Youth leaders tapped for community work

BACOLOD CITY – About 28 young leaders will implement 17 communitybased social innovation programs based on the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (UN) around Negros Occidental this year.

Involved in the program is the Negrosanon Young Leaders Summit (NYLS). In its second year, the group had trained 28 student and community youth leaders from the province to implement programs and projects based on the UN’s five SDGs.

NYLS is the brainchild of two youth organizations, the Sowing Legacy Movement (SLM) and Youth Empowering Youth Initiative (YEY!).

The five-day boot camp that started Jan. 31 at Buenos Aires Mountain Resort in Bago City listed 17 projects to be implemented starting the second quarter of this year.

These SGD pillars are Education and Literacy, Health and Sanitation, Ecology and Disaster Risk Preparedness, Peace and Governance, Culture and the Arts.

Jomar Borromeo, NYLS program director said Sunday that last year, 16 projects were implemented by the first batch of participants of NYLS, and some are still continuing this year.

The NYLS participants were chosen from 200 applicants from student government councils and community youth leaders through a screening process that started last October.

Borromeo said the shortlisted applicants were asked to create project concepts and select a target community. The proposals were enhanced during the summit.

During the event, the 28 young leaders attended lectures on social marketing and realizing advocacies, participated in multi-sectoral panel discussions and in project pitching where the best three projects were chosen and will be given seed grants.

The top three projects are “Project AtaSenso,” a livelihood program for the Ata tribe in North Negros), “Project EcoSats,” an Ecology Saturdays program focused on solid waste management, and “Sagip Salaywanan,” a quarterly eco-camp for youth from the cities of Cadiz, Sagay and Escalante.

Other projects focused on HIV awareness, literacy of children in conflict with the law, renovation of kindergarten school, proper hygiene, microplastics in the sea, preserving local language and heritage, and creation of sectoral youth groups in their localities.

“There are different key aspects that needs to be trained for them to be committed on implementing the project,” Borromeo said.