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Annual
Awards For Outstanding Volunteers Held at Shangri-La, Mandaluyong City
The celebration of National
Volunteer Month (NVM) every month of December was capped with the
conferment of awards to the awardees of the 2007 Search For Outstanding
Volunteers last December 12, 2007 at the Palawan 1 and 2 Hall, EDSA
Shangri-La in Mandaluyong City.
Mr. Antonio P. Meloto, this
year’s NVM Honorary Chair and PNVSCA Executive Director, Joselito C. De
Vera, led the presentation of awards.
This year’s awards are conferred
to the following:
Under the Individual Youth Category:
SHERYL V. PARINGIT, President of the University of La Salette
– Student Volunteers Association of Santiago City, Isabela, who provided
leadership in the implementation of
SVA programs which include education, health, environment,
livelihood, and family life enrichment and values formation. She
strengthened the flagship program “Balik-Aralan” by mobilizing funding
support through resource generating schemes and introduced the
“Mobile Store” project which helped augment the income of poor
families in Santiago City.
Under the Individual Adult
Category:
EDWIN
R. FERRER, an educator who conceived and implemented the PRIDE
(Probationer, Parolees and Pardonees Reformation and Improvements through
Developmental Education) Program that provided alternative learning
opportunities and livelihood skills trainings to more than 300
probationers, parolees and pardonees and their families in San Carlos
City, Pangasinan.
MYRNA
T. YAO, a successful businesswoman who worked for women empowerment that
resulted in policy reforms to recognize the role of women in local
governance and society and enabled different women’s groups to acquire
livelihood skills and avail of micro-finance projects for economic
upliftment.
JUVELYN
V. GUMAL-IN, a volunteer health worker, educator and trainor with the
Mangyan communities in Oriental Mindoro who spearheaded the implementation
of programs in health care, literacy and livelihood and also trained
Mangyan educators who are now teaching in their own communities.
BRO.
CRISPIN P. BETITA, FMS, who established the Marcellin House for Street
Children in General Santos City which helps school drop-outs, street
children, children in conflict with the law and members of indigenous
communities by providing home study program, functional literacy,
technical and livelihood skills training and assistance in court
proceedings.
MARIVIC
G. BOHOLTS, a Barangay Nutrition Scholar (BNS) and Barangay Health Worker
(BHW) who spearheaded the establishment of 43 Botika ng Barangay (BnB) in
19 island barangays in Surigao City and consolidated into federation BHWs
and BNS associations.
The awards for the group category went to the following
organizations:
THE UNIVERSITY OF LA SALETTE - STUDENT VOLUNTEER ASSOCIATION,
which made a dent in the lives of the marginalized communities in Santiago
City, Isabela through various programs in health, education, livelihood
and values formation and sent more than 13,000 children back to school
through its Balik-Paaralan Program.
GUIDED AND UNIFIED INTERACTION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF
CHILDREN (GUIDE,) INC., a corps of volunteers which, together with
volunteer community members, students, out-of-school youth and
professionals from different fields of endeavors have been providing
health services, training and mentoring, and therapy and psycho-social
interventions to children with physical, mental and emotional disabilities
including orphaned, abandoned and street children.
The
Volunteer Lifetime Achievement Award (VLAA) was conferred to the
PHILIPPINE RURAL RECONSTRUCTION MOVEMENT (PRRM), the first NGO to send workers to the
villages to implement its integrated, fourfold program of education,
livelihood, health, and self-governance empowering village organizations
composed mainly of poor farmers, fishermen, indigenous people and youth.
PRRM mobilized an average of about 20,000 volunteers annually in
its various programs and projects.
A Special Citation on Volunteerism
was given to FR. JAMES BERTRAM REUTER, SJ, a noted teacher, writer,
playwright, director, broadcast journalist and a staunch supporter
for press freedom, human rights and democracy.
Fr. Reuter is a key figure in the establishment of the
Catholic Media Network and Radio Veritas which opened the avenue for
catholic mass media to extend its reach and educate the people on clean
entertainment, values formation, morals and faith.
In his welcome address read by
Executive Director Joselito C. De Vera, NEDA Director- General and
Secretary of Socio-Economic Planning Augusto B. Santos acknowledged the
contributions of volunteers in building a progressive, humane,
peace-loving and self-reliant society and for installing a stable future
for the present and next generation.
He stressed the goal of the National Volunteer Month and the SOV in
recognizing volunteers’ contributions to promote the bayanihan spirit
and harness it to achieve local and national development.
