Nostalgic Moments - A Visit To The Refugee Camp

Early this year, I've visited the Refugee Camp once again after more than a decade and to my surprise, the place was fully abondoned, no trace of dorms where staff were housed and bunkhouses where refugees were billeted. But there's one thing that struck me most, a former building was converted into a museum.




Most memorabilias about refugee experiences were kept intact especially the boat that was used by Viet refugees that once sailed the rough waves in the ocean from Vietnam to Philippines. What a sight!! It was a very touching moment when most of us saw that "small boat" again and it's fully preserved after long years.



The PRPC- Philippine Refugee Processing Camp had closed several years ago after operating for many years. But on 20th January 2005, it was opened for the Grand Reunion. It was arranged to be a Reunion for all those who had dedicated their time and effort for the refugees, all VOLAGS (Voluntary Agencies like Caritas Manila, Salvation Army, Embassies etc.) and former refugees as well.



It marked the 25th Anniversary when the Philippine Government and UNHCR-United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees signed an agreement that refugees will be transported to the island for processing purposes. Thus, refugees stayed in Bataan for temporary assylum prior to their resettlement to other countries. While Refugees were billeted there, they were given intensive ESL for survival and Cultural Orientation about Western lifestyles.



Fortunately, I've managed to join the Reunion and I've met former colleagues who came from all over the world who continuously dedicate themselves serving the refugees all over the globe. There were former refugees who went back to Bataan for that purpose to join the events and to pick up the pieces to where they've left.


January 2005

There were around 20,000 Indo-Chinese Refugees from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam when I was still in the Refugee Camp in Morong Bataan. Most of these refugees came from other camps in Thailand, Malaysia and Hongkong. The camps in the Philippines were not as bad as other areas, but it isn't as good as living in your own home as well.
The picture below is where refugees used to live and they are known as billets and bunkhouses.



It was really a remarkable event last January, inspite of my hectic schedule and considering that only 4 days in PI and it's the last leg of our trip. It's worth visiting the place after more than a decade. A place where I've learned to value the real meaning of life through the experiences with the refugees. A place where I came to realise the real essence of global issues based on humanitarian ground.



An event to remember indeed! It's really worth a cause!

Flight To Seek Safe Haven

Every year hundreds of thousands of people leave their own countries and flee to other countries. People who have to leave their countries for political, economic or religious reasons are called Refugees. They usually have no choice.

Some Refugees leave their homeland because of hunger. They know they will die if they won't leave; there isn't enough food to eat. Others leave because of war. They are afraid they will be killed if they stay. Some refugees leave because of their religion, race or political ideas cause serious problems for them. Sometimes, religious, racial or political minorities are persecuted by larger groups. Members of such minorities leave because they will be imprisoned or killed if they stay.


Kurdish Refugees

Some refugees flee to countries close to their homeland. They resettle in neighbouring countries because they want to return to thier homes after the danger is over. Other refugees resettle in countries far away from their homeland. They do this for the reason that they may not be able to return to their country again.


An outdoor activity with Iraqi Refugees

It is not easy to make a new life, but most refugees get help. They are given a place to live and food to eat until they find jobs. They are given Government assistance until they are able to stand on their toes in a new land. It's not that easy to start and with no choice to be a refugee, they have to face all these kinds of struggles. The experiences they have been through keep haunting them within their inner selves no matter where they are. Even they wanted so hard to get rid of those traumas they've encountered, it lingers in their minds always.


A Cambodian Refugee

Most Refugees look forward to the future in their new country. They work very hard and are thankful for the opportunity to start a new life.

Aren't you lucky, you aren't a Refugee! I hope that this will give a clearer view about your concepts on who a Refugee is, and why they are called Refugees. Some people may not have an idea about the impact of being a refugee.

I hope that this passage may open the minds of some readers who haven't got any closer contacts nor experience with REFUGEES.

Maasalama! Ciao! Sumnang loo!

Okun Charan! Shukran! Cam' en!


Taken with Iraqi/Sudanese Refugee Ss

Acquisition Of Skills Not Acquisition Of Content

Learning is not the acquisition of content, but the acquisition of skills with which to learn this content.

This is an excerpt from a "presentation" that was recently presented in a group of mentors and I thought it wise to blog it. With the acknowldgment of my co-presenter Victoria Parisi, I added this to my blogspot. It may be useful to some of you who visit this site who speak the same language and the same path like we do.

Helping Adults Succeed...

There are three ways in which we can make modifications our programs to encourage learners; include eliminating affective barriers, making the material relevant and motivating and encouraging the use of learning strategies.

Affective factors such as motivation and self-confidence are very important in language learning. Many learners "fear failure" more than their younger counterparts, may be because they accept the stereotype of previous unsuccessful attempts to learn. When such learners are faced with a stressful, fast-paced learning situation, fear of failure only increases. Others may also exhibit greater hesitancy in learning. Thus, mentors must be able to reduce anxiety and build self confidence in the learner.

Activities which include large amounts of oral repitition, extensive correction or an expectation of error-free speech will assist the learner active participation. On the other hand, providing opportunities for learners to work together, focusing on understanding rather than producing language and reducing the focus on error correction can build learners' self-confidence and promote the process of learning. Mentors should emphasize the positive-focus on the good progress learners are making and provide opportunities for them to be successful. This success can then be reinforced with more of the same.

