Written by: Alyssa Marie Villa
With its tagline, “Davao: Life is here”, the City takes pride in its majestic resources starting from beautiful beaches, durian, and pomelo, superb Mt. Apo, and the cultural diversity of its people amongst others. Hence, amplifying the role of volunteerism as a development strategy can further pave the way towards achieving a Matatag, Maginhawa, at Panatag na Buhay para sa lahat.
With this, PNVSCA expands its advocacy of mainstreaming volunteerism through consultation meetings and capacity development with its partners in Davao City.
The team met with the City Government of Davao on May 30, 2023, to discuss how volunteerism can be integrated into their local development plans and incrementally how they can be a local learning hub that provides vast volunteering opportunities for different sectors. Executive Director Donald James D. Gawe also emphasized the importance of designating a Volunteerism Focal Person (VFP) who will serve as a link to smoothly coordinate and harmonize volunteering efforts and initiatives in the City Government together with PNVSCA. Moreover, the Agency talked with the Ateneo de Davao University – Madaris Volunteer Program on how to further strengthen its convergence with the possibility of having a Memorandum of Understanding to move forward in advocating for volunteerism and other synergies with the academic community.
Volunteering is innate among Filipinos, but with capacity development, it can provide a strong and clear foundation on the true meaning and potentials of volunteerism to power development. Thus, PNVSCA, in the person of ED Gawe and Deputy Executive Director Ela Victoria Sarmago, served as Resource Speakers during the Training on Volunteering Programme Development and Management (VPDM) organized by the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) from May 31- June 02, 2023 at Home Crest Hotel, Davao City. The training aims to provide assistance to the government, private business/organizations, civic organizations and the academe that are interested in developing/improving their volunteering program; increase awareness and support for volunteerism and its relevance to sustainable development; and gain support to increase advocacy for youth volunteering in the workplace. Aside from Davao, the VPDM training will be rolled out in the Cities of Cotabato and General Santos.
While PNVSCA constantly magnifies its advocacy and promotion of volunteerism, it also serves as a clearinghouse for matters pertaining to international volunteer service. Consequently, the team conducted monitoring visits from May 29 – June 01, 2023 with its local partner institutions such as the forumZFD, Initiatives for Inter national Dialogues (IID), Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), and TESDA XI – Regional Training Center- Korea Philippines Vocational Training Center (RTCKPVTC) who engaged the assistance of international volunteers. The visit aims to gather feedback on the volunteer assistance and its contribution to the implementation of the program/project/activities of the partner institutions and generate information on the management and implementation of volunteer engagement.
Partner agencies also heighten their online visibility by reinforcing the consultations and visits conducted by PNVSCA. To read our partner’s postings, you may also visit:
https://www.korphildavao.site/rtc-korphil-davao-to-welcome-another-korean-volunteer-meets-pnvsca-for-site-evaluation-monitoring-of-volunteers/
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The author is currently the Volunteer Service Officer II of the Program Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (PCMED), Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency.
Visit PNVSCA website (www.pnvsca.gov.ph) and PNVSCA Facebook (facebook.com/PNVSCA) for other stories and information on volunteering.