From Breaking the Ice to Skills Scoping Exercises: Enhancing Peer Relations among PFV’s Core Youth Leaders

This group of youngsters often spend their weekends hanging-out with their cliques. Some of them are inherently extroverts who have found new ways of expressing their selves with their respective dance groups. The open spaces and beachfront near their neighbourhoods became their common ground for staging performances. But still, there’s quite a number whose thoughts maybe as placid and deep as the calm sea water, yet often lack the confidence to unleash their untapped potentials. Sometimes, the reticent ones only need some avenues and opportunities to spark-off their innermost talents and to bring their voices, variety of emotions and imaginative prowess at work. This was the premise of PETA when it started to set off some creative workshop sessions for the youths of Pope Francis Village for they see them as an integral part in the development of the community.  

Last Sunday, a workshop was organized by PETA with 20 youth volunteers from the coastal areas of San Jose District.  As a follow-up to the basic integrated theatre arts workshops held last year, this activity was organized to break the inhibitions of youth participants as most of them don’t know each other yet. Secondly, this is the first leg of scoping exercises which hoped to map-out the skills and capacities of workshop participants and match them with what is currently needed in Pope Francis Village. 

PETA’s broad experience in handling group dynamic sessions enabled individual participants to freely interact with their peers through verbal communication, visualization and have their feelings fully articulated in written forms. 

Symbolism also aided the participants in illustrating the state of their community before and after typhoon Yolanda, their struggles and weaknesses, their strengths and accomplishments and how they see their role in the development of their new community in Pope Francis Village. 

Angelika Sembrero describes herself like a flower that has fully bloomed. 

“Mahiyain ako noong una, pero hindi na ngayon. Nailalabas ko na ngayon ang aking mga kakayanan. Ang aking kakayanan ay maaring makatulong sa Pope Francis Village gaya ng pagpapanatili ng kanilisan ng kapaligiran, kapaligirang mapayapa, walang kalat at maaliwalas sa paningin”.

(I was shy before, but I have slowly overcome this now. I am now capable of showing my own capacities. I can use these capacities in Pope Francis Village like for example in maintaining the cleanliness of the environment- an environment that is peaceful, free from clutter and visually appealing.) 

The youths have so much to offer to the community. Maita Duero’s testimony prefigures some of the creative crafts that she could possibly contribute to their community and their fellow youths such as sharing her skills in playing a guitar, dancing, song and poem writing and even singing, to cite a few. 

Roldan Divina, who was part of the second batch of first aiders previously given a training on Basic Life Support and First Aid administration interestingly wrote a poem about how he was changed by his volunteer experience in PFV. And this is how it goes:

Tulad ng pagbangon sa umaga 

Sa pagmulat ng mga mata

Simula ng aking pagkabata

Di ko pa alam ang aking kayang magawa

Ngunit ng makilala sila

Parang namulat ang aking mata

Nung ako’y napasama sa iba

Aking nagawa ang dati di ko kaya

Tulad ng pagbibigay lunas sa iba.

(In these lines, Roldan narrated that before, he was still unaware of what he is capable of. When he became a First Aid Team member in Pope Francis Village and immersed himself with others, he realized that he is capable of extending first aid assistance to others.)  

The workshop was also an opportunity to pin-point those who have skills on leadership and with strong interests on media and theatre arts. These skills are vital endowments which can be tapped to further the participation of youths in advocacy, communication and building PFV’s external linkages even beyond their current support networks. 

Ms. Abigail Billones, the lead facilitator of this workshop placed huge emphasis on sustaining support for youth organizing in Pope Francis Village. She was very explicit in saying that the youths are a work in progress.

“Kayo ay inoorganisa at hinahanda upang maging aktibong mamamayan dahil nakikita namin na makakatulong kayo sa pag-unlad ng inyong komunidad, ng bansa o maaring ng mundo.  Sa mga susunod na panahon, maaring  ang iba sa inyo ay magiging pinuno ng Pope Francis Village dahil kayo rin naman ang magmamana nito at magpapatuloy ng nasimulan ng inyong mga magulang, pagbibigay-diin ni Ms. Billones.” 

(You are now being organized and prepared to become active agents because we see that you can contribute for the development of your community, of  our country and even the world. Perhaps some of you will also become future leaders of Pope Francis Village because eventually you will also inherit this and that you will also continue the work that already been started by your parents, says Ms. Billones.)