This blog had been the hardest blog I have ever written for many reason. One being that it's not about my experiences in the Philippines but it's about me and my own experiences as a person. Last week I have made the hardest decision - to end my programme prematurely. I am going home, back to London. I promised myself that I will never dwell on negatives while writing blogs and I am not going to now. I will say that the main factor that made me consider to go ...

I turned up to work one day at DSWS and within 30mins, I have seen THREE shocking moments that I will remember forever. 1. Arrived at DSWS couple of minute early, so i sat down by the desk of the deaf assistant to the boss of the PWD department, his name is Tim. He was working away, recording some data from the recent application forms into his book, his way of tracking all the applications that gone in and out. A woman, I'm calling her Veronica (only because s...

My work placement during my time in the Philippines is with DSWS; department of Social Welfare Services, similar to our Department of Work and Pension in the UK. In DSWS, I work specifically with the PWD department; PWD stands for People With Disability. Disabled people in the Philippines can apply to be recognised officially as a PWD in order to get recognition from the government and to get benefits of 5,000peso a year; that is roughly ₤72 a year. With this...

One of our roles as a volunteer for Vso is to support the local deaf community of Cebu and their projects. Today, as a part of our In Country Orientation, we have to visit important places that volunteers must know about such as local schools, deaf charities and today, we visited the Police department. We had our seminar at the regional 7 Police station. There are 157 police stations in Cebu and 7 main regional stations/camp. Officer "can't remember her name so...

Betania Retreat House is where I've stayed at in the last few days. A retreat house, sanctuary for Nuns to recluse from society to remind themselves of their own connection to God and time to reflect. In this nunnery, strict silence is enforced, once a nun had settled into her room, she is silent until she find solitude and leave the doors of this nunnery, back to whatever she was doing. Silence is to ensure there are no distraction. There are some resident nuns ...