Mindanao Trip Day 3: Volunteer Day with Kids Who Farm
Here is Day 3 of 9 of our Mindanao Adventure: Zamboanga City (last November 2023). Eto na nga, inabutan tayo ng 2024. Hehe
Welcome to Day 3 of 9 of our Mindanao adventure! :)
…this is one of the many blogs I wanted to write, more for me than for anyone else. I shall try my best to document memories that I can still recall in this trip.
For our third day in Zamboanga City, we scheduled a volunteer day with Kids Who Farm. I’ve been following them on instagram for a while now. They teach kids to garden using upcycled materials, which I like. If you browse through their instagram now, they give sessions beyond Zamboanga already. Noice one!
On this particular day, they had a scheduled kids’ activity in Simariki Island Ancestral Domain. We invited Tito Kholee of GK Mindanao to join us. I’m so glad that he did cause that meant more time with Tito.
We met Muneer and his volunteer team from the jump off point. We need to ride a boat to reach the island. We were also joined by the public school teachers. These teachers travel from the mainland to the island daily. Now that is commitment.
Muneer mentioned we will pass through a mangrove area. It was vast and thick. There were a few birds too. Here are some snaps on the boat on our way to the island.
As soon as we arrived, there were already a few kids waiting for us to arrive. The teachers requested them to call more kids so we can start the activity.
Of course I wanted to take a look in the Kids Who Farm Microfarm that they set up. Their planting materials include tarps, plastic cups and milk boxes as pots.
One of the many challenges living in an island is access to water, both for drinking and daily use. They buy from the mainland. A future plan is to set up rainwater catchment which is the sustainable choice especially in islands like Simariki Island.
Their school caters to 100+ kids daily. They have 3 classrooms with 3 teachers with multi-grade classes. Multi-grade classes means it’s a mix of grade level. Heartbreaking, frustrating yet also inspiring. We can only hope that teachers in these areas are able to power through with the help of the local community.
The main event for the day was an art activity with the kids. The Kids Who Farm team brought art materials, snacks and a coloring book by Kuya AG Sano, an artist-activist painting murals across the globe. AG Sano compiled his mural drawings into a coloring book so he can send his message of taking care of the environment to a bigger audience, especially kids!
It was more than an hour of time spent together. It was a simple activity together but I’ve volunteered long enough to say that this do add up to these kids’ core memories.
Our shared reflection with Trizia: it is important that we include kids in our environment conversations and actions. In a way that brings out their joy, creativity and friendship! We can share with them the WHY of doing things. They are smarter and kinder than we think.
Grateful to have spent this day with the Kids Who Farm team. Thank you Muneer and team for having us!
Getting to know a place in this way provides a genuine experience for us, guests. It allows us to deeply connect to a place through the lens of the locals, the people who keep heroism and hope alive from where they are. I highly recommend to include a volunteer activity in your vacation trips.
This was honestly the first time for me to do this beyond Gawad Kalinga. A tip is to reach out to a trusted organization. Checking their social media accounts and view your friends who are connected to them is a good way to get started.
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For lunch, Tito Kholee brough us to KCC mall. And I thought that we wouldn’t make it to a local mall in this trip, but Tito was so excited to take us there. LOL. For our last day in Zamboanga City, we sleeping over in his home so that we can also say hello to Tita Bing. We were on the other of Zamboanga City now.
We were surprised that Tito dropped us off in a nearby hostel. Both of them and Tita Bing wants us to rest well because they have a new baby at home. HUHU. So rest we did. We slept through the rest of the afternoon. Then we walked to his home for dinner since we need to move more again.
We stayed for another hour for dinner to exchange more stories. Tito brought us home, that means more walking. Gotta love it when we find people who like walking too. :)
Stay tuned for Day 4!! At sana maalala ko pa! Haha.
Here’s the rest of the series of this Mindanao Adventure:
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3