In his congratulatory message, Mr.
Meloto, a recipient of the 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award for his volunteer
works in leading the Gawad Kalinga housing project, expressed unity with
the volunteers and awardees in keeping the fight to alleviate poverty and
the attainment of social transformation through volunteer works.
He acknowledged that volunteers play a critical role in sustaining
and building the social capital to allow our people to believe in
themselves and work together. Mr.
Meloto stressed that there is no lack of generosity and caring among
Filipinos and “we only have to tell the story of their heroism”.
The awarding rites was attended by
volunteer leaders/managers and volunteers from the volunteer community as
well as guests and representatives coming from the non-profit and
government sectors.
The 2007 SOV was spearheaded and
coordinated by the PNVSCA in cooperation with the National Volunteer Month
Steering Committee (NVM-SC).
7 January 2008
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CELEBRATE
VOLUNTEERISM!
Volunteering
has been an integral part of the lives of people and communities all over
the world. Individuals and institutions benefit from the valuable
assistance of volunteer workers who share their knowledge, skills, time
and resources in the areas of technical assistance, social services,
humanitarian support and peace-building with remarkable dedication and
commitment. Indeed, governments and societies owe much to these
special breed of modern-day heroes who do not expect material reward for
their work and whose labor is exemplified by compassion and love for
others.
In
the past few years, the world witnessed a surge of support to
volunteerism. This phenomenon was backed strongly by the United
Nations which declared the year 2001 as International Year of Volunteers.
Even before IYV, efforts have been exerted to promote volunteerism and to
recognize the volunteers’ contributions in nation-building and
international cooperation. One other significant move at the global
level was the declaration by the United Nations in 1985 of the
International Volunteer Day (IVD) every December 5. In the
Philippines, which also boasts of a rich history of volunteerism through
the “bayanihan”, the Philippine Government has also designated the
month of December as the National Volunteer Month (NVM).
NVM
aims to build nationwide public awareness and appreciation of
volunteerism, create the environment for voluntary action and recognize
volunteers as partners in development. Through NVM, all
sectors of society – government, NGOs, academic institutions and
corporate groups are enjoined to participate and promote their sectoral
causes and agenda that support volunteerism. Since its
declaration in 1998, NVM, along with IVD, cap the year-long activities of
the volunteer community in the country providing added impetus to
the growth of volunteer service and a fitting recognition to the role of
volunteers in development.
The
focal point for the NVM celebration is the Philippine National Volunteer
Service Coordinating Agency (PNVSCA). The Agency is assisted by a
National Volunteer Month Steering Committee (NVM-SC) composed of
representatives from the government and the private sector in planning and
organizing the event.
For
the 2007 NVM, the Committee has invited Gawad Kalinga Chief Advocate and
2006 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Community Leadership Mr. Antonio Meloto
to serve as NVM Honorary Chair. The man behind the famed GK House
Build that mobilizes thousands of volunteers to build shelter for homeless
Filipinos, Mr. Meloto serves as this year’s champion and lead advocate
for the promotion of volunteerism and NVM with the theme “Boluntarismo:
Lakas Pagbabago!”
NVM
and IVD activities may include initiating and organizing volunteering
events and activities that may include conduct of information
dissemination, volunteering or mobilizing volunteers for humanitarian,
social services and technical assistance, and supporting volunteerism
causes through resource generation and advocacy drives.
Be part of the growing network of the volunteer program. Launch your
NVM and IVD activities. Celebrate volunteerism!
19 November 2007
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The author is Dr. Ryan C.
Guinaran, 2005 Search For
Outstanding Volunteers National Awardee in the Youth Category.
Dr. Guinaran was recognized for his outstanding work in the
preservation and promotion of the Ibaloi culture.
An Ibaloi himself, he embarked on raising the awareness of the
Ibaloi, particularly the young generation on the value of their cultural
legacies through arts and literature that underscore Ibaloi culture and
practices. The following article tells of his recent volunteer
accomplishment – an anecdote of Dr. Guinaran narrating the works of some
50 young volunteers he led in producing a documentary project “Our
Igorot Fathers, the Heroes: The Untold Story of the 66th
Infantry United States Armed Forces in the Philippines- Northern Luzon (USAFIP-NL)”
in time for the province’s celebration for the very first time the
Liberation Day of Benguet (62 years ago from the Japanese Imperial forces)
on August 15, 2007. It was publicly shown for the first time to
“Benguet’s very own” 66th Infantry veterans, spouses,
children and provincial officials, teachers, students, Benguet folks.
