Simultaneous Earth Hour ceremonies in all SM Supermalls in the Philippines and China

For eight years now, Earth Hour have been creating tremendous impact on the global awareness of climate change. More people around the world are beginning to understand the significance of going beyond one hour to really make a difference. The Philippines, once proclaimed as the "Earth Hour Hero Country" for having the most number of participating communities, will once again try to take the lead – thanks to private companies like SM Supermalls.

All 52 SM malls around the country and six in China will simultaneously turn off their lights to show SM's continued support to the annual Earth Hour climate change awareness campaign of World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF). With all SM malls hosting Earth Hour ceremonies for its respective communities, it will not be surprising if the country becomes a "hero" again for this environmental campaign.

All SM malls will provide the crowd with inspiring videos leading to the switch-off countdown. After the lights have been switched off, candles will be distributed to the crowd while an exciting lineup of entertainers will be presented for free.

SM Mall of Asia will be the host mall for the ceremony, with candidates from Ms. Earth as guests, among others, and AVP for Operations Mr. Perkin So to lead the switching off of the lights.

National Wellness Day 2013: A Big Success

Some of the organizations which participated in the National Wellness Day (from top left): Petron Corporation, PMAP Secretariat, SGS Gulf Limited, Canon Philippines and UCPB, the lead site of the activities in NCR.

Filipino workers from all over the country and even overseas participated in the National Wellness Day activities last June 21.

The People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP), the premier organization of HR practitioners and people managers, successfully held the nationwide activity that promotes health and wellness in the workplace as one of the most important issues that companies need to address today. Almost 100 member companies from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao have organized different wellness activities in their respective workplaces on the said day. The highlight of the celebration is the 7-Minute PMAP Wellness Moment, a quick wellness activity that involves stretching and meditation to be done simultaneously across the nation by employees at exactly 3:00 pm.

This PMAP initiative, in Partnership with Healthway Medical, even reached workers from the Guam office of one of their members, SGS Gulf Limited, who performed the activity along with their colleagues based in the three offices of the company in the Philippines. With the success of the event, PMAP is pushing for the National Wellness Day to be done annually every third Friday of June.

Furthermore, on October 2013, PMAP will hold a fun run at CCP Grounds, Pasay City as the culminating event of the organization’s efforts in promoting workplace wellness this year. Aside from targeting more than 1,500 participants in the fun run, the event also aims to provide a venue for different organizations to showcase their respective wellness initiatives. 

Harnessing Youth’s Community-changing Ideas

After a series of rigorous nationwide screenings in search for the best social marketing ideas around the country, Unilab Ideas Positive has chosen 12 student teams to implement their community-changing projects with a seed money of P100, 000 each. To help them prepare for their project implementation, Unilab Ideas Positive gathered these teams in a 3-day social marketing boot camp led by the country’s topmost and well-known social marketing practitioners at the Unilab Bayanihan Center in Mandaluyong City.

Among the 12 finalists, Team Five for Life (Metro Manila), Tamang TEAMpla (Metro Manila), Team Kabataang Katipuneros (Iloilo City) and Team Green Label (Davao City) focused their efforts on solving their community’s main issue of malnutrition through fun and innovative ideas such as nutrition plate guides and cooking contests. Meanwhile, Team Ba (Baguio City) and Team FNEC (Bicol) focused on improving the hygiene practices of Benguet school children and Muslim Maranao settlers respectively.

Taking on the challenge of environmental care and preservation, Team Protogenia (Batangas) proposed to train the Badjaos of Batangas on how to best utilize their surroundings for methods of self-sustenance while Team W.A.Y.A. (Iloilo City) suggested a mussel-conservation campaign. On the other hand, water-oriented projects were recommended by Team Matalaw (Batangas) and Team JEYTUDITUSI (Cavite) as they sought to establish clean-up efforts for their rivers while Team Bang (Cebu) and Team Transits (Cebu) developed water-filtering systems.

