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Dr Chris Millora launched his book ‘Local Volunteering, Adult Learning and Social Change in the Philippines’ at the University of East Anglia 01 December 2025. IVR’s Director Dr Jurgen chaired the launch and Dr Amjad Saleem from the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies offered a response.
Dr Millora says:
“Community-based volunteering has been framed as a powerful force not only in social development but also in ‘taking people out of boxes and categories’. Policy and civil sector rhetoric, for instance, often emphasises that volunteer action enables marginalised individuals to reposition themselves from being ‘recipients’ of development programmes to becoming ‘active actors’ who make development ‘happen’. However, I argue that such a transition is often described too simplistically.”
This book is based on Dr Millora’s PhD thesis and offers an account of youth and adult volunteers in the Philippines, who volunteer in local development efforts despite experiencing vulnerabilities.
Professor Grace H. Aguiling-Dalisay, President Emeritus, Philippine Network of VOICE Volunteers (VOICE Network) and Lecturer, University of the Philippines Diliman praises the book’s insights about how volunteers can benefit from volunteering.
Dr Millora’s approach challenges the dominant paradigm of constructing volunteering as service, offers new insights from the Global South, making his book an important contribution to the global debate in the advent of the International Year of Volunteers for Development in 2026.
Get in touch with us by emailing info.ivr@uea.ac.uk