Computer Literacy Program at Virlanie (Part 1)

In organizing our group’s service learning activity, our primary concern was the location of our chosen institution.  We preferred that the location is within the Makati area, or at a nearby city so we can have a shorter travel thus we can maximize our time.  Since two of our groupmates are getting at the end of the month, followed by a long weekend (All Saints / All Souls Day), and followed by the Christmas season which might conflict with other charity events, our group decided to conduct our service learning activity on October 15, our CSR free day.  Upon searching for potential institutions, I came across Virlanie Foundation, Inc., one of the foundations located in Makati City.  I didn’t know much about Virlanie, neither my group. 

On October 3, I contacted their office and inquired if our group can render service learning activity to their community, which may be in the form of art and music class for the kids, or financial/computer literacy workshop to affiliated communities, or they can suggest what type of activity they would be needing.  Two days later, their Program Development Director replied to my email, stating that they are interested on the Computer Literacy Program for their house parents, and we can conduct in on October 15, our preferred date.  House parents are the main caretakers of the children, other than the helpers and other social workers. 

In the early part of our CSR class, we have watched the life of St. La Salle.  My reflection at that time was – how can I live by St. La Salle’s teachings in this modern world?  Yes, it can be applied as a Lasallian Business Leader.  But honestly, I can see myself more as a teacher rather than a business leader.  I believe that teaching would make my life a lot more meaningful. In teaching, I won’t be contributing to the profit of a company, rather, a profit on the student’s character and knowledge.   I initially wanted to teach accounting undergrads in DLSU after my MBA, but at some point, I realized that it won’t fulfill La Salle’s mission of educating the poor children.  I have actually thought of teaching street children instead, since earning extra income through teaching is not my primary consideration. 

Even if our participants are not ‘street children’ per se, this Computer Literacy Program really excites me.  I have handled Excel training sessions in my current and previous firms, and it just makes me satisfied knowing that I have imparted my knowledge and contributed to other people’s skills, and even more, to their increased efficiency.  I’m excited to impart these to non-corporate participants. 

I have some apprehensions though.  Is this new knowledge really helpful to our participants? Our group initially planned to include “creating a resume” as part of or hands-on exercises on Microsoft Word, and also planned to give them inspirational talks as to other possible job opportunities for them (like online jobs).  We then realized, this is probably not a good idea.  By orienting them on how to explore other job opportunities, they might leave their current jobs as social workers or house parents and our group might be blamed later on.  If not for better opportunities, what would be the benefits of our session to the house parents?  Will they be able to apply it in their work?  Well probably, it can be somehow used to push and inspire the children they take care of.  Or probably, they can use it later on for compiling data about the kids, or can use powerpoint for presentation to their community or to Virlanie’s management. 

Whatever the benefit may be, I am hoping that the event will turn out well.  According to the program development director, this program is just a kick-off or an introduction.  Virlanie will later on have more formal training programs to be conducted by French volunteers, probably starting in two weeks after our activity.  Given the limited time, we do not expect our participants to absorb everything in one blow.  Our objective now is to make sure they will get interested on the topic, and that they may somehow gain more confidence and familiarity before they start with their formal computer literacy program. We are advised anyway by the program director not to dwell too much on the technical side.  An overview would suffice.  

What happens next?  See Computer Literacy Program at Virlanie (Part 2)