UNV team organized an annual retreat from 30 September to 2 October 2009 in Bauko, Mountain Province. In collaboration with the Sinto Elementary School, four UNV volunteers took part in various activities with young children and their teachers and parents, such as re-paining school buildings, showing films, and conducting outdoor games.

“Although we are working apart, the annual retreat reinforces a sense of team among UNV volunteers and gives us a strong reminder of who we’re working for,” says Hiro Takita, UNV Programme Officer. It was the first attempt ever that UNV volunteers engaged in community volunteering as a team. It took nearly 100 participants the whole day to scrape off old paints, paint in light and dark green, and let it dry in cool mountain breeze.

Special thanks go to the proud teachers, parents, graduates, and students who together made the school brighter and gleaming in surrounding forests.