EpiC FREE TO BE U Campaign Launches Inspiring Videos to fight HIV stigma

Tweet

The FREE TO BE U campaign recently released The Positive Lifestyle, a series of powerful and inspiring videos designed to raise awareness about, foster empathy for, and help empower people living with HIV (PLHIV). The FREE TO BE U Campaign recognizes that a key component in the fight against HIV stigma is not just knowledge, but empathy. 

Through these videos, the campaign is dispelling misconceptions, promoting acceptance, and encouraging viewers to connect to PLHIV as they share their personal stories. Most importantly, once conversations around HIV are no longer stigmatized, people can freely access HIV services through tools. The videos are available on the campaign’s Facebook and Youtube accounts.

“We are excited to announce the release of these eleven entertaining yet enlightening videos. We hope that they can make an impact in eradicating stigma around HIV in the country, as well as educate the public about the everyday lives of people living with HIV,” said Teresita Marie Bagasao, Project Director of the Meeting Targets and Maintaining Epidemic Control (EpiC) project.

One of the videos features Drag Den Philippines Winner NAIA (@naiablack_ on IG) talking to Jabar Esmael, a PLHIV advocate, while having their make-up done. Jabar talks about his experience right after learning he was HIV-positive and what made him decide to get treatment. Another video shows how a person living with HIV can maintain a healthy lifestyle and adhere to treatment via proper nutrition in a fun, cooking show setting.

By developing these videos, FREE TO BE U seeks to promote acceptance and inclusivity, break stereotypes, and shift the narrative when it comes to people living with HIV. Each video provides unique perspectives on the daily lives of people living with HIV, revealing marginalized people whose voices need to be heard and whose days are filled with challenges, but also beauty and fun.

Teresita Marie Bagasao added, “This initiative not only shows the realities of people living with HIV, but it also promotes QuickRes.org, an online booking application for HIV services in the country. It is not enough that we normalize conversations about HIV. We also need to provide information about access points for free HIV services.”

QuickRes is an online booking application where anyone can easily book an appointment for HIV and sexual health services using their smartphone, tablet, or laptop. It is a global platform brought by the campaign here in the Philippines, with the country being the top user globally within a year.

The FREE TO BE U campaign was launched in 2022 by the Meeting Targets and Maintaining Epidemic Control (EpiC) project, in collaboration with the Department of Health (DOH) Healthy Pilipinas . EpiC is led by FHI 360 and funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).This partnership kicked off last February during the Festival of Love event. The campaign has also organized the QUILTS Awards — which honors health facilities and partner organizations that have provided exceptional care and treatment to people living with HIV— for the past two years.

To learn more about the FREE TO BE U campaign, visit: https://www.facebook.com/FreeToBeUPH

You can access QuickRes on their website: https://quickres.org/233

Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines Partners with USAID Philippines for Watershed Rehabilitation in Iloilo and Negros Occidental

Tweet

Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines, Inc. (CCFPI) continues to support community access to clean, safe water through its partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Philippines and non-government organizations, for projects that improve watershed conservation and promote a water-secure future in Iloilo and Negros Occidental.

To formalize the partnership, CCFPI and USAID signed two Memoranda of Agreement, one for the Iloilo Water Resilience Initiative Project and another for Sustaining Watershed Health through Sustainable Livelihood and Agroforestry Project in Negros Occidental last March 22 at Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

(from left to right) Green Forum Western Visayas Principal Coordinator Melvin Purzuelo; CRS Philippines Subregional Country Representative Sanda Rihtman; Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines Chairman Tony del Rosario; USAID Mission Director Ryan Washburn and; Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines President Cecile Alcantara represented their respective organizations to cement their partnership for the IWARI program in Iloilo.

The Iloilo Water Resilience Initiative (IWARI) Project aims to promote climate resilience and help enhance water availability from the Tigum-Aganan Watershed and Iloilo-Batiano Watershed for upstream and downstream communities, including Iloilo City, through improved resource management. Through the CCFPI grant, IWARI Project will be implemented on the ground by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Philippines and Green Forum Western Visayas while USAID shall provide technical oversight. This will address the urgent need for sustainable management of critical watersheds in Iloilo province and ultimately help improve water availability from the watersheds.

(from left to right) Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines President Cecile Alcantara; Chairman Tony del Rosario; USAID Mission Director Ryan Washburn and; NEDF President Wilhelmina Gonzales signed the Memorandum of Understanding for the SWATH Project in Negros Occidental.

