Reflection of Cross Cultural Exchange Philippine

REFLECTION OF CROSS CULTURAL EXCHANGE--- PHILIPPINE Lai Chun Miu, Miu BSW Year 1

During the twenty-one days in the Philippines, I had many valuable experiences. By the hosting of KAMPI which is a National Federation of Organization of Region with Disabilities in the Philippines, we especially took a look into the services for disabled people in different parts of the Philippines, for example, Manila, Baguio, IloIlo. They have now a programme called BBC (Breaking Barriers for Children). They have improved and extended the services by the experience of BBP (Breaking Barriers for People). Through the visits to the centres of the BBC programme and community visit., it was found that lacking of resources was the main problem in the Philippines. It could be reflected that the funding for the BBC is from Denmark and there were no services provided by the government for the disabled. All are run by NGO. The state only took a small small role for the aspect of providing social services to its citizens. However, they would continue the services if there exists originally such as after finish the project of BBC, the government would take the responsibility to take over it, KAMPI asked for resources and funding from some churches but not the government! So all resources they get must be treasured. Though there are services provided to the disabled by the NGOs, the services

were provided only at a very basic level and quality compared to Hong Kong, where there are various aspects of services provided. The role of social workers in Hong Kong and in the Philippines is also very different. In the Philippines, their main responsibility and the role were out reaching to find people in need. They did not really provide services to people directly. The two most unforgettable visits were to a School for Deaf in Baguio (Baguio School of Deaf). We learned sign language there and communicate with the students. Also we tried to experience how they learn to “sound”. The second one is an organization for the abused children, ABS-CBN, which was a mass media. We visited the abused children and played with them in a centre that was for protecting the children after knowing being abused. They were so sweet and lovely. All the way we visit, we were taped for promotion to increase the awareness of the abused children. Other than formal visiting, we also had some leisure and entertainment during the trip. For example, we went to Banaue to go for hiking in the Rice Terraces, lived in a luxury resort and hotel and of course shopping. We had also experienced 8- hour travelling on a bus in a single trip. It was so horrible! On the whole, this trip opened my mind and widened my horizon especially on how services are provided by an organization to the community. It is really an unforgettable and hard experience.