20140421. Bohol. All hands volunteer. "Safe Houses, Save Lives"

Bohol. All hands volunteer.
"Safe Houses, Save Lives"

Team 1 and 2 cleaning up the collapsed section of a school

In retrospect

The most efficient and hard working people are volunteers. I have always felt proud of humanity when I see people who are willing to go out of their way and exert a lot of effort just to be in a position to help. I set out and searched for a place where I can join the cause and found All hands volunteers. I signed up and stayed at All hands Project Bohol for the holy week. I've only been in the base for a couple of days but I've had a wonderful time and met the nicest and most amazing people. There were people who spent months and have helped in a lot of rebuilding projects, natural conservation areas and outreach programs. Some of them even do these things for their daily jobs and only volunteered in All hands Project Bohol because they were in a vacation. There were people who flew directly from the other side of the world to the Philippines just so they can help out. There were people taking advantage of their break in school. There were even people who have dedicated their lives to helping and have made this world a better place. I was happy to be there and the only regret I had is that I should've spent more time. I'll definitely volunteer again for their projects and would try to stay there for at least 2 weeks. The amount of effort and the dedication they put in their work also makes me want to do more.

All Hands Projects in the Philippines.

"All Hands Volunteers organization is a US-based non profit dedicated to empowering disaster relief volunteers around the world."

Current Projects:
2013-2014 Project Leyte, Philippines Typhoon Response
2013-2014 Project Bohol, Philippines Earthquake Response

Past Projects:

2013 Project Pagatpat, Philippines Typhoon Response
2012 Project Cagayan de Oro, Philippines Typhoon Response
2006 Project Santo Domingo, Philippines, Typhoon Reming

About All Hands Project Bohol

"At 8:12am on October 15th, 2013, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake shook the Visayan region of the Philippine. Because of the scope of this destruction, All Hands Volunteers is launching PROJECT BOHOL. In response to a vast need for “safe-ing” structures, we will work to take down precarious homes that owners and neighbors are afraid to enter. We will also do deconstruction in order to salvage valuable materials for rebuilding, and we will be clearing rubble. Pending funding, we envision a rebuild program that includes constructing resilient core shelters on the affected homeowners’ properties."

We were welcomed by children at the school we were going to work on

Second favourite part about All hands Project Bohol

On the way to work

There is no better way to go to work than riding on top a jeepney, drinking in the beautiful sights and enjoying the refreshing air of Bohol while passing by the people filled with smiles and joyful shouts of "Hey" or "My friend". I've never waved at so many people in a day in my life. Some of the people there waved at us as if we truly knew each other. The kids were just adorable with their shouting, jumping and waving. This fun moments were my second favourite part of my stay in Bohol.

Things you need to know

First thing that you should do if you want to volunteer is to know how long the project will last. Ask them through email of in facebook (https://www.facebook.com/hands.org) if they are still accepting volunteers or if they can still accommodate additional people. They normally have room for people but it's better to be safe and informed. I heard that there was a month were Project Leyte had a lot of volunteers and they had to point people to Project Bohol. This just tells us how many people are willing to help out. I know Project Bohol is still accepting volunteers until May 31, 2014 but I was also informed that this might be extended.
You can check their site (http://hands.org/projects/) for active projects that you can volunteer on.

Old Camp

Tools of the trade

For Project Bohol, we mostly lived in our tents since there's only limited space for the bunk beds and it's on a first come first serve basis. I don't think there's a place in Bohol where they can put the normal camps that they usually have. But some of the volunteers actually like this because they have their own private space. In other locations they have shared huts or bunk beds. It doesn't really matter much to me as long as I can sleep in peace and know that the place is secured. And that is a high priority for All hands.

Things that you absolutely need are Tent, work gloves and work boots. If you really don't have any of these and you don't have the time to find them, you can risk going there and just check a free box where they might have these things. Otherwise, they sell these things at Tagbilaran City.

Workdays are from Monday to Saturday and volunteers are expected to work for 8 hours in a day. They will provide you with meals on the days that you would work. Sundays are for rest. You can choose to stay at the camp or explore the place. The new camp for Project Bohol will be located near the sea so it will be a wonderful Sunday for you whatever you choose to do. For me, my Sunday there was mostly spent at the refreshing waters of Mag-aso Falls.