Meanwhile, the Sustaining Watershed Health through Sustainable Livelihood and Agroforestry (SWATH) Project in Negros Occidental aims to implement agroforestry and watershed conservation activities to help protect the province’s sources of freshwater, particularly the Himogaan River Watershed and Sicaba River Watershed — ensuring sustainable water resources for the farming communities and households of Negros Occidental residents. Through the CCFPI grant, the SWATH Project will be implemented on the ground by Negros Economic Development Foundation (NEDF) while USAID Philippines shall provide technical oversight.

Strong ties form a brighter future for kids under the USAID, NEAP and DepEd Evidence Based Literacy Leadership

Tweet

The journey of the young minds and the growth of their mental ability to learn has been the concern of the Department of Education, National Educators Academy of the Philippines and the USAID. Despite the absence of face-to-face classes due to the worldwide health crisis, this was never the stumbling block of the three agencies to pursue the continuous growth of the kids to learn and enhance their reading skills and ability to learn in the absence of a teacher physically present.

The tri-party has been advocating the need for the young minds to nourish at their young stage of growth where it matters most, to be able to absorb the right learning skills. Literacy at this stage is where the foundation must be laid.

USAID has been providing the ABC+ or its Advancing Basic Education where more than 10,000 beneficiaries from the Education sector primarily the teachers, school heads, supervisors and principals, and provided 9 million early grade learning materials.

Lucky recipients for this program were public schools in Regions V and VI, namely the Bicol region and the Western Visayas where the tri-parties focused on the how to further develop and strengthen the Literacy and Reading in light of the heightened difficulties brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The selected public schools in the said regions were able to focus with the adoption of technology using the internet as a medium of learning, with the new innovations and initiatives strengthening literacy instruction at the early grade level in the context of the new normal. 400 projects headed by the School Teachers attended the USAID led "Instructional Leadership Training: Strengthening Learning Conditions for Early Literacy."

The training focused on developing literacy leaders who can foster positive school climate and conditions integrating social and emotional learning, gender equity and social inclusion, and developmentally appropriate practices to support quality literacy instruction. USAID officials, DepEd representatives, teachers and officials from DepEd Regions V and VI, and other key partners and stakeholders attended the conference.

The event featured multiple activities, including a virtual poster and video exhibition of project initiatives, a virtual area featuring USAID-supported early grade learning materials, and read-aloud events featuring books in Filipino, English, and mother tongue languages developed through USAID support. The conference also included discussions on literacy leadership, home partners’ literacy programs, school climate, and gender equality and social inclusion.

The awarding of winners were set as the culminating part of the 3-day online event held last December 10, 2021 during a virtual conference. The winners are as follows :

It is with the highest gratitude to the USAID, the National Educators Academy of the Philippines, hand in hand with the Department of Education has continued to roll out such programs that enrich our young generations which will be the heroes of the future.

USAID has been helping the Philippines and the Local Government for the past 60 years in helping us achieve early learning ability for our children. The USAID has invested around P200M plus for this. USAID Advancing Basic Education (ABC+) project, has trained more than 10,000 teachers, school heads, supervisors and principals, and provided 9 million early grade learning materials since 2019.

USAID and DepEd Partnership Celebrates Joint Successes in Improving Early Grade Learning in the Philippines

Tweet

Manila, August 13, 2021 – Education stakeholders gathered on August 13 for a virtual event to celebrate the collective accomplishments of the Department of Education (DepEd) and USAID Philippines in improving early grade reading and literacy in the country this past year, amid the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

 United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and RTI International held the USAID ABC+: Advancing Basic Education in the Philippines Project’s Virtual Event and Media Q&A Session on “A Year of K-3 Distance Learning with ABC+: Celebrating Lessons Learned, Achievements, Opportunities & Partnerships”
August 13, 2021.

Through its ABC+: Advancing Basic Education in the Philippines Project, USAID worked with DepEd to improve reading and literacy, math, and social and emotional skills for early grade children (K-3) in Regions V (Bicol) and Region VI (Western Visayas). USAID also worked in coordination with the Bangsamoro Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education for activities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

“By working together, we have supported DepEd in implementing innovative strategies to improve early grade literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional learning. Through ABC+ we will work together to reach up to two million students in Regions V, VI and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,” said Sean Callahan, Acting Mission Director of USAID Philippines.

USAID’s support includes interventions to improve early grade instruction and delivery systems, access to quality materials, and education system capacity. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, USAID has supported the implementation of DepEd’s Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan at the early grade level.

To date, the USAID-DepEd partnership has produced and distributed nearly four million supplementary reading materials to more than 250,000 students; trained over 10,000 teachers, supervisors and school administrators; developed and adapted nearly 500 leveled readers in several mother tongue languages and in English; and produced 64 television-based and radio-based instructional materials.

DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones, in her remarks, said that “ABC+ is an example of the many initiatives that made schoolyear 2020 and 2021 possible. A collaboration with USAID, this partnership covering Regions V and VI and a division of Maguindanao focuses on improving reading and literacy of math and social and emotional skills for early grade children.... today we will witness a glimpse of the success of this partnership that has helped us achieve what we were able to do during the past year."

"The efforts and innovative practices brought to us by this partnership will be taken forward in this incoming school year. We need to embrace innovation, we need to engage with partners and USAID is a shining example, and stakeholders to collectively develop innovative solutions that will help us overcome challenges."

USAID and DepEd are also assisting teachers in project sites to develop appropriate remedial measures to address gaps in reading skills. As a result, children gain the ability to progress towards their actual grade level or become “reading ready” during the school year.

To streamline the training and professional development of teachers, the partnership also developed the NEAP Professional Development Information System that enables teachers to participate in training programs, take pre- and post-tests, complete evaluations and receive their certificates online.

The ABC+ project will continue for three more years and aims to benefit two million early grade learners in its focus areas. The project is a partnership of USAID and DepEd, implemented by RTI International, in collaboration with The Asia Foundation, SIL Lead and Florida State University.

PhilDev’s IDEA Global Entrepreneurship Symposium: Building an entrepreneurial mindset and culture

Tweet

Students, teachers, entrepreneurs identify challenges and opportunities in promoting technopreneurship

UNLEASHING IDEAS : Participants of PhilDev’s third IDEA Symposium exchange ideas in one of the ‘unconference’ sessions hosted by Google and the Filipino Googlers Network. Unlike a typical conference where the agenda and speakers are pre-determined, unconferences let participants decide on the agenda and flow of the discussions.

Can technopreneurship become an integral part of Filipino communities? The question was at the core of the discussion among the students, teachers, startups, and government leaders gathered inone of the“unconference” sessions facilitated by Google and the Filipino Googlers Network (FGN) at the third IDEA Global Entrepreneurship Symposium held recently at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel.

Google Philippines country manager Ken Lingan

As the name implies, unconferences go against the typical conference format, which often start with a pre-determined agenda and set of speakers.Instead, the meeting begins with participants answering a single question. Each answer then serves as a topic for discussion in separate breakout sessions, where participants can join and contribute their ideas. At the end of the sessions, representatives from each breakout group share the highlights of their respective discussions to the rest of the unconference participants.

“Ideas are the soul of every innovation that has made an impact on people’s lives. By providing people with an avenue that encourages the healthy exchange of ideas, we help engender positive change in society. Unconferences have the power to nurture creative solutions to pressing social problems. That’s why we partnered with Google and the FGN in the recent Symposium to help us create that kind of space to bring out the best from our country’s brightest minds.” --- Dado Banatao, chair of the Philippine Development Foundation (PhilDev).

Since 2014, PhilDev and the United States Agency for International Aid (USAID) have been organizing the IDEA Symposium to encourage young scientists and engineers to become entrepreneurs. At the Symposium, members of the academe, industry leaders, startup entrepreneurs, policy makers, and aspiring scientists and engineers discuss how innovation, quality education, and science-based entrepreneurship can lead to inclusive growth.

Teaching students to become entrepreneurs

The unconference session on technopreneurship highlighted the importance of quality education and the role of the academe in pushing students to start their own innovative businesses. During the discussion, students and professors alike emphasized the need to include more technopreneurship units in the curricula of different academic programs, such as business administration and engineering. Some participants also suggested that more schools should offer technopreneurship as a track in their academic programs.

It was also noted that schools should be the first institutions to foster innovation by adopting technology, which students can use to develop new solutions to existing problems. But beyond having adequate facilities and equipment, teachers must be able to act as mentors to provide aspiring technopreneurs with quality education, the participants pointed out. Unconference participants further agreed that studying abroad will enable young technopreneurs to tap into their skills and talents.

Special focus was given to social media and its ability to enhance learning and build communities through crowd sourcing and information sharing, while also encouraging the development of apps that address various problems.

Much-needed government support

Government was also identified as having a key role in supporting aspiring technopreneurs through better budget allocation for schools, the provision of entrepreneurship capital, and the establishment of systems that attract investors for startups. Local Government Units were also called upon to build workspaces where students, entrepreneurs, potential clients, and government leaders can identify, discuss,and solve urgent problems in the community.

“Collaboration between all sectors is key in institutionalizing support for technopreneurship. If technopreneurs can receive the right amount of support, they can reach their full potential, and deliver the kind of impact that leads to inclusive growth,” Banatao said.

