World Vision seeks out solutions to Cebu, Davao community problems
Focus on climate change effects and out- ofschool youth
GloBAl Christian relief, development and advocacy organization World Vision is seeking out solutions to some of the Philippines’ overlooked community challenges.
Dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice, World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender.
Its latest project, the Social Innovation Challenge, allows innovators all over the country the opportunity to compete for seed capital to fund ideas that address obstacles faced by Filipino communities. For this year, World Vision focuses on two community problems — climate change effects on soil that hurt the livelihood of almost 1,000 farming households in Sogod, Cebu¸and hundreds of out- of- school youth in Barangay Bucana, Davao City.
Sogod is a small upland barangay where almost 50 percent of the population depends on agriculture while the Davao City locale’s 500 youths are deprived of schooling due to their families’ lack of sustainable livelihood.
These challenges were identified using the human- centered approach that focuses on the families and communities, through various in- depth interviews, focus group discussions, user journey mapping, secondary studies and other research and validation tools.
The finalists of the challenge, composed of students and professionals from the developmental sector, vie to have their ideas implemented. Three teams compete for each challenge.
For the agriculture-focused challenge, participating teams are Ato Ani (represented by Maria Wilvenna Añora, Venecia Añora, and Kent Vincent Añora), a Bohol-based social enterprise that makes and distributes organic fresh produce and processed organic food products; agribusiness Plantsville (represented by November “Tina” Canieso-Yeo), which seeks to engage the Cabalawan youth in natural farming and entrepreneurship, teaching them ways of lessor-tiller land use to improve agriculture image, link to social media and leverage on ICT in agriculture; and Tagani (represented by Kevin Cuevas and Josin Macastac), an online application that connects farmers with buyers for the direct sale of their produce. Its extension, the Tagani Plus, serves as a farm management and analytics mobile app.
The teams who seek solutions for out-of-school youths are Edukasyon. ph (represented by Patricia Matias, Ria Tagle, Jose Soberano, Pam Suanco, Cristina Batalla), an organization that aims to develop an online portal specifically tailored for OSY (out-of-shool youths) providing information on both job and skills training opportunities; Quatro (represented by Daniel Galang, Sophia Salen, Aljay Bermejo, and Paul Dela, all students from De La Salle College of Saint Benilde), a group seeking to create both livelihood and scholarship opportunities for out- of- school youth; and Sora (represented by Juan Dalisay and Jan Matthew Rafol), a social apprenticeship training program designed to give out- of-school youth basic education, useful skills, apprenticeship and possible hiring.
The finalists underwent a threeday bootcamp, facilitated by British Council Active Citizens to ensure their ideas are well-formed and pertinent for eventual application to the communities of Sogod, Cebu and Bucana, Davao City. Aside from seed money for implementation, the winning entry wins cash prize as well.
Aside from ideation, the finalists want to encourage more people to take action in advocacies for environment and education.
“It’s a personal advocacy so we’re highly involved in organic culture and, as much as possible, we wanted more people to be involved in agriculture,” Maria Wilvenna Añora of Ato Ani said.
“We want to make education accessible for everyone because there are people left behind. And, with this challenge, it’s specific to out- ofschool youth in Davao, we can really do that and learn how to scale it up in other communities as well,” said Pam Suanco of Edukasyon.ph.
A panel of multi- sectoral experts evaluate the entries to choose proposals that have positive social and economic consequences, financial sustainability and an environment-friendly purpose.
The panel of judges include Gretchen Ho, World Vision Ambassador for Social Innovation Challenge; John Aguilar of CNN Philippines’ “The Final Pitch;” Abigail Mapua- Cabanilla of the Hub of Innovation for Inclusion; and Christine Diane Romero of J. Amado Araneta Foundation.
“I believe that each one of us can make a change in our own ways. World Vision’s Social Innovation Challenge is a welcome platform for Filipinos in creating a difference through their innovative solutions,” World Vision in the Philippines Executive Director Rommel Fuerte said.
“With the help of our exceptional list of partners and mentors, our finalists are honed to help the residents of Sogod, Cebu, and Barangay Bucana, Davao City. I am amazed to see this competition transform into a collaborative project, a fitting representation of what we are always pushing for at World Vision,” he expressed.