By: Lauren Wong*

Being a born-and-bred Chicago suburbs girl, I love seeing the US triumph in water or on sand. My unwavering admiration, however, extends towards anyone who is a champion of human ability, not just the Americans. Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, fastest man alive, and China’s golden gymnastics team are triumphs that the entire world can be proud of.  Beyond them are hundreds of men and women who pushed their bodies to the extreme to qualify for the Games. All of these Olympic athletes, hailing from slums and country clubs and bombed-out towns and crowded training academies, are success stories in my mind.

It’s easy to forget that sports are not the sole domain of superhuman elite athletes. The human necessity to play transcends language, class, religion, and geography. It is only natural, then, to use sports as a tool for good. Whether you look at prison boxing programs to keep convicts clean or the Homeless World Cup, the power of social change through sports is evident.

In the Philippines, sport-centered social entrepreneurship has begun to gain some ground.  Christian Doroin, for example, has been working with Special Olympics in the Philippines for nine years now.  Now on the Board of Directors, he still wakes up early on Saturday mornings to train people with physical or mental disabilities. The athletes, ranging from small children to older adults, get the opportunity to have their moment of glory when they compete against their peers. Sports teach them how to follow directions, become self-disciplined, interact with others as a team, and value fitness for continued health.  “It’s the lessons behind sports,” Doroin explains, “that are really important.  [Special Olympics] finds them a place in society by showing them how to live and interact with others.”
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By Terri Jayme*

I left the Philippines eight years ago to pursue college in the US. As is the case with many Filipinos living abroad, being away from the country compelled me to give greater thought to what it meant to be Filipino and to learn more about the culture and history that define us. Being so far away, I felt the call of home and family. I struggled to preserve that connection and sought out little ways to affirm my identity: I am Pinoy.

Aside from the occasional “Got Adobo?” shirt, I’d come home during my first few years away and find very few Filipino products for young people. I had to choose between campy souvenir shirts or the more traditional capiz or bamboo Filipiniana wares. It made me wonder whether the absence of more modern options implied a lack of interest among young Pinoys locally.

Fortunately, things seem to have changed in recent years. I moved back to Manila last year and was surprised to find a growing market of fun and young product lines celebrating pride in being Filipino and exploring different aspects of this identity. They proudly showed off names of cities and local streets. They flashed modernized images of Philippine heroes. They documented the little quirks and perks that make daily life in the Philippines unique. I found everything from clothes and bags to books and music. In terms of clothes, my personal favorites back then were the things I’d find in Team Manila and Bayo.

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By Cristyl Mae Senajon*

My childhood days were a lot of fun. I would play all sorts of backyard games — tumbang preso, taguan, bahay-bahayan, soccer (the pinoy version), shiatong, and flying a kite with my older brother. I found so much life, freedom, and enjoyment out of those little everyday activities.

Unfortunately, many Filipino children today are victims of poverty, child labor, malnutrition, juvenile delinquency, child prostitution, and the lack of education that they skip childhood altogether and miss out on just having fun.

From 1995 to 2000, a total of 52,576 children “were monitored as having been deprived of their liberty in detention placement, under custodial setting through suspended sentence,” says the Second Country Report on the Implementaton of the Convention on the Rights of the Child submitted by the government’s Council for the UNICEF’s Welfare of Children. About 2.06 million children all around the Philippines are compelled to do labor in crop plantations, mining caves, rock quarries and factories, among others. Out of 10 students who enter Grade 1, less than 2 will finish college.

Despite appalling reports about the condition of the Filipino child, there may be hope for a child-friendly society due to certain social institutions. Kabataang Inyong Dapat Suportahan (K.I.D.S.) Foundation is an example.

KIDS foundation was founded by a group of friends who were simply seeking for ways to help out. This group of friends is composed of actor Diether Ocampo, Lawyer Karina Tanega, Media man Mondo Castro, Graphic artist Egay Bautista and businessman Bene Go.

Before they set up KIDS, Karina and Diet were very active in outreach programs that other people thought they had a foundation of their own. Donations poured in, some of which came from Filipinos abroad. The first came from an overseas Filipino family who donated hearing aid kits. This family has a child who suffers from hearing-deficiency. This was followed by more donations. Diet, Karina and three of their friends realized that they had to organize themselves.

