Manila Times - 2 Filipinos rebuilding Myanmar
21 March 2009 | 1:10 AM
By Llanesca T. Panti, Reporter
While most people would find comfort in their own homes with family, two young Filipinos showed that they can go out of their way and extend a helping hand to the people of cyclone-ravaged Myanmar, formerly Burma.
Dwight Jason Ronan and Ruby Pineda took part in an early recovery projectRebuilding Small Farm Livelihoodsin Thaleikgyi Village, Pyapone township, that was initiated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and endorsed by the Tripartite Core Group composed of high-level representatives from the Asean, the Myanmar government and the United Nations.
Asean groups Myanmar, the Philippines, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The Rebuilding Small Farm Livelihoods project seeks to improve household food security and reduce dependency on food aid, provide rural households with significant income gains, create season-long wage employment for landless households and improve agricultural production in Thaleikgyi.
Other volunteers included Un Bunnerg from Cambodia and Kyi Phyu Win Thant, Khin Thazin Myint and Tar Blut Bwe Moo, all from Myanmar.
Myanmar was hit by Cyclone Nargis on May 2, 2008, leaving at least 140,000 dead and thousands of people still missing.
Careers on hold
Ronan was about to accept a job offer from a telecommunications company in Manila in December 2008, also the year he finished college, when a phone call from Myanmar inviting him to be an Asean volunteer for the Rebuilding Small Farm Livelihoods project in Thaleikgyi made him change his mind.
I would like to use my knowledge to help the people affected by Cyclone Nargis, the 21-year-old development communications graduate said in a report made by the Asean Secretariat.
Although the living condition is very basic as compared to home, I feel there is a need for the volunteers to live close to the villagers to let them know that Asean cares about them and that they are not facing the hardship alone, Ronan added.
His fellow volunteer Pineda left her full-time job at a local non-government organization in Manila to take part in the early recovery project.
The 23-year-old pointed out that delivering assistance is not an easy job.
Changes do not come easily, you have to work on them, and in order for assistance to be effective, it has to be done with the villagers participation, she said.
Bottoms-up approach
Pineda added that at the beginning of the project, local people rarely expressed their wishes and tended to wait for the volunteers to make decisions for them.
Our bottom-up approach, trying to engage villagers in discussions and giving them the opportunity to have their voices heard, gradually empowered them. I think this was one of the significant successes of the project, she said.
Pineda added that while she also had to deal with homesickness during the first month of her volunteer work since she has never lived far away from her family, she would leave Myanmar with a heavy heart.
I will be sad to leave since the ties with the villagers have grown stronger, she said. I urge people to join the Asean volunteer program because it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that opens up to new experiences and many other aspects of life.
21 March 2009 | 1:10 AM
By Llanesca T. Panti, Reporter
While most people would find comfort in their own homes with family, two young Filipinos showed that they can go out of their way and extend a helping hand to the people of cyclone-ravaged Myanmar, formerly Burma.
Dwight Jason Ronan and Ruby Pineda took part in an early recovery projectRebuilding Small Farm Livelihoodsin Thaleikgyi Village, Pyapone township, that was initiated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and endorsed by the Tripartite Core Group composed of high-level representatives from the Asean, the Myanmar government and the United Nations.
Asean groups Myanmar, the Philippines, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The Rebuilding Small Farm Livelihoods project seeks to improve household food security and reduce dependency on food aid, provide rural households with significant income gains, create season-long wage employment for landless households and improve agricultural production in Thaleikgyi.
Other volunteers included Un Bunnerg from Cambodia and Kyi Phyu Win Thant, Khin Thazin Myint and Tar Blut Bwe Moo, all from Myanmar.
Myanmar was hit by Cyclone Nargis on May 2, 2008, leaving at least 140,000 dead and thousands of people still missing.
Careers on hold
Ronan was about to accept a job offer from a telecommunications company in Manila in December 2008, also the year he finished college, when a phone call from Myanmar inviting him to be an Asean volunteer for the Rebuilding Small Farm Livelihoods project in Thaleikgyi made him change his mind.
I would like to use my knowledge to help the people affected by Cyclone Nargis, the 21-year-old development communications graduate said in a report made by the Asean Secretariat.
Although the living condition is very basic as compared to home, I feel there is a need for the volunteers to live close to the villagers to let them know that Asean cares about them and that they are not facing the hardship alone, Ronan added.
His fellow volunteer Pineda left her full-time job at a local non-government organization in Manila to take part in the early recovery project.
The 23-year-old pointed out that delivering assistance is not an easy job.
Changes do not come easily, you have to work on them, and in order for assistance to be effective, it has to be done with the villagers participation, she said.
Bottoms-up approach
Pineda added that at the beginning of the project, local people rarely expressed their wishes and tended to wait for the volunteers to make decisions for them.
Our bottom-up approach, trying to engage villagers in discussions and giving them the opportunity to have their voices heard, gradually empowered them. I think this was one of the significant successes of the project, she said.
Pineda added that while she also had to deal with homesickness during the first month of her volunteer work since she has never lived far away from her family, she would leave Myanmar with a heavy heart.
I will be sad to leave since the ties with the villagers have grown stronger, she said. I urge people to join the Asean volunteer program because it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that opens up to new experiences and many other aspects of life.
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