The People Improvement Organisation is an organisation which had provided help to thousands of children in distress. It is somewhere where I think tourists should pay a visit. You can visit their website or facebook page to learn more about them.
The place I went to used to be a dumping site where children hunt for items to salvage. The founder of PIO, Phymean Noun, was determined to bring these children out of poverty by seeking to provide them education.
The organisation welcomes volunteers to plan their own programmes for the students. The programmes could include English lessons, Art and Craft, and many more, as long as they are beneficial to the children. They need volunteers to plan their own activities and provide their own materials for lessons prior to the start of their progammes. From what I learnt most volunteers at the organisation stay their for at least two weeks, at most 6 months.
It will also help the centre if volunteers would like to adopt a child to go through education, with a monthy standard fee of 50 USD. Part of this money would go to the running of the shelter and the maintenance of the schools.
There's still trances of it being a dumping site beside the PIO school.
Entrance to the vocational training schools where students learn skills like tailoring, computer skills etc.
These are the paintings in the common area of the shelter.
This lady, Ms Aurelia Gimenez, used to be a volunteer for six months at the organisation but had become the communications manager at the organisation. She can be contacted at aureliadaniels@hotmail.com, if you wish to volunteer at the organisation or adopt a child.
This student was making a bag out of recyclable materials. The items they made are sold at the souvenir/gift shop at the entrance of the vocational training school. They are really nicely made and are really good and meaningful souvenirs for tourists.
You can have a view of the once-dumping site from the classroom block.