Adults studying a foreign language are usually learning it for a specific purpose: to be more effective professionally, to be able to survive in an anticipated foreign situation, or for other instrumental reasons. They are not willing to tolerate boring or irrelevant content or things that may stress the learning of grammar rules that are out of context. They need materials designed to present structures that will be of immediate use to them in a context which reflects the situations and its functions. Visual Aids and activities that incorporate relevant experiences will surely succeed with the majority of adult learners.

Adults have already developed learning strategies that have served them well in other contexts. They can use these strategies to their advantage while on the process of learning. We should be flexible enough to allow different approaches to any learning task. Adults best learn through a visual channel.


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Taken with Ian, a practice teacher from Macquarie University, NSW. 2005

Ian, isn't it nice to see your first Ss? Congratulations! Well done! You've done it with flying colours. The passage above may be useful to add to your culminating report. You may want to include this.

Innovative Approach - An Effective Method

"Different strokes for different folks."

Well, I don't really know much about this statement whether it's effective or not, but would rather focus on something that's proven to be more effective.

It makes me wonder what's the best approach that we could use to get a good feedback in solving some issues. To my belief, it's embedded in our personalities as to what method is best suited.

Often times, it is misinterpreted as a sign of weakness when someone walks out from a critical situation. That's being judgmental! A stereotype indeed, many are still into this kind of mentality. There's always a best way for someone to combat an issue in different perspectives.




My point of view is, Innovative Approach is an excellent medium and I find it very effective at any given circumstances. "Modelling from behind" that is. You don't need to spell the words out.

Words are always open to anyone for interpretation and the meaning behind often gets lost or it reduces its strength in the transference from the writer to the readers. A more efficient way in which it can easily be achieved is through this method. An innovative approach can be very effective especially when interacting with others. This way you can see the greatest transference of information not coming through words, but through the ENERGY behind those words. The same goes in a virtual reality, rather than telling people how to be, how to solve an issue, SEEK to set the readers' minds by examples, through models and thus allow ACTIONS TO SPEAK THAN WORDS.






In dealing with others, it is much more profound to embody the solution yourself rather than merely sharing it through words.

Blogging is really great!! Can you see the approach used?

Great Day to All!

Identify your Role As A Team Player

This isn't about sports, this has something to do with positive qualities and allowable weaknesses. Try to refrain from saying negative traits, we can always replace it with "Allowable Traits"

Decide which stereotype you think comes closest to describing you. If you find it absolutely impossible to settle for one stereotype, allow yourself a mix of two. But remember, you are not being asked to describe yourself as a stereotype, just to say which one you think comes closest to yourself. The purpose is to use the stereotype as a starting point, not accept it as an endpoint.

ARE YOU A .................. ?



* Company Person - CP - conservative, dutiful, predictable. organising ability, with common sense, hard working, discipline, inflexible, unresponsive to new ideas.

* Chair Person CH- calm, confident, controlled, welcomes all ideas on merit, without prejudice; clear objectives, only ordinary in intellect and creativity.

* Shaper - SH - highly strung, dynamic, outgoing, lots of drive, challenges inertia and complacency, impatient, easily provoked and irritable.

* Source Person - SO individualist, serious, unorthodox, great intellect, imagination, knowledge, up in the clouds, disregards practical detail and protocol.

* Investigator - IN- extrovert, enthusiastic, curious, contacts new people, explores new ideas, likes a challenge, loses interest after the initial attraction has passed.

* Monitor -MO - sober, unemotional, careful, sound judgement, discretion, hard-headedness, acks inspiration or the ability to motivate others.

* Team worker - TW - sociable, rather mild, sensitive, responds to people and situations, promotes team spirit, indecisive at moments.

* Completer - CO - orderly, painstaking, anxious, follows through to the end, perfectionist, worries about small things, won't 'let go' of a piece of work.


Thanks Dr Edge, these are really great ideas.

Facilitate Human Creativity - "Mentoring"

This passage is addressed particularly to my former colleagues out there who are still in the same career and started to visit this site. I found this very useful and thought it wise for you to see how this will work with you. This is a newly acquired skill and it looks effective after the workshop today. It sounds really interesting especially for mentors like you.

Have you heard of this COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT yet? Is it being used there now to where you are? Am sure, you're familiar with the Active Listening. If you are, you can associate it in a way, but there's a slight difference as to the methods. This is a new trend that was just introduced and later it might be implemented after this project will be done.

It may sound a "New Abstract Concept" at first glance, but after absorbing the new skills we've been through, the approach is very practical. Don't get frustrated if you find it so abstract for the first time. You might think that it hasn't got any relevance when you will come across this. Don't worry, we felt the same way among us who were there on the first day. It's a new concept really, we finally found out that it's not complicated at all. Actually, it's focused on Power Non-Judgmental Understanding to Facilitate Human Creativity.

I've asked the persmission of Dr Julian Edge, the speaker and facilitator of the conference, to share these ideas to you guys out there and maybe you will find it useful. He was actually very glad that his ideas will travel across miles. He gave me his site as well where you can see the whole FRAMEWORK of what I am talking about.

Here's the link.

http://www.aston.ac.uk/lss/research/prodd/CD/

This trend needs a collaboration with a colleague to start with.

Anyway, I hope you will find this useful to some extent.

PS: Ms Tapya and Pumpkin, this may also be of help to you and add up to your insights. Oh! sorry I haven't sent those Methods and Strategies from previous workshop yet. 'Will look into that sometime.