Unilab Ideas Positive chooses 5 teams from VisMin to transform communities with their positive ideas
1:56 AM
Vernon Joseph Go
Five
youth teams from Visayas-Mindanao have qualified as one of the Top 12
finalists, chosen among 82 entries nationwide, to bring their community-changing ideas to
positive realities in this year’s national run of Unilab Ideas Positive— the
only social marketing congress and competition for college students in the
country today. Now on its third
year, Unilab Ideas Positive serves as a venue to enable the Filipino youth to
improve the health and wellness of their communities with their positive and
sustainable ideas.
Each winning team will be rewarded with
Php100, 000 seed money to implement their social marketing plans in their
chosen communities for the next six months.
But before the project implementation, all 12
youth teams will be flown in to Manila, with free hotel accommodation, meals
and transportation, to undergo a 3-day social marketing boot camp on June 21 to
23 at the Unilab Bayanihan Center in Mandaluyong. The students will learn
social marketing approaches through workshops and case studies from a roster of
subject matter experts, which includes social marketing guru Ned Roberto,
social entrepreneur Reese Fernandez, director Jim Libiran and recently awarded
marketing practitioner Jay Jaboneta, among others.
The boot camp, which aims to harness the
power of the teams’ social marketing ideas for a more solid implementation
plan, involves a one-day immersion at Gawad Kalinga’s Enchanted Farm, a social
innovation village in Bulacan.
VISAYAS
ENTRIES
In Visayas, two Cebu teams
give focus on access to potable and safe water sources. Team Bang’s “Catch Rain, We
Can!” project proposes a rainwater catchment system using ferro-cement jars
at Gitbingil Island in Medellin. Wherein some seek water from the sky, Team Transit’s “A Bicycle For Water” looks down low and hopes to address a similar
need through a bicycle water-pumping system from the deep wells of St. Arnold
Janssen Village in Lapu-Lapu City.
Meanwhile in Iloilo, Team
Kabataang Katipuneros’ “KKK: Kalusugan at Kalinisan sagot sa
Kahirapan” focuses on the processing of powdered vegetables to address
malnutrition in Brgy. La Paz, Guimaras while Team W.A.Y.A’s “Tahong for Life”
promotes sanitary handling of tahong in Sitio Pang-Pang, Dumangas through
health and livelihood seminars as well as a construction of an eco-friendly
tahong center as a conservation site for tahong-made ornaments and furniture.
MINDANAO ENTRY
Proudly representing
Mindanao is Team Green Label’s “Gintong Bukirin Para sa Gintong Kinabukasan”
which seeks to reduce malnutrition rate by providing a local source of food through
a school-based organic mini-farm in Brgy. Tigatto, Davao City.
“From
water harvesting systems to mussel conservation efforts to livelihood programs, we are
impressed by the quality of ideas presented by the Visayan and Mindanaoan youth and proud of
how these teams have embodied the bayanihan spirit in involving the right
stakeholders and institutions within their campaigns,” shared Unilab Ideas
Positive program lead Barry Barrientos. “We look forward to seeing these teams
undergo the 3-day boot camp to prepare their plans for community
implementation.”
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.
