The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is in dire need of volunteers assistance in repacking relief goods at the DSWD National Relief Operations Center.

I knew about this a week ago when they sent a memo to our office asking for help - I just didn't realized how badly until a friend posted a blog in Facebook, reporting that the relief goods in their warehouse are spoiling.

Photo is from Jenni Epperson's blog

They also need volunteer counselors who are capable of conducting trauma counseling to the typhoon victims.

The DSWD have an online volunteer registry if want read more information on volunteering with them. Here's the contact info from their homepage:

"If you are interested to render volunteer work to do repacking of good and/or provide stress debriefing session, please click here and register online, or call DSWD - SWIDB at telephone number (02) 951-28-05. You may also call or text Dir. Ma. Suzette M. Agcaoili at 0928-505-9108 / 0928-479-3523 or Mr. Tony Binalla at 0921-219-3646."

You really don't need to register first before volunteering. You can just call them up to get your schedule and which DSWD location you'll be assigned and that's it. You can also call Ms. Nolee Macabagdal at 951-2805 and 931-8101 loc 405.

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.. of my new layout. I was annoyed at how much tinkering I need to do with images in the former one, not to mention that I'm forced to make it small enough to fit the narrow window. That means no travel blogs (all those photos!), posts look longer, and few cute kitten pics (heheheh). This new layout is slightly larger, not to mention way more dramatic. Nice no?

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The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins Science Fiction, YA; ISBN 0-439-02348-3; Scholastic Press, 2008.

Dystopian societies are not new in the world of science fiction, and neither are gladiatorial games. These two succinctly describe Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, the first book of a trilogy that describes the future nation of Panem, a nation comprised of a capitol city surrounded by twelve outlying districts. To keep the people of these districts subservient and frightened, the Capitol yearly hold The Hunger Games, where twenty-four children from the districts are forced to fight each other to the death. Enter our heroine Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen-year old girl from District 12. Life had made her into a survivor – but can she survive the arena of the Hunger Games?

I got my copy of the book one night when two nice people from Scholastic came to meet a few book bloggers. I must admit I wasn’t impressed the first time I read the blurb. The plot is a mixture of different science fiction, historical and fantasy novels and movies (let me just enumerate those that I know: The Running Man, Spartacus, Gladiator and the most comparable of them all, the Japanese movie and book, Battle Royale), not to mention that it borrowed heavily from usual Greek mythology sources (the Minotaur tale, to be exact) and those popular reality shows (umm, Survivor & Big Brother, anyone?).

I was therefore surprised when I found myself hooked after just reading the first chapter. It is one of those books that you can’t put down – to use that old and tired phrase, this one is a page turner. It struck me that for a dystopian novel, The Hunger Games is surprisingly full of hope. This lack of cynicism is probably what had appealed to me. Katniss is a survivor yes, but she is also a symbol of human decency and compassion even in the face of moral and societal degradation. Suzanne Collins made her characters unforgettable. I’m also pleased with the way romance had been handled. To intermesh it to the basic survival of our heroes is one clever plot trick.

I’m annoyed at how the marketing people overly do the hype for the trilogy, even when the last one is still non-existent. Ms. Collins doesn’t need the extra pressure right now, and I just hope this clamor will not affect the quality of the last book. I like Katniss of course, but I hope that other characters would be fleshed out by the second and third book (would love to know more about Peeta and Haymitch). So until I read the next two installments, I consider this review incomplete.

5 out of 5 stars

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