MANILA,THE
PHILIPPINES
1st MARCH – 17th APRIL 2013
Hello everyone my name is KATLEGO PAPA TONY MAKHURA a
Botswana national studying in UNITEN and I am one of the recent EPs to out of
AIESEC UPM LC. I have always had the passion for making a positive impact in
other people’s lives and that together with my passion for travelling propelled
me to finally go for GCDP exchange program in the Philippines.
I got involved in a project called G.O.A.L which was later
changed to KICK4ED, which was aimed at using football as a tool or medium of
bringing basic education to Pilipino kids of all ages and mostly from
underprivileged communities and also in the process promote football as a sport
in THE PHILIPPINES at grass roots level.
Altogether there were five EPs from Russia ,The Netherlands,
Germany, Penang Malaysia, and myself included, and we volunteered in three
places at once all under the same KICK4ED project .first off was KRISS LIBRARY
in Don Antonio heights Commonwealth where we dealt with kids mostly in
elementary school to around grade 5 from 2-5pm Mondays to Thursdays. We
integrated a wide range of fun educational activities and games mostly to
enhance their mathematical and English speaking, reading and writing abilities
and top it all off with lessons in basics of football. A recipe that worked
like a well oiled machine as the numbers of kids who came for our lessons
increased daily.
The second place where we volunteered was in Barangay
Marilag Project 4, where we basically did the same thing as at KRISS but
slightly different in that we conducted coaching clinics for futsal instead of
football but the reaction was still the same. The kids loved us and made sure
to attend every coaching sessions well on time and really participate in
whichever activities we had planned for them.
The third place was for DREAM BIG PILIPINAS at a library in
Buayang Bato Mandaluyong city where we tutored kids from grade 1 up until
college in mathematics and English. At this library we did one on one tutoring
from Monday to Wednesday 3-7pm and just like the other two places the reception
and response of the kids to us was a heart-warming one as by the 3rd
week more than half the kids were showing noticeable improvement in speaking
and writing English. But unlike the other two places, at DREAM BIG we met the
kids for football coaching on separate days from tutoring days. The clinics
took place in Taguig city near Mandaluyong in an indoor field with artificial
turf. The kids really enjoyed themselves and were very keen to learn from us as
much as they could and they really did.
The kids at KRISS library sent us off in style as they
danced and sang for us in both English and their native tongue TAGALOG and as
one can imagine it was a heart-rending moment as its never really the right time
to say goodbye especially to adorable souls like them.
But of course as we all know that all work and no play makes
jack a dull boy, during the holy week(the time around the Easter holidays)I had
the opportunity of travelling to one of the biggest and beautiful islands in
THE PHILIPPINES called CATANDUANES which is a very peaceful and tranquil island
with a lot of virgin beaches and very clean water. We visited a few farms where
various fruits indigenous to the Philippines and some to that island only were
grown and even got to see a cock farm where roosters are raised and trained for
cock fighting which is legal in the country. Although I don’t know how heaven
looks like, i still think it was like a little piece of heaven. Of course in
the big city i also had the chance to enjoy myself at several hip and happening
spots.
Throughout our
exchange program I am happy to say we received cooperation and assistance from
the kids we worked with, their parents and most of all the LCs of UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO THOMAS AND UP DILIMAN and to them all I would like to say thank you very
much for making my job less difficult and my experience a very memorable one
toppling all I have ever had so far in my life. All in all being there for six
weeks was pretty awesome because I made a lot of friends and learnt a lot but
most of all the true value of family and togetherness and what it really means
to be happy because I consider Filipinos to be the happiest people I ever met. It
was just an all round beyond expectation experience in which I spent around
RM6000.00 everything inclusive and if you ask me that is the best money I ever
spent. So I urge all of you guys to try it out.