“Unilab Ideas Positive was developed to create meaningful change towards the nation. We seriously take our role as a health and wellness company in building the nation, which is the reason behind the nationwide expansion of the program this year,” shared Unilab Ideas Positive program lead Barry Barrientos. “Knowing that change starts with small steps, we built Unilab Ideas Positive to partner with and give a platform for the youth to ‘positivize’ the Philippines in true Bayanihan spirit, one community at a time.”

The 12 teams took time to pose for a shot during the boot camp

As part of their learning adventure, the students spent time with the country’s best industry practitioners: social marketing guru Dr. Ned Roberto, social entrepreneurs Mark Ruiz, Reese Fernandez-Ruiz, Jayson Lo, Krie Reyes-Lopez and Chit Juan, and creative and communication strategist Peachy Pacquing. Dr. Ivanhoe Escartin of the DOH National Center for Health Promotion gave the students an overview of the country’s health and wellness landscape. Meanwhile, social marketing consultants and academicians Harvey Keh, Ma. Christine Reyes and Dr. Sylvia Claudio, among others, dug into the implementation details of the students’ projects to ensure smooth rollout. Social advocate Jay Jaboneta and award-winning director Jim Libiran also inspired the participants with their stories of their own advocacies.

The teams were also brought to the Gawad Kalinga (GK) Enchanted Farm in Bulacan to witness social marketing and innovation in action, led by a talk by GK Founder and President Tony Meloto.

The Unilab Ideas Positive 2011 winners—Grand Winner Team High 5, Runners-up Team AweEights and Team KaBaLiKAT—also shared their boot camp and project implementation experience.

 “Assuming our newfound roles as agents of positive change in their chosen communities, we have learned the basics of social marketing and even immersed ourselves in actual social marketing practices in preparation for our very own project implementation,” shared Jhanette Co of 2011 Unilab Ideas Positive Grand Prize winner, Team High 5.

In the next six months, all 12 student teams will be implementing their projects in their respective communities, mentored by social marketing practitioners from around the country. From the 12, the five most successful youth teams in project implementation will advance to the finals for a chance to become the Unilab Ideas Positive 2012 grand winner.

For more information on the event and each team’s progress, visit www.Facebook.com/Unilab.IdeasPositive and www.unilabideaspositive.com. Follow us on Twitter via @ideaspositive.

Digital Education Conference for Teachers

 

The Philippine Normal University (PNU), the country’s National Center for Teacher Education, conducted a conference last May 7, 2012 billed as Teaching Powered by Technology: 21^st Century Skills and Tools for Teachers   at the AV Theater of Edilberto P. Dagot Hall, PNU campus in Taft Avenue, Manila. This event is in collaboration with Vibe Technologies, the technology arm of Vibal Publishing House, Inc. 

Gaspar A. Vibal, President/Executive Director, Vibal

The event is also in support of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) thrust towards the integration of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in education. DepEd Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro has issued DepEd Advisory No. 212 s. 2012, calling for the participation of school administrators, supervisors, principals, school heads, coordinators and classroom teachers from both public and private schools all over the country.

Among the speakers in the conference are Mr. Erico Habijan (Director, National Educators Association of the Philippines), Hal Plotkin (Senior Policy Adviser, US Department of Education), Michelle Casio (Education Lead, Microsoft Philippines), Fr. Johnny Go, S.J. (President, Xavier School) and Michael Xia (Regional Sales and Marketing Manager, McGraw Hill).

Highlights of the event include the launch of Vibe Tablet, the first Philippine tablet specifically meant for school use, and the formal donation and turnover of the open courseware repository of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to the PNU for the use of their teachers and students.  MIT is recognized as a leading engineering and technology university globally.

In further collaboration, Vibal Publishing House, Inc. is donating a “classroom of the future” concept which will serve as the official home of the continuing year-long course with degree units at PNU.  The facility will be equipped with mobile PC tablets, an interactive whiteboard and LCD projector.  The project is also in line with PNU’s objective to enter into a twinning agreement with Columbia Universityʼs Center for Technology and School Change, which has a reputable international technology curriculum.