month ago today and sitting here writing this post, I can picture all those new friends from all over the world that I had the pleasure of working with. It’s such a cliché but it was like one big family. During my three weeks there were people from 18 to over 60 and people from every continent on the planet. All different personalities, habits, mannerisms, differing approaches to personal safety….but no one judging you on how much you contributed, showing up is enough to make you one of us. So I’m proud to be a member of the All Hands family and I’ll definitely be an active member again in the future.
I’ll finish up by repeating what I said at the end of my goodbye speech (everyone gets to do it) as they are words to live by as well.

Keep safe, have fun and remember why you are here.

A Different Vibe

Asia, Fundraising, Philippines 3 Responses »

Feb 162014

I often think of situations from a different angle once they aren’t new anymore. It can be the simplest thing, like the weather changing, that creates a new perspective. Or maybe It’s just settling in to a routine that allows me more brain power to consider how I feel about the environment I’m in.

As the ubiquitous phrase in South East Asia says, “Same Same But Different”.

I’m very much still enjoying the experience but I’m having to increase my tolerance of how I think others are treating the opportunity. Am I being too judgemental? Possibly, everyone is at a different place in their lives. It just feels at times that some forget why they are here.

That said there is an amazing lack of ego amongst such a diverse group and It’s maybe just my logical brain wanting to create a balanced impression of what life is like for me at present.

From a more practical perspective, this last week I’ve been continuing to smash holes through concrete walls with a sledgehammer (to sledge, sledging). It’s strange how addictive it becomes to swing a 8-10lb sledge, I need a fix most days!

There are numerous videos of buildings/walls falling down at https://vimeo.com/dennershq if you like that kind of thing!

One thing I wasn’t sure of before I came was if I’d get enough food.

However on most sites, especially the schools, they give you ‘snacks’ during breaks. These have ranged from biscuits to sweet potato to sugary bread to full on spaghetti, sauce and meat. The common theme is it’ll have sugar in it. If It’s a hardcore sledging day I literally can’t eat enough. Last Friday I probably ate two days worth of food and wasn’t feeling full.

Today is Sunday and the one day off in the week. I took the opportunity to go exploring and after a long hot walk found a small beach full of fishing boats where I finally got into the sea! This counts as me having a relaxing day.

I’ll finish the post with a video of how to carry a wheelbarrow on a motorbike, Filipino style. (Technically It’s not on the motorbike)

And some photos from the last week.

One week of Project Bohol

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Feb 082014

I knew it had been raining a lot here in Bohol but I wasn’t prepared for the storm that came through the first night. We were offered space inside to sleep due to the concern of camping with the expected wind speeds of 100km/h. I don’t know if the wind was at that speed but it was loud enough along with the rain to make me glad I wasn’t in my tent!

If you didn’t know I’m volunteering for a charity called All Hands in The Philippines.
The local communities need help from a devastating earthquake as well as one of the most powerful typhoons on record.

I’m on the island of Bohol which was the epicentre of the earthquake. There are a lot of unsafe buildings that were damaged; people’s houses, churches, schools, etc. The buildings need to be demolished safely and the resulting rubble cleared so rebuilding work can start.

They are lots of people living in temporary tents/structures as they have no where else to go.
I’ve noticed special tents called shelter boxes by Vango, so well done to them for supplying them, don’t know if they donate them but I hope they do.

My living arrangements consist of my tent surrounded by other tents in a festival type arrangement, ie they are virtually on top of each other! The base is part of a holiday resort, although that is a strong word for it!

There are around 70 people on base, 60 or so are volunteers.
We share 4 toilets and 2 real showers. I’m choosing to use the bucket variety as the queue is shorter…

We are provided with 3 ‘meals’ a day. Food has turned into fuel now, so breakfast is generally a peanut butter and fried egg sandwich along with a bowl of oatmeal (porridge) with milk powder and nescafe 3 in 1 which just isn’t coffee! That is my allowance of food and the most calories I can come up with.

We leave base at 7am with everyone piled on to a jeepney, people covering the roof, sitting on the bonnet, basically anywhere you can hold on.

I’ve worked on a couple of people’s houses and a few schools. It’s hard work demolishing as everything is done by hand. Imagine smashing concrete walls, floors, beams, pillars to get to the metal reinforcing bars and then cut them out with bolt croppers, then do it in the hot sun with high humidity and you’ve got what I’ve been doing!

The fun bit is weakening a building so we can pull it down by people power with nothing but ropes.
It’s satisfying to see a building fall to the floor done purely by the 7 or 8 people there with nothing more than sledgehammers and ropes. That does leave a big pile of rubble though which we then clear into piles so the materials that are undamaged can be reused to build again.

The locals seem so happy to have us here helping, smiles and waves when we drive by. The kids screaming ‘Helllloooo’, it is really nice and rewarding.

The group of volunteers here are a diverse bunch but everyone is here by choice and for ultimately the same reason, to help. For that reason we all seem to get along fantastically and its great to be part of this group.

