The tyranny of distance

The tyranny of distance didn't stop the cavalier

So why should it stop me? I'll conquer and stay free

Split Enz - Six Months in a Leaky Boat

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The province of San Agustin in the Philippines celebrated its annual market day on the 26th of August. Every one of the surrounding fifteen barangays (villages) brought fruit, vegetables, fish and crafts to sell.

The Payawpao Orchids saw this as a perfect opportunity to sell their crafts and Erna was dispatched to arrive nice and early the night before to get the stall setup. Erna waited outside her house for a tricycle to pick her up. No tricycle came and she gave up after a two hour wait. This story has a happy ending in that the Meaningful Volunteer motorcycle came to the rescue and Erna, the Payawpao Orchid stock, a sign and her two children (!) were transported to San Agustin.

But what is there were no Meaningful Volunteer motorcycle? What would Erna have done? Expensive and time consuming options abound. She could have hired a "single", which means paying a motorcycle owner to transport her. This would cost a very pricey 100 pesos ($US 2.08). Or she could have walked the 10km or so. Neither option is ideal.

This tale highlights one of the many problems facing developing communities around the world: The logistical challenge of get stuff from A to B. The roads here in San Agustin are largely pot-holed ridden dirt tracks that are serviced by privately owned tricycles. The roads take their toll both in terms of travel time and damage to the tricycles which all add to the overall costs.

Sometimes I think that an organization like the United Nations should just bite the bullet and fix the roads across all developing countries. This will give tremendous boasts to:

• The economy
  People will be able to move goods quickly and cheaply.
  
  
• Health
  Sick people can be bought to hospitals quickly and safely.
  
  
• Education
  Kids will have a much easier time getting to school
  
  
• Decreasing road causalities
  Africa especially suffers from the curse of unsafe, overloaded, poorly maintained vehicles traveling at unsafe speeds on pot-holed ridden roads. It always baffles me why visitors to Africa go to such lengths to protect themselves from tropical diseases, but think nothing of jumping into the aforementioned vehicles. The malaria won't kill you, but the public transport might.

The soon-to-be-complete online Meaningful Shop will no doubt help the the Payawpao Orchids to reach markets that have been traditionally beyond their reach. Meaningful Volunteer is working closely with the group to help them to develop crafts that have a high price density (dollars per kilogram) that go someway to overcoming the burdensome transport costs and the Tyranny of Distance.

Blooming Orchids

One of great joys in working in this environment is to see people flourish when they are given just the smallest opportunities and limited resources.

An example of this is the Payawpao Orchids craft group (Payawpao is a local mountain that dominates the area). The Payawpao Orchids take recycled paper - much of it from waste paper from the RYE School - and turn it into jewelry, bags, bowls and much more. The process involves cutting a piece of paper into long thin triangles, rolling each triangle into a tight ball, adding a small blob of glue to hold it together, and then coating it with varnish to make it hard.

The Orchids started by making simple items like this, but quickly moved onto more advanced items. Flor - for example - can up with these bracelets which are now affectionately know as "Flor Bracelets". The Orchids are working hard on coming up with paper-bead bags, paper-bead pencil-holders, paper-bead art, and so on.

The ladies are targeting a big festival coming up in late-August to sell their products. The products will also be available at the Meaningful Shop - the soon-to-be-live on-line store.

The Orchids have taken a simple technique, limited resources (waste paper, varnish, nylon, plastic beads, and locks), and turned in it a not only beautiful product, but a marketable product as well.

I love working with these ladies. Their passion, commitment, and even their business-nous remind me why I love working in developing counties so much.

Do you have a good idea of your own that could help these ladies? What not volunteer with them and help them bloom even more?

Welcome to the Meaningful Blog!

Hello and welcome to the Meaningful Blog!

My name is Malcolm Trevena. I am the founder of Meaningful Volunteer

Part of the Meaningful Volunteer philosophy is to be as up front and honest as we possibly can. This blog is an extension of that ideal. Both the successes and failures will be recorded here. I hope by that by sharing the information, people can see how hard that everyone associated with Meaningful Volunteer is working towards making a meaningful difference in developing communities.

I myself have done a lot of volunteering across South East Asia and Africa (see here for more info) and much of what I saw was passionate volunteers placed into environments they were not familiar with, given no support and expected to perform miracles. Some superstars did do wonderful things, but most floundered and became frustrated. It is hoped that the programs that the staff at Meaningful Volunteer have worked so hard on will enable passionate people to make a lasting impact on developing communities.

I will update this blog every week or so. It will be less formal than the news feed and will hopefully give you a flavor of what it means to be involved with Meaningful Volunteer.

Ingat po. (Take care).

Malcolm Trevena