KY QUANG PAGODA -HO CHI MINH

Volunteers will spend most of their time in the day-care room working with disabled children. At the project, you will take on two main roles, as a volunteer you will essentially be working as another member of local staff and as such must act accordingly. On the other hand, you are also there to care for and be a friend of the children. When working with the local staff you will be required to assist them in providing basic rehabilitation exercises and therapy treatment for children. The staff will guide you and help you understand the need of each individual child. Staff are always willing to learn new techniques or methods in therapy, if volunteers have a background in therapy work, they can spend time with local staff to offer some basic training and information. Back in the day-care room, one of the most important tasks is mealtimes when volunteers are expected to support local staff in feeding children who are unable to manage themselves. While this can at first seem somewhat overwhelming, you will feel more comfortable as you settle and understand the support needed due to a lack of local staff. The local staff will assign you to feed the easier children while they are in charge of the more difficult ones. As you become more familiar you will be expected to learn how to feed all the children. Quite different to the former, you will also help in practical activities such as preparing the room for lunch or naptime, cleaning and any other jobs required of you.