They designed KIDS foundation’s programs to address major child-related problems such as child labor and malnutrition. Reduce, Eliminate, Decrease (R.E.D.) Undernutrition raises awareness on good nutrition. 100 KIDScholar is an educational assistance granted to public elementary students. Isang Milyong Aklat, Isang Milyong Pangarap is a nationwide campaign promoting the habit of reading among the youth. Out of the Streets, Into the Court, is a program with NIKE Philippines promotes sports by building basketball courts in different public schools in the Philippines. Medical Aid is a financial assistance for chemotherapy sessions of cancer patients in the pediatric ward of the Philippine Orthopedic Center.

“Filipinos have this notion of being friendly to women and children that’s why we have specialized focus on these sectors”, says Karina relating to the question whether we have a child-friendly society or not. “We have enough laws to answer these problems but culturally it’s difficult”, she added.

Not so many kids are blessed with a happy childhood because some them are needed early on to labor for their family. For the last two years, KIDS Foundation has been trying to change this. It hopes to be a sanctuary for more kids who are abandoned by society.

“Just remember what kind of childhood you have and wish that you can share that childhood with the next kid,” Karina said.

*Cristyl is program assistant for Youth Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship Program at the Ateneo School of Government. For those who wish to learn more about social entrepreneurship and how to become an effective social entrepreneur, the Ateneo de Manila University-School of Government together with Ashoka-Philippines will be running Beyond Bottomlines II: An Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship this coming September 20,2008 (Saturday), 8 am to 5 pm at the Ateneo de Manila-Professional Schools campus in Rockwell, Makati City. If you are interested to attend this seminar, you can send an email to youthventureph (at) gmail (dot) com or contact Katrina Wy at (02) 683-0262 local 141.

By Lauren Wong*

I came to the Philippines ten years ago, and all I can remember are the white-sand beaches of Palawan. It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen, and I imagined the rest of the Philippines to be just as gorgeous when I boarded a plane bound for Manila. My summer internship with Ashoka Philippines would last for two months; I found that natural beauty abounds, but not in the sprawling mega-metropolis where I live and work. The city, like so many others, is a hub of urban pollution. Luckily for me, there’s life outside of the city limits.

Aside from interning with Ashoka, I got to spend some of my weekends in non-urban areas. Trekking up Mount Pinatubo, planting trees near a dam in Zambales, and spending an afternoon in an isolated village in Negros Occidental reminded me of the breathtaking natural beauty of the Philippines. In those little villages tucked in the folds of mountains, people live in communion with their surroundings. Villagers fashion umbrellas out of palm leaves, make useful rags out of tattered clothes, and let no scrap of food goes to waste. The ones I’ve met still remember how to live with the earth, not simply on top of it. That kind of mentality stands as such a contrast from the lives most of us urbanites live.

We need to remember what it feels like to not pollute the earth. As climate change becomes a more present danger, we (being Filipinos, Americans, and every other citizen of the world) have got to reconnect with our environment. Some of that starts small, like bringing cloth bags when shopping or, if not, use all of those plastic bags for garbage cans. We could put pride in Filipino-grown food rather than preferring goodies from Switzerland. We could make a conscious effort not to litter and demand a comprehensive recycling program. The biggest environmental concerns here in the Philippines happen to be large structural issues like diesel-belching buses and inefficient energy grids, but that shouldn’t dissuade the average citizen from trying to do their part. People and communities around the world are finding ways to “do their part”, and the Philippines should see if others’ innovative models can be applied here.
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by: Harvey S. Keh

Last year, I taught a Social Entrepreneurship class at the Ateneo de Manila University-Loyola Schools as a lecturer for its Development Studies Program. One of the innovations that its director, Leland Dela Cruz, did was to provide an option for its graduating students to develop and implement a social enterprise instead of doing a regular research thesis project. There were eight social enterprises that were developed as a result of this program.

One of them was Impukan, which was the work of Jaymee Duran. Realizing that the Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, Jaymee worked with the Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan (SLB) to develop a social enterprise that would raise funds and resources even before disasters strike. Through the funds and resources raised via Impukan, the SLB will now be able to respond to disasters quicker and at the same time enable it to also provide psychosocial therapy and support to the victims of these natural calamities.

With the proliferation of the use of plastics and tarpaulins in our society, Maurene Papa and Kat Arandela’s Bill-A-Bag (Billboards transformed into Bags) is a social enterprise that aims to promote recycling as a means of helping save our environment. Bill-A-Bag turns used plastic tarpaulins and transforms them into fashionable bags, coin purses and wallets. By doing so, they not only earn by selling these products but more importantly, they are able to impart a strong message that recycling and the promotion of sustainable development can be a way of life for everyone. To view some of their products, you can visit their website at http://billabag.multiply.com/.
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