An Additional Set of Helping Hands

The dedicated team of A Million Voices has been privileged to be joined by an additional team member. Taking the volunteer position as our Communications Coordinator and Project Advisor is Tracey Gravador, and she has a will and determination to help others that goes beyond the ordinary. Below is her amazing journey, in her own words.

The Significant Importance of Sports

It all started when I, as a teenager, became an ambassador for the Norwegian Basketball Association’s value- and attitude campaign “Shut Up&Play”. Since then, I have been a board member in basketball at club level and region level, and for the Norwegian Basketball Association’s Board of Directors for four consecutive years (2006-2010). I was elected Chairperson for the association’s Youth Committee, and therefore became the representative for basketball-youth in Norway.

During all this time, I worked closely with Vigdis Vatshaug (then Development Manager of the Norwegian Basketball Association), and I was also part of the “Keyplayers!”-project that Vigdis and her friend in the Netherlands had started; a project aiming youth in sports, and how to get more youth involved in their own sports back home and in their community. Vigdis and I traveled a lot together – across Norway, in the other Nordic countries and in Europe, mainly the Netherlands, where we also met representatives from the other European countries, to convey this simple message:

“Children and youth are our future. We need to do what we can to form a solid platform for them through sports, to maintain a good environment in their respective clubs and teams, and to empower them to feel that they are very much capable, and important”.

As a teenager, playing basketball, I knew that I wanted to do something within basketball to reach out to youth. It was also important for me to focus on giving a good image on basketball in my community, and contribute to a healthy environment for all people involved in our sport. In addition, I have always found childhood and adolescence a fascinating phase in life. Early in your life it is important to be surrounded by dependable people with good values. This is why I chose to take Bachelor’s Degree in Child&Youth Care and Welfare.

Taking Volunteering to A New Level 

In 2006 I was so lucky to be elected to be part of the international volunteer-team for the Youth Camp of Asian Games in Doha, Qatar. We were 12 international volunteers from all over the world, and each of us was responsible for one group consisting of 10-12 youth from different countries in Asia. This experience is truly one of the most outstanding highlights in my life. It was so humbling to be part of something that big, and so inspiring to get to know so many good people – both youth and other volunteers. To this day, I still receive e-mails from one of “my” youth.

Since 2009, I have been involved with AMV – which I am really, really happy about. I contacted Charlotte through e-mail, and we have been working together ever since. What I am also very happy about and thankful for, is that Charlotte has also become a close friend of mine.

In 2010 I donated school supplies to children in Muntinlupa City and in Laguna. I was so amazed by the fact that the children were overjoyed with receiving two notebooks, two pens, two pencils and some crayons in a plastic folder.

The True Meaning of Volunteering

When I look back to the period of working with Vigdis, I always conclude that I had so much fun during those years, and that Vigdis actually functioned as my mentor during that time. I give her credit for showing early that she had faith in me and what I stood for. The last years, I have been more aware of the fact that all this work was “volunteering”, or that all this work is what people define as “volunteering”.

What’s funny, is that I didn’t think of it as volunteering during that period of time. I have never considered all the things I have been involved with, as something I needed to do, or as an action for volunteering – I always thought and felt that these things were important to me, and therefore I wished to be part of them. I guess you can simply put it this way: Volunteering isn’t something I do – it’s something I am. It became a lifestyle.

And it doesn’t matter that you don’t get paid for this work; nothing can compare with the feeling I sensed through my body when one of the youth in Qatar came up to me and told me that she too wanted to choose a profession with children and youth as target groups, after spending time with us during the Youth Camp. I have achieved so much joy and happiness through it all, and that is the best reward. One cannot measure this in money or wealth.

Uniting with A Million Voices

Growing up, I understood that even though I was born and raised in Oslo, I had this strong will to get to know my Filipino identity better, and to get to know the people in my native country. This is mainly why I have traveled regularly to the Philippines since 2006, and I figured quickly that I wanted to take part in some kind of humanitarian work there.

When I first came over AMV’s website, I contacted Charlotte to hear if I could be useful in AMV’s work. She was so positive and grateful that I had contacted her, and after several e-mails and finally meeting each other, my instincts told me that this is a person I could enjoy working with, and that we could make a good team together.

I also saw that AMV was an organization I wanted to be affiliated with. A fun aspect through this all, is that Charlotte and I later found out that we had been in Manila for the same periods of time repeatedly, so there is definitely a reason for us two to end up working together.

I think my background in sports and my education is an asset for AMV, as well as my work experience in Red Cross. I also think that being Norwegian-Filipino, I am able to see things from both perspectives. This can be very useful for my role in AMV. All my life I have made a
point of focusing on the best parts of both worlds, instead of getting confused about how to live with two cultures. Balance is what you need, and balance is what you get as soon as you embrace the fact that you are both Norwegian and Filipino. In addition, it is a bonus that I can understand and speak Tagalog.

Taking a Leap into the Future – Hopes and Plans

I hope that more people will know about AMV in the near future – it would be great to gain an awareness of AMV in the Filipino community in Norway – and that we can sponsor more kids through their education and for a longer period of time.

I also hope that we soon can launch specific volunteer-programs for people who would like to travel to the Philippines to volunteer for us, or who want to spend a week or two of a one-month vacation volunteering for us in Manila.

It would also be of significant importance to us to find out how and where we can apply for funding, and that it can be a stable financial support over several years. To this day, the funds that we have received, have all been spent on projects – I dare say that AMV may be one of the few organizations which has 0,- in budget for administrative costs.

Sometimes it also crosses my mind that – in some ways – it is sad that there exists a need for an organization like ours. On the other hand, we carry out projects that aim to support people in the long-term. In that way, our work helps to empower less fortunate human beings, and make them see the importance of taking action, and being responsible for their own lives. We have come a long way and accomplished something good, when we manage to make these children and their guardians see their own value.