The one problem we have is tools, namely a shortage of them. We break a lot due to the nature of the work. There is no shortage of willing people. We could do more with more tools.

If you would like to help you can by donating via http://www.justgiving.com/DennersHQ or text my code ‘IDHQ99 with £5 or £10 to 70070.

It really does make a difference to people’s lives and to the children who are being taught in tents right now.

The sooner we can get the buildings down, the sooner the classrooms can be rebuilt.

Do it for the children!

As I finish this post it is absolutely pouring down, hope my tent works!

One thing for sure it means the mozzies are coming…

Denners in The Ring of Fire and how you can help!

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Jan 092014

Getting Hands On.

I’ve never really done any volunteering before, not sure bob-a-job counts (born in the seventies, grew up in the eighties…).

Memories!

I’ve looked for opportunities in the last few years, didn’t find anything that matched up to what I wanted to do and VSO turned me down .

Then a friend of mine, Shano (he’s Australian, don’t mention the cricket), said he was off to the Philippines, last December, with All Hands Volunteers. This was to help with the disaster recovery from Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) and the October Earthquake it sounded interesting.

So I applied.

It turns out I wasn’t the only one. All Hands had received over 2000 applications and had space for 50 people at one time so I was on the waiting list. They have two live projects, Project Bohol and Project Leyte. The first was in response to the Earthquake, the second in response to the Typhoon.

I’ve now been accepted on to Project Bohol and fly out of the UK on Wednesday 29th January 2014. I am volunteering for 3 weeks and then having a bit of R&R elsewhere in the Philippines.

The work consists of helping to make people’s houses, churches, schools, community buildings safe and if necessary, knocking them down to make room for rebuilding. Have a watch of the video below to get an idea of what it’s all about.

60 Days of Project Bohol

It’s manual work, big hammers and concrete, proper graft in the tropics! Oh and it’s the rainy season.

In a tent in the rainy season.

Camping in the tropics in the rainy season

What can go wrong?

All Hands provide 3 meals a day when I’m working (6 days out of 7) and somewhere for me to pitch my tent. Yes, I’m going to an Earthquake zone to carry out manual labour, for 6 days a week, in 30+ degree heat, in the rainy season and to sleep in a tent!

How can you help?

All Hands Volunteers are a UK (no. 1139938) and US (Tax ID #20-3414952) registered charity and thereby rely on donations to enable them to arrange the logistics supporting all the volunteers. That support begins in Bohol, I’ve paid for my flights to get there. I’m raising funds for the UK Charity (via Justgiving.com), 100% of the funds donated are allocated for the Philippines projects.

I would really appreciate it if you would support my efforts by making a donation to All Hands Volunteers.

A true Hands-on Charity!

In fact, I’m going to further encourage you to donate. I’ll post or personally deliver a DVD, Book (UK Mainland only, one per person/household) or High-res JPEG of your choice that is available on DennersHQ.com in exchange for a minimum donation of £10 to All Hands Volunteers. This is a limited time offer! Donate by midnight Sunday 19th January 2014.

DVD, Book or JPEG in exchange for £10 Donation to All Hands

Email your choice to Iain [at] DennersHQ dot com, there is only one copy of each, so first come first served!

You need to have made the donation and emailed me your choice of DVD, Book or JPEG by midnight Sunday 19th January 2014 . Just to be clear, I’ll pay the postage, anything you donate goes to All Hands directly, I don’t get a penny of it.

Please do not use the Paypal ‘Add to Cart’ buttons on DennersHQ.com but donate here at Justgiving.com.

Thanks in advance

Below is more info on the Typhoon, Earthquake and All Hands Volunteers.

The Background

7.2 Earthquake and the strongest Typhoon to make landfall all within three weeks!

Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines on Friday 8th November, it killed thousands of people and damaged or destroyed homes numbering in the 100,000s. The main brunt was on the island of Leyte in the Visayas region of the Philippines.

On the 15th October 2013, three weeks before the Typhoon struck, the same area of the Philippines had experienced a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. Although the Philippines sits in the Ring of Fire the area affected was not accustomed to earthquakes. The estimate is that 35,000 homes have been partially damaged or totally destroyed. This affected the island of Bohol and Cebu also in the Visayas region of the Philippines.

You can read more about the Earthquake here and the Typhoon here.

All Hands Volunteers

In 2005, David Campbell flew to Thailand after the Boxing Day Tsunami to see what he could do to help. He found that unaffiliated volunteers were being turned away by the Aid Organisations so he and some others set up a group to do it themselves. This later become All Hands Volunteers in response to Hurricane Katrina.

All Hands Volunteers provides hands-on assistance to survivors of natural disasters around the world, with maximum impact and minimum bureaucracy. The UK trust is run solely by volunteers ensuring that 100% of all funds raised go directly to those in most need.

You can read more about All Hands on their website.