The documentary aims to 1) to give a tribute to the veterans, 2) to
come up with an educational material to be utilized in Benguet and
Cordilleran schools, and 3) to realize the potentials of the Benguet
youth.
Sixty-sixth
Sense: A tribute to everyone who made our veterans’ dream happen
Ryan Camado Guinaran MD
Project Director,
Project 66 Documentary
Regional Coordinator, Outstanding Students of CAR Alumni Community Inc.
Coordinator, Research Division, Researchmate Inc.
Almost each
member of the initial group came from a different municipality of Benguet-
Atok, Kapangan, Itogon, Bokod, Kabayan, Sablan, La Trinidad, Mankayan, and
Kibungan. We come from
different backgrounds- none is a film-maker, but we are all proud youth of
Benguet. Only God knows how we were pooled together by our passion and
pulled together by our vision and purpose.
We pursued veterans before their last breaths. At times, we
were late. The few times we weren’t.
We saw tears in their eyes as they recounted their past and we felt
our cheeks soaked in wetness too. They shared their war bloopers and funny
stories that elicited horselaughs. They
sang their own soldier songs. We
scoured our beloved province and Baguio City.
On a shoestring budget that we egged from magnanimous individuals,
we just rented jeepneys and hired off around Benguet with the video camera
as we became our own drivers, cooks, mechanics when the jeep bogged down
many times on our country roads, and then director, camera persons,
production assistants, make-up artists, costume designers, scriptwriter,
researchers, and even talents in our destinations.
Heroism was openly buried in the rich soil and rich soul of
Baguio and Benguet. (Everything in the province has the mark of 66. The
great leaders- governors, congressmen, mayors, etc. of this province are
66th infantry veterans. From the provincial level to the
barangays, the development has been spun by 66th infantry
veterans.)
It was our sense of volunteerism that demanded great
sacrifices on our part just for
this documentary. Doing this demanded a high price for us to pay, but we
stood accountable for this volunteerism that we mustered. After class or work, meetings, planning and editing were on
deck. Some absences were unavoidable. We definitely bothered the whole
world and continued to do so with meetings, letters, presentations,
solicitations, archive retrievals, trips and site visits, e-mails,
courtesy calls and phone calls, text messages, and our presence to
facilitate activities. Our semestral breaks and summer breaks reeked with
66 stuff. Weeks-long acting workshops and rehearsals, shootings left and
right, and all but film stuff suffused our supposedly fun-filled summer
and breaks. We chose this immense task over a much-needed summer job,
sembreak adventures, or hassle-free days. With propriety, we may say that
we can accept all criticisms about the technical aspect of the film, but
none can be hurled at our good intentions which shoved us to bring this
ambitious goal into fruition.
The making of this documentary was a most difficult and
challenging endeavor to embrace. Every step of the way, our activities
found us out of our comfort zones. We were not experts in what we were
embarking on. Covering hundreds of kilometers crisscrossing the whole
province by jeep was a hundred times risking our limb. Hiking for hours
and days in unknown places invited steep cliffs to tow us. For the mess
group, feeding a cast of 40 young people with meager resources and for us,
ensuring everyone’s care were not easy tasks. When we were in our
shooting area, it was on red alert for insurgents were around according to
cops. Using live ammunitions and facing blasting dynamites were thrilling
but were perilous. For two weeks and more, waking up at 4-5 am for morning
drills, devoting the whole day under the sun for rehearsals or hiking
mountains away from the camp for shooting, and doing chores, evaluations
and retiring to bed (or more aptly, carton sheets on the cement floor in
our school camps) at 9pm or later could have easily sapped the health of
young bodies. But these sacrifices were nothing compared to what whose
stories we were telling absorbed and endured.
We saw the veterans and their story, real-life. While going
around the province, we came face to face with them, the mountains they
defended, the cliffs they clambered, the samurai and bayonets that pursued
them, their graves, the relics of war - all finding their way to the
junkshops or into oblivion. But it was not all bitterness.
