[By Gloria Ngu]
A few months ago, my friend, Felice, and I wrote about Project WHEE! and our efforts to raise funds for our air tickets (read it here: https://etctaylors.com/2014/04/21/busking-for-bario/). To give you a summary of Project WHEE!, it is a cause of teaching the women of Bario English in a practical setting in order to boost the eco-tourism trade there. The youth volunteers are paired up with a lady in Bario, and they shadow this lady as she goes around carrying out her daily routine. Making use of her environment and context, they then teach her English words that she might possibly use when explaining things to a tourist.
And let me tell you something: writing about the project before and writing about it after experiencing it is totally different. It is much more than teaching English or doing community service. It is a cultural exchange, a forging of new relationships. It built us more than we built the community there.
I believe there is much a name holds, as with the name of Project WHEE!. Permit me to explain further. WHEE! is an acronym that stands for:
We the youth
Helping those in need
Exceeding expectations
Empowering others
When I joined this project, I thought it would just be like any other volunteer programme: go there, make friends, help people, learn something, come back, life goes on as usual. Boy, was I wrong. The project provided me with the chance to build strong relationships, reflect deeply and also think about issues I might not have before. I think most importantly, it developed me as a person. Working and studying at the same time can cause one to be disconnected from Earth as one rushes about each day, thinking about what to do next, what uncompleted work there is, what plans are there for the week…this project and Bario helped me reconnect those stray cables and draw me back to the reality of the world.
All in all, the project was a huge success, and in December, Batch 4 will be taking off on this exciting journey. Want to know how you can apply? Read on for the plans for 2015!
Project WHEE! has decided to send not one, not two, but FOUR batches of youth volunteers next year! The tentative batch dates are listed below, along with the closing date for registration:
Batch 5: 17 Jan to 7 Feb 2015 (CLOSING DATE: 23 October 2014)
Batch 6: 9 to 30 May 2015 (CLOSING DATE: 7 February 2015)
Batch 7: 31 Jul to 21 Aug 2015 (CLOSING DATE: 7 February 2015)
Batch 8: 28 Nov to 19 Dec 2015 (CLOSING DATE: 19 September 2015)
Interested? Apply for these batches here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xYBQUxgS2v2N0kcHKnrG2lUuZB5p5UzNPQxOpEUcEps/viewform?usp=send_form
This time round, Project WHEE! is partnering with SimplyGiving.com and Do Something Good to fundraise for the costs for this project. So why not give it a try?
We the youth. Helping those in need. Exceeding expectations. Empowering others.