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Choosing
the less traveled path can lead to either great heartbreak
or indescribable rewards. Luckily for Marilou
Pantua-Juanito, VSO Bahaginan executive director, it is
the latter which she continues to reap.
“The
growth of VSO Bahaginan has been phenomenal,” enthuses
Pantua-Juanito. “Volunteerism is such a beautiful
experience and I’m excited that more and more people are
joining our cause and even more are learning the true
value of volunteering.”
Pantua-Juanito has walked the walk, so to speak. As far
back as the early 1980s, she served in Occidental Mindoro
as executive director/founder of the Mindoro Institute for
Development for the empowerment of farmers at the
grassroots level. It was through her work among poor
Mindoro farmers that she first encountered a VSO volunteer, a
British national teaching agricultural farm systems. She
was surprised to realize that VSO volunteers were “skilled
professionals,” something that distinguished the
organization from the legions of others. Still, her own
call to VSO would come at a much later date.
After a
brief stint in
Manila,
Pantua-Juanito then devoted 11 years of her life helping
rehabilitate Cambodia and its people by working for
various NGOs in rural development. She recalls the effects
of war, which she continually faced in her work, as
devastating.
Still
reeling from the destruction left by the Khmer Rouge, many
children were orphaned by parents who had been killed in a
conflict that decimated an entire generation. Later on,
she worked as local capacity-building adviser to the
United Nations Development Program, facilitating
cooperation between villagers and local officials to
develop resettled communities. As new democratic
structures were established all over the country, her work
shifted to supporting the establishment of good-governance
systems. She also worked as a consultant to World Bank
projects such as the Social Fund and the Ministry of Rural
Development’s Northeast Village Development Program to
instill social development components in their
infrastructure projects.
Like the
communities she served, life for her and her family was
very basic and humble. For baths, her family used basins
outside their house like ordinary Cambodians. Birthdays
were not celebrated—most people were unable to commemorate
them. Yet, her family learned that uncelebrated birthdays
still held tremendous meaning. Now aged 17 and 12, her
kids still “don’t celebrate it [in the normal manner],”
instead opting to donate funds for a particular social
cause or outreach program on the day itself. In the
Pantua-Juanito family, birthdays are about the person—not
what he is to receive, but rather what he can give or
share to others. She is, of course, exceptionally proud of
her kids.
In 2001
Pantua-Juanito’s commitment to VSO finally began. Having
devoted a good share of her life to
Cambodia,
she accepted the chance to return home as program manager
for VSO South-South Program in Manila. Pantua-Juanito was
then the lone employee but as a firm believer in VSO’s
mission of “sharing skills and changing lives,” she was
determined to get VSO off the ground in the Philippines.
Her hard work ended up paying off. When VSO Bahaginan
became an autonomous agency, she was appointed as its
executive director. From one person, the office has now
grown to a staff of 17.
Tailor-made
VSO, or
the Voluntary Service Overseas, is the only international
development organization of its kind, which is committed
to fighting global poverty and disadvantage via a wide
range of volunteering development programs. It has over
1,500 professional volunteers in 35 countries. The current
mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, was a VSO volunteer.
Through
VSO’s unique approach to international development,
professional volunteers work hand in hand with local
communities to make a difference at the grassroots level.
VSO matches the right person with the right skills to the
right place and the right program with each of its
placements in various parts of the world.
While
other charities have their own volunteering advocacies,
VSO Bahaginan’s differs greatly because its volunteer
assignments are tailored to the individual. Their Global
Xchange Program (GXP) is a short program that lasts for
six months. Catering to students and the youth, it
involves living in host communities in the
Philippines
and the United Kingdom for three months each in the given
six-month period. Meanwhile, the International
Volunteering program is for professionals who are willing
to take a year or two off from their careers. Predeparture
training is given and includes an exercise that determines
true willingness to leave behind loved ones for an
extended period of time.
Initially,
people think of volunteering as a way to give of
themselves to various communities. But most volunteers end
up coming away with so much more than what they initially
brought in. They become intimately connected with the
communities they serve and with the strangers who
eventually become close friends. And they get a deeper
perspective on life, gain insights into society and
culture and discover a latent resilience in themselves.
“What we
do here is brain gain, not brain drain,” says
Pantua-Juanito.
This is
why VSO Bahaginan accepts volunteers from all professional
fields except primary-school teachers. “We have a shortage
of teachers here in the Philippines,” she says, “sending
them out would be to our own disservice.”
Well-suited for Pinoys
The
International Volunteer program has had much success in
the Philippines.
So far, it
has already sent over 400 volunteers to 34 developing
countries on assignment in the fields of health,
management, natural resources, education and livelihood
development. VSO Bahaginan belongs to a prestigious
group—along with the United Nations, it is only one of two
organizations in the country that send volunteers abroad.
Despite
being just over seven years old, VSO Bahaginan has a vast
area of responsibility.
It
currently supports the National Volunteering Programs of
VSO in Southeast Asia, China, Papua New Guinea and
Vanuatu. It is also an active participant in Mindanao—VSO
Bahaginan remains the only one to send foreign volunteers
to
Mindanao for peace and development and interfaith dialogue.
Finally,
VSO Bahaginan also organizes programs to promote
volunteering on a national level. Through forums and
workshops conducted by returned volunteers, as well as a
certificate course in volunteer management (Volunteer
Program Development and Management, or VPDM), VSO
Bahaginan is working to make public service an integral
part of Filipino lives.
Being
known for bayanihan, Pantua-Juanito believes that
Filipinos have a penchant for volunteerism.
“We have
the skills, not the money. This is considered the
Philippines’ development assistance to poor countries.
Filipinos have the ability to empathize and adjust easily
to others and to a situation. Filipino volunteers are more
resourceful and are able to mobilize programs within
communities,” she says.
But
Pantua-Juanito feels that Filipino notions of volunteerism
as being taga-linis, taga-alaga, taga-buhat,
helping people cross the street, and other similar chores
are in need of updating.
And that
is exactly where VSO comes in.
“The
significance and impact of volunteer contribution to
societal development needs to be measured and
communicated,” she adds.
As more
and more Filipinos become advocates of genuine change,
volunteerism awareness is on the rise. In fact, VSO
Bahaginan is getting more inquiries on its volunteer
programs. “I am positive that this will further pick up,”
enthuses Pantua-Juanito. “Individuals, schools,
organizations and corporations are beginning to reach out
to us.”
As a
living example of how volunteerism can change lives,
Pantua-Juanito shares some of her greatest lessons from
working in postwar Cambodia.
“[I
realized that] everyone is just a passerby in other
people’s lives. The fact that we are passersby does not
hinder us from contributing toward enabling a positive
change in ourselves, in others and in society. Being
somewhere for only a short while is reason all the more to
forge paths out of poverty and disadvantage and toward
empowerment,” she says.
This
continues to drive Pantua-Juanito at VSO Bahaginan, where
she is committed to turning volunteerism into a
well-traveled path for Filipinos from all walks of life.
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