DepEd, USAID to expand educ access for OSYs, students in conflict-affected areas

Tweet

The Department of Education (DepEd) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) signed the bilateral agreement for Basic Education Programs aiming to increase access to quality education for vulnerable populations such as out-of-school youth (OSY) and students in conflict-affected areas.

Education Secretary Br. Armin Luistro FSC said that through this partnership, the Department will be able to open opportunities not only for students with special needs and pre-primary students but also to OSYs and students who reside in conflict-affected areas. 

He added, “Our mandate is to provide every Filipino child with access to quality education.”

DepEd Undersecretary for Legal and Legislative Affairs Alberto Muyot said, “Education is the primary driver of development.” He added that education should be inclusive and should serve everyone, “especially the least, the lost, and the last.”

US Embassy deputy chief of mission Brian Goldbeck said, “This bilateral education agreement will sustain and reinvigorate our combined efforts to ensure that the Philippines continues its rise as regional and global leader in this new century.”

“Education is a shared responsibility,” Muyot said. He urged the public to take a stand in education and take an active part in shaping the future that every Filipino learner deserves.

Under the agreement, DepEd and USAID will provide life skills training to youth, promote community engagement and peace education, increase capacity of teachers and youth leaders to meet the education needs of youth and vulnerable population through alternative learning areas affected by crisis and conflict.

The partnership intends to strengthen education governance at both national and local levels. It also aims to empower the local government units, communities, and stakeholders to deliver education and training service for OSYs and to increase OSY employability by providing equitable access to relevant education and skills training.

The program also aims to improve learning outcomes in reading, science and mathematics instruction, diagnostics, and teaching and learning materials.

DOT, DSWD, and USAID launch One-Step Project

Tweet

The convergence program, called The One-Step Project, seeks to improve the lives of the poor with more direct interventions through tourism. The One-Step Project is a step to include the poor at the start of the development process and integrate communities, including but not limited to the beneficiaries of DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (Pantawid), in the tourism value chain. 

The Department of Tourism (DOT) has inked a partnership with the Department of Social Work and Development (DSWD) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing ceremony held last August 5, 2013.

Signatories to the One Step Project (L-R): USAID Philippines Mission Director Gloria Steele, DOT Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez, Jr. and DSWD Secretary Corazon J. Soliman.

Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez, Jr. said the project aims to alleviate poverty by improving the “reach” and “power” of our people and to be given opportunities to succeed. “The eradication of poverty begins with the restoration of trust in leadership,” the tourism chief added.

The One-Step Project taps the potential of the 13 million poor Filipinos and the 2.1 million Pantawid households in nine priority tourism clusters. It aims to identify the poor households with greater propensity for success, particularly those living in the tourism clusters that host more than 21 million domestic and foreign tourists, and enroll them in tourism enterprises either as part of a destination community or a supplier community.

Under this partnership, the DSWD, through its Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP), will help DOT translate the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) into a community-driven eco-tourism development plan to ensure inclusive economic growth. The DSWD SLP provides opportunities to its underprivileged participants to be self-reliant by engaging in income-generating activities.

“Tourism has been identified as a major economic driver to spur job creation, income, and revenue generation, and more importantly to spread the benefits to the countryside. This project provides institutional links to ensure effective implementation.  It is providing the poor employment and business opportunities with long-term benefits.  That brings much more stability in governance and raises the emotional quotient of our nation. Inclusiveness is a strategy, not a goal,” Secretary Jimenez said.

According to USAID Philippines Mission Director Gloria Steele, the deeper support towards inclusive growth is a major component of the bilateral agreement of the United States and Philippine governments.

DSWD Secretary Corazaon “Dinky” J. Soliman thanked the DOT and USAID for strengthening the Pantawid program, the government’s conditional cash transfer endeavor, as a vital poverty-reduction and community empowerment initiative.

Using the financial support from the USAID Advancing Philippine Competitiveness (COMPETE) Project, a national technical working group (TWG) will provide the general framework of the project, including the identification of the major activities to be conducted and funded. The One-Step Project will be implemented with support from an organizational structure composed of national and regional TWGs.

The national TWG is composed of the Champions, DOT Undersecretary Maria Victoria Jasmin and DSWD Undersecretary Parisaya Taradji; and Chairperson, DOT Assistant Secretary Rolando Canizal. TWG members include Director Honorita Bayudan, Director Georgina Ann Hernandez, and Angela Mari Ferrer from DSWD; Director Rica Bueno, Phoebe Areño, and Alex Macatuno from DOT. The REID Foundation serves as its technical secretariat, while the regional TWG is composed of the regional directors of the DSWD and DOT, in coordination with other regional offices and their respective local government units (LGUs).