Support Staff in Women's Shelter

About the Program

The Women's Shelter that VFV works with is officially called Regional Haven. It is a social welfare residential centre run by the Department of Social Welfare and Development. It was set up to provide responsive intervention and rehabilitation programs to women who are victims of gender-based violence or who are vulnerable to abuses and exploitation.The centre aims to enable disadvantaged women in difficult circumstances to resolve their problems. It also aims to restore the women’s normal social functioning to regain their self-worth and dignity. 

These are achieved through the provision of protective and rehabilitative services. The centre provides temporary safe haven to women from 18-59 years old and to those below 18 years old if they are pregnant upon admission to the centre. Most often the women institutionalized at the shelter bring their dependent children. They are provided with basic and vital services such as residence, medical, psychological/psychiatric, livelihood skills development, legal, formal and non-formal education, and other relevant services. 

Role of the Volunteer

The volunteer will be working alongside staff composed of social workers, nurse, houseparents, and support staff. The centre chief is a registered social worker. The volunteer is required to work at this placement five times a week, from Monday to Friday, even on holidays since the program is always open. Usually the required number of work time is only 4 hours but volunteers commonly render more than 4 hours. Due to the fact that the women have assigned tasks, there are certain periods daily in the morning and afternoon in which they are free and these would be allocated for the activities organized by the volunteer. On Tuesdays, the women attend non-formal classes, hence there is no session with the women. Instead, the volunteer may choose to take care of the children.

The volunteer’s role is basically to empower these women by organizing activities that can aid in restoring their self-worth. Empowering can be in the form of education, awareness of their value as human beings, and livelihood and skills training. The volunteer should always incorporate fun and relaxing activities. The objective is to prepare them for reintegration to the community. They must be prepared mentally, socially, and physically to be able to function normally again. They must have skill sets in order for them to be self-sufficient and dependent only to themselves.

Dress Code

To conform with the Filipino conservative culture and to look professional, volunteers must dress modestly. The volunteer must report to work wearing the appropriate clothes.Top must consist of shirt of blouse or t-shirt with sleeves. No singlet or tank top. Top should not have plunging neckline. Bottom wear must be long pants or knee-length skirt. Footwear must be shoes or sandals.Outside work, a volunteer can wear more comfortable article of clothing such as shorts and tank tops and wear flip flops.

Transportation to the Placement

During placement, volunteer will take any of the following public transportation vehicles, depending on his/her destination: jeepney or multicab. Patience is required when traveling to and from placement. The volunteer’s daily commute takes at most 15 minutes and requires him/her to travel from Bliss to Pawing, Palo on a multicab for “St. Paul’s Campetic.” This ride costs 0.16 USD only. On the way back, the volunteer has to take the "Tacloban/Bus Terminal” jeepneys. The return trip also costs the same. The volunteer will be briefed on getting to placement and back during the placement orientation at the beginning of the program.

Our volunteers can use their free time either for their personal activities or for organizing side projects with our sponsored kids, with the Boys and Girls Club or with the moms under our Laura's Craft and Mother's Club. 

The former may include a trip to some of the beautiful white-sand beaches and sandbars, islands, waterfalls, underground river, surf camps, and caves found in the region while the latter can include baking sessions with the local moms, dance tutorials with the teens, or teaching any other craft or life skills to the locals. 

Our volunteers would usually organize those activities as a group during long weekends or holidays. We also have our Volunteer's Lounge which has wi-fi and where volunteers can hang around with fellow volunteers. They can also use the lounge for a movie night once a week.