WANTED: VOLUNTEERS! :)

April 21- Book to the Future ( a book drive + book fair in March) For more info, check out the article from last year’s event: http://manoamigapilipinas.blogspot.com/2011/04/book-to-future.html

June 9- Volunteers’ Talent Fair
Volunteers will contribute their talents (e.g.face painting, dance, storytelling, arts and crafts) and the kids will go around each booth
Venue: Washington Sycip Park, Makati

July 14- Volunteers’ Talent Fair
Volunteers will