Volunteer with the Street Children

The Street Children Center is officially called Social Development Center for Children (SDCC), a social welfare residential center run by the Tacloban City Social Welfare and Development Office. It provides shelter and care for disadvantaged male street children aging 18 and below. In particular the center houses children who are beggars, scavengers, children at risk, orphaned and abandoned, and victims of maltreatment and neglect. The street children program is intended to provide basic social welfare support services to these disadvantaged boys. Kids who loiter or roam around the streets are rounded up to save them from bad elements and all forms of exploitation. The centre becomes their temporary home until such time that the family or relatives come to take them home. Most of the kids at the centre stay longer than 6 months. The centre provides them a temporary safe haven. They are given free food, clothing, and other basic needs. These children are also provided educational support and sent to schools for formal education. The facility is headed by the center head who is a Social Welfare Officer and is being assisted by a few houseparents. It is usually understaffed and underfunded and support from outside like from NGOs and international volunteers and organizations is very much valuable and can make a lot of difference to the lives of these young boys.

The volunteer will be working alongside staff such as the social worker and houseparents. 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. Working schedule here is from 3:00 pm until 7:00 pm since the boys are in school most of the day and return mid or late afternoon. The boys here need help with their lessons so tutorial is a very useful activity. The boys also like sports, games, some arts and craft, and music.

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