Books St. Scholastica honors women in media via the 6th Hildegarde Awards
ST. SCHOLASTICA’S College Manila will hand out the 2012 Hildegarde Awards for Women in Media and Communication on March 10, 2:30 p.m., at the St. Cecilia’s Hall.
Now on its sixth year, the award is given in honor of St. Hildegarde von Bingen of Germany, the medieval Benedictine abbess who, in the 11th century, was a counselor to popes and princes. She was also a mystic, scholar, musician, poet, painter, philosopher, herbalist and visionary. Considered as a prototype feminist in the patriarchal milieu of medieval Europe, Hildegarde was an outspoken advocate of ethical virtue who encouraged her congregation of religious women to articulate their own voices.
The Hildegarde Awards are given to women in media and communication who echo Hildegarde’s fearless spirit and vision in today’s information age.
This year’s Hildegarde Lifetime Achievement Awards will be given to writer-publisher Gilda Cordero Fernando and Isis International, a nongovernment organization advocating women’s rights through media.
Fernando’s celebrated career in literature, journalism and theater spans more than five decades. A multi-awarded fictionist and publisher of pioneering books on Philippine culture, Fernando is also a theater and stage producer, and a painter whose works in aquarelle have been sold out in recent solo exhibitions. Her column ‘Forever 81’ published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer is popular among readers of all ages.
Isis International was founded in Rome, Italy, in 1974. Based in Manila since 1971, it is an international NGO that has been advocating women’s rights through the media for the past 38 years. Working strategically with women’s groups and networks that engage media and communications for women’s empowerment, Isis organizes capacitybuilding workshops for women and media practitioners. Its headquarters, Bahay ni Isis, located along Marunong Street in Quezon City also serves a training facility, resource center, and hostel.
Fernando and Isis International will receive trophies designed by feminist artist Mary Elizabeth Alejo- Aytin. The unique trophy entitled “Oyayi sa Kandungan ni Inang Karunungan” is actual- ly a painting of a mother and child draped in a malong and rendered on an ostrich egg. Alejo- Aytin, already popular among collectors for her quail egg miniature paintings, expands her canvas in this project and draws inspiration from Hildegarde’s visions of ecofeminism and cosmic birthing.
In addition to the Lifetime Achievement Awards, Special Citations for Outstanding Achievements in the fields of broadcast journalism, development communication, print journalism and advertising will also be given.
For broadcast journalism, special citations will be given to GMA’S “The Good News with Vicky Morales” and “Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho,” and ABS-CBN’S “Storyline.”
The PJR Reports, Elena Masilungan of Newsbreak and Jesselyn Garcia de la Cruz of the Philippine Daily Inquirer will receive special citations in the print journalism category.
In development communication, the “We can be anything” initiative, a joint project of the Apl.de.ap Foundation and the Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation, will share special citation honors with the World Wildlife Fund and GMA’S “Think before you click” campaign.
Publicis Jimenez’s “Surrogates” for Magnolia Chicken and “Baptism of Fire” for Lucky Me will receive special citations for advertising, along with Aspac Global Service’s “Bayanihan” campaign for Gawad Kalinga.
The 6th Hildegarde Awards ceremony is open to the public. Call Camille Mendez at 0915-6393117, or Soleil Manara at 09063692714.