Seija Gorr-Strange

Throughout my time at my past school, International School Manila, we had an outreach program known as iCARE where every year, students would be put into diverse, multi-grade groups, and do volunteer work with organizations who are partnered with the school.

iCARE meetings start in October, where people in their designated groups coordinate and plan with the leaders of their partner organization, discussing what the organizations need from the volunteers, and coming up with sustainable solutions to real problems.

In the first or second week of December, the iCARE groups actually travel to the iCARE sites for the week and actively participate in the volunteer work that had been planned.

In 2022, my iCARE group was partnered with the Philippine Institute for the Deaf. We spent a week building connections with both the staff and students within the community. We played with and helped to educate the children, went to their school and invited them to ours. We also spent a fair amount of time having conversations with the institute's staff about what they needed from ISM (my former school), and us to better support them.

iCARE 2023

During my time in iCARE, 2023, my group this year traveled to Subic, Zambales, alongside our partner organization, MAD Travel Subic, where we met the indigenous Filipino Aeta tribe of Yangil.

We learned some basic words in their dialect of Filipino (Ambala), as well as having a translator in order to be able to communicate, and learned about the culture, traditions, and struggles the tribe faces on a daily basis. We also helped to build them a new section of their farm, and promote the experiences the Aeta tribe provide in order to earn a living and protect their land; tours and hikes.

• Supported engaging, fun, and smooth-running events by helping with organization and planning.
• Collaborated with other nonprofit organizations to develop joint initiatives that benefited the broader community at large.
• Used strong interpersonal communication skills to convey information to others.
• Represented organization positively and professionally while providing community with much-needed services.

iCARE 2024

For iCARE this past December, I worked with Project Bantu, an organization that strives to help youth (Ages ~3 - 20) living in Manila's poorest slum communities get education, learn behavioral skills through an Afro-Brazilian martial art called Capoeira, and overall learn to break the cycle and make better lives for themselves.

During the time I spent at Casa Bantu and Bantu School with my iCARE group, I participated in many activities, such as learning about Capoeira and how it helped the children and teenagers there learn practice self control, instead of straying down more destructive paths, such as gang activity or drugs (which many of them had previously taken part of).

We also brought food for the school, helped them repaint the indoor walls of the facility with a brand new mural, and worked on learning based activities with the kids for the more educational aspect of our volunteer work.

• Supported efficient operations for people in financial trouble, preparing meals and organizing supplies.
• Led group discussions and activities to meet different community needs.
• Educated young people about strategies for driving discussions and promoting social changes.