View from the new camp

Working at the new camp

  

Actual work and the people

Nian, Rose, Mel (Thanks for this photo), Vanessa and Ella

Steel Deconstruction. Yen, Han, Dylan, Doug, Rommel and Geoff

The people you would work with are just amazing people. They come from all walks of life and different place. You should always remember to be respectful especially since there would be a lot of different cultures there. All of them were really nice and fun to talk to. I am impressed by people taking advantage of semestral breaks or people who just graduated from school and spending their vacation to help out. The team leaders that I've known were dedicated, smart and fun people. They know how hard the job can be and they also know how hard volunteers work so they keep reminding people to rest or to drink water or to eat something. They will see the job done, but a volunteer's well-being is top priority.

The work done in Project Bohol are mainly safe-ing and deconstruction. The earthquake left a lot of houses, schools and churches in bad shapes. Some were completely destroyed. These places has become a hazard to the families and the communities because it might suddenly collapse. Safe-ing is the process in making these unstable places safe for a person to enter or to carefully bring it down to the ground. This is the second part of the process: deconstruction. Deconstruction involves the use of crowbars, hammers, steel grinder, shovels, sledge hammers, axes. These materials are used to carefully remove dangerous structures and rubble while salvaging reusable construction materials. In my experience, I have helped in taking down a roof, hammered collapsed walls and removed rocks and metals around a school that was badly hit by the earthquake. You can mostly pick what jobs you want for the type, there is a meeting every night or every Monday morning to discuss the sites that they will be working on. They will brief you with what needs to be done and the tasks that are involved to achieve this. Sometimes they were at churches, schools and family homes. There are other jobs like helping distribute construction materials to families for rebuilding their homes. 

While I was there, I also helped in preparing the new camp since they were extending their stay in Bohol. You will love your stay there since the new camp is beachfront with clear waters and small fishes. Although, you should never go to a volunteer work for these things. A steel resolved and a dedicated heart is needed for the work that they do since it really is hard work. Tiring, heavy, meaningful and happy. You would know how tiring the work is once you've experienced a point where all of the team members of 3 teams took a nap for lunch break. And you would know how meaningful the work is once the community, or the family you are helping give you food for all of the work that you do. You can feel the sincerity of their gratitude through their courtesy, generosity and little acts of kindness. There was a time when the sun was beating down on us as we were working which made the work a little heavier. But then the children at the school came to our aid and put ice in our water containers and a plate full of ice on the table. More than the refreshing coolness of the water, I was touched by their kindness and initiative. Kindness, no matter how little, is one of the greatest gifts and motivations in life.

With the people who spent a lot of time and effort preparing the new camp. The bamboo masters. Rose, Mel (Thanks for this photo) and Becca.

Dustin and Patrick. Digging a 4 feet hole

On the way to get supplies with Jack

Creating a kitchen from bamboo

Digging a 4 feet hole

Preparing for bamboo showers

The favourite part of my stay in All hands Project Bohol

The favourite part of my stay in Bohol was when we were on our way home from a hard day at work. Every after work, you can see how tired people are from the day, but you can also see their happiness. You could tell that they were content. And we know that the work we did somehow helped another person. On our way home, an elderly man was waving at us from a distance and when the jeepney was near enough for him to shout, he said "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." I have never felt a message of gratitude as sincere as that. I think that at some point, All hands helped his family too. Sometimes working on a site takes days and you don't just meet the people or the community in that area. Sometimes you work with them, bond with them, and you make a connection. These are the people that were touched by All hands and these are also the kinds of people that inspires us to do even better.

Team 2 already finished with their job, proceeded to help Team 1. Cleaning up the rubble.

"Live each day as if it's your last', that was the conventional advice, but really, who had the energy for that? What if it rained or you felt a bit glandy? It just wasn't practical. Better by far to be good and courageous and bold and to make difference. Not change the world exactly, but the bit around you. Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately and fully and well. Experience new things.”
― David Nicholls, One Day