Of
course, our Project 66 family will live on for many more tomorrows. Due
recognition goes out to the originals of the project, fellow full-time
volunteers for one long year, who remained till the end: Hector Binay-an, direk
Dave and Jordan Montes, Claro Picpican, Randy Arandia, Eleazar Tumayan,
Filmore Awas, and fellow project director Betty Listino, a sparkplug who
proved to be most indispensable. To all the production staff and the whole
Project 66 family, ResearchMate, Brenda Por-ayan and OSCAR friends, the
partner agencies- USAFIP NL veterans and their families, CIPHS, SDAI,
donors and sponsors, our families and friends of the Project 66 team, Agi
band, we all pitched in generously-this is all ours, for others. The
Provincial Government of Benguet, Sangguniang Panlalawigan, Provincial
School Board, the Mayors and LGUs of Benguet and Baguio, DepEd, PNP, BSU
and everyone who assisted deserve our profound gratitude.
The
challenge for all of us continues to be making the past and history
relevant in the present. As freedom fighters all, we should fight
ignorance of our history and people. As we are now, as they have been 66
years ago, the Benguet youth has been most selfless. We have remained for
the province, for you and with you, our veteran heroes.
19 September 2007
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The
Man with a Mission
by:
Irene B. Volante
“I was
once a farmer… and will for ever be one,” says SOV National Awardee
Raymundo R. Calugcugan. This
inspired him to give the farmers a gift they will forever nurture and
cherish because it is something they can proudly call their own – knowledge.
Ray
saw how vulnerable and miserable the farmers’ lives were, and the reason
was not only because they did not own the land that they tilled but more
seriously, their productivity was low.
Years of persistent research and hard work finally yielded
for Ray the gift that he can freely offer to rice farmers – a technology
that will help increase their produce and income.
Named Agrometirx technology, it was pilot-tested in 1976 at Tapulao,
Orani, Bataan which enabled the rice farmers to raise their harvest
between 149 to 210 cavans per hectare.
The farmer-cooperator, Mr. Romulo Quiambao, who harvested the 210
cavans per hectare was awarded the Best Farmer of Region III by the
Department of Agriculture.
Later
renamed “Unladsaka-Rhizocote Crop Growing and Fertilization
Technology,” the invention earned Ray the much coveted World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Tuklas Gold Medal Award and the
Most Outstanding Invention Award from the Department of Science and
Technology (DOST) in 1997.
The Unladsaka-Rhizocote Technology
Unladsaka
is a crop growing and fertilization programming technology that is based
on preset target yield, actual crop requirement, potentially prevailing
solar radiation during actual cropping, soil’s native fertility and/or
deficiency or toxicity and the crop’s biocycle.
Rhizocote, on the other hand, is a complete micronutrient formula
that is based on what is needed by specific crops and what is lacking in
specific soils where the crops are to be planted.
Rhizocote is reinforced with vital secondary nutrients, specific
organic nutrients and an exclusive solubilizer.
Operationally, the subject
soil is initially analyzed in the laboratory.
Then after knowing the farm location, date of planting, the crop
and variety to be planted and the desired target yield (with rice it is
usually targeted for 160 cavans per hectare during wet season and 180
cavans per hectare during dry months) the needed fertilizers are computed,
from Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium to Molybdenum using the Unladsaka
Formula. An exclusive
Fertilization Program is then issued to the farmer, complete with the type
of fertilizers to buy, at what quantities, when to apply, how to mix and
how to apply, all contained in an Easy-to-Read and Understand dialect.
Usually target yields are surpassed by the programmed farms, and
those affected by floods or faulty pest or disease management still
managed to produce more than the ordinary yield.
How come? “A healthy
plant naturally has more resistance,” according to Ray.
Unladsaka
recognizes that Philippine crops are saddled by lesser hours of
photosynthesis because being at or near the equator, our daylight is short
compared to countries in the temperate and subtropical areas during
planting seasons. Likewise
our crops spend more energy in respiring because of warmer atmosphere,
naturally leading to marginal harvests.
However, Unladsaka also recognized that by allowing the plants to
absorb much of the high solar intensity occurring in our country by
growing plants at the right density and with thicker leaves, our farmers
can be one of the most productive and competitive worldwide.
Strategic Window
Transferring
the Unladsaka technology to farmers proved to be more painful and costly
than research or doing the actual farming, as Ray has experienced.
Fortunately in 2000, DAR Regional Director Renato Herrera of Region
IV signed a MOA with Ray to train the Development Facilitators of DAR, who
in turn will train the ARB farmers in the technology.
In June 2002, Director Herrera brought with him the experience of
Unladsaka when he was transferred to Region III, under a project called
“Programang Unlad Nayon, Lakas Ani” or “PUNLA.”
Today, the technology has increased farmers harvests and income
beyond expectations.
Several
agencies and government officials, LGUs, individuals and private
institutions also came to know about Unladsaka
and offered assistance to Ray.
The Entrepreneur
Raymundo Remollo Calugcugan
was born in Sibulan, Negros Oriental on March 24, 1949.
At the age of 7, his family transferred to Cotabato where he helped
his father cultivate an acquired land. Feeling the pains of heavy farm
works, Ray set himself to finish high school and college. Through
scholarships, he finished his B.S. Business Management in 1973 at the
Ateneo de Manila University.
Having
the heart and blood of a farmer always brings out in him the desire to
help them. While in his
senior year in college, he joined the volunteer group Ateneo Operasyon
Sarilikha which helped flood victims in San Basilio, Sta. Rita, Pampanga,
who were mostly farmers, to get shelter, food and medicines.
It was at the last stage of rehabilitation work, as he helped them
reopen their clogged irrigation canals and repaired the barangay roads,
that he thought of ways to improve farm output and income of farmers. He believed that with what he had learned in Modern Business
Management, with some units of electives in Organic and Inorganic
Chemistry and Biology, he could devise a technology that can make farming
in the Philippines a viable business.
Ray’s
lectures and consulting services are done for free. This has been his mission and volunteer work.
What support him is his small business of producing and selling the
award-winning Rhizocote Agricultural Micronutrients which farmers used to
correct micronutrient deficiencies and excess acidity in the farm soil,
and in regenerating the highest quality of soil organic matter coming from
blue-green algae.
In
2002, Ray was chosen as one of the national awardees of the Search for
Outstanding Volunteers (SOV) which recognized his volunteer work that
helped transform the lives of many farmers and communities from dependency
to productivity and self-sufficiency.
Great
are Ray’s hopes for the Filipino farmers that he looks toward getting
more involved in preparing them for global competitiveness.
21
August 2007
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Updates
on SOV Awardees
Ms.
Martiniana D. Mercado
SOV
National Awardee, 2004
Ms.
Martiniana Mercado, 2004 SOV National Awardee continues her work as
Executive Director of the Albert Schweitzer Familienwork Foundation
Philippines, Inc. based in Cebu City. One of her current involvement
is the Community-Based Rehabilitation Program for Youth and Children
In-Conflict with the Law, a project funded by The Children’s Hour
Philippines, Inc. She shares some pictures about the project.
18 July 2007
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National
Volunteer Month
In recognizing the contributions of
volunteers to society all over the world, United Nations General
Assembly Resolution Nos. 40/212 and 52/17 declare December 5 each year
as International Volunteers Day (IVD) and the year 2001 as International
Year of Volunteers (IYV), respectively.
The IYV resolution enjoins all governments and sectors to support
volunteering worldwide. It encourages volunteer organizations,
managers, stakeholders and individuals to adopt its four-fold objectives
of facilitation, promotion, recognition and networking for
volunteerism to grow and prosper everywhere.
In the Philippines, Presidential Proclamation Nos. 194 and 55 declare
every December 5 and every December as IVD and National Volunteer Month,
respectively.
Since its adoption in 1998, NVM has been celebrated to with the
following objectives:
- To build nationwide public awareness
and appreciation of volunteerism and the role it plays in the
social, economic and political development of the country.
- To create the environment that
bolsters voluntary action for development and;
- To recognize the noble acts of
volunteerism by individuals, families, institutions and communities
as vital partners in economic and community development.
The NVM is a yearlong celebration that encourages and supports the
implementation of volunteering activities in their various modes and
forms by individuals, groups and organizations. As the
government's focal agency for the celebration, the Philippine National
Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency (PNVSCA) invites individuals,
groups and organizations to participate by undertaking volunteering
activities such as those that support humanitarian causes, civic and
community development, education and promoting volunteerism itself.
It culminates in December with special activities that highlight and
emphasize the special contributions of volunteers to community and
national development.
Since 1998, the PNVSCA has been spearheading a nationwide search for
individuals and groups who render voluntary services in their
communities or in government programs and projects so that they maybe
recognized and their volunteer projects and practices may be known to
the public and replicated elsewhere. In 2001 and 2002, the Agency,
assisted by the NVM Steering Committee, conducted a search for best
volunteer practices. Individual volunteers were given recognition
for their volunteer works and projects. Beginning 2003, the search
was renamed Search for Outstanding Volunteers (SOV) and has been
conducted yearly with the assistance of NEDA's regional offices, the
Regional Planning and Development Office (RPDO) of the Autonomous Region
of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the Department of the Interior and Local
Government serving as Regional Search Committees.
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