Romi Garduce: Tacloban Visit June 2014

Other posts: Trip Summary, What to See and Where to Stay and Eat

Aside from the usual tour in and around the city - many volunteerism opportunities are available (or may be created) to add flavor and meaning to one's visit. Just get a ground contact to help you plan your itinerary to make things easier. Options could be any livelihood-related program, easiest would be donation to families or school entities, tree-planting and rehabilitation of schools or homes, among many other things. Some photos of what we did during our trip...

Do some sports! Here, a runner enjoying the morning run by the bay

Donation to Special Education school (we visited 4 small schools). Donation came from Donors through UPM Search & Rescue organization. Here, a jump shot (wherein only 2 of us did jump.. hmph!)

Kiko's caption "fighting world problems one wacky pose at a time". Here, a donation hand-over visit to Jesus Kids Therapy center.

We also visited Sagkahan elementary school to plant trees and hopefully provide future shade for the kids.

Here planting seedling beside a newly erected, temporary school room. Behind is the old school building destroyed by typhoon Yolanda.

Tree planting near the playground. Grass and weeds are strong enemies of seedlings so we made sure we remove nearby weeds and their roots.

While Kiko traveled south towards Guian, I went Samar-side and enjoyed the Torpedo ride. it's a fast thrill ride on a long motorized boat zigzagging through Ulot river. This adventure tour, similar to many others - supported the effort to provide income to locals to prevent forest destruction through illegal poaching / logging.

enjoying the break in a picnic area before riding back the boat (upstream)

If you want a customized "volun-tourism" trip, try contacting BUKID OUTDOOR (in P. Burgos street), or try Leyte Gulf Travels (who also operates Calle Z restaurant). Both helped me plan my trip. (Try to google for updated contact numbers, or email me romi.garduch [gmail.com] for help).

Thanks to Cebu Pacific Air and DOT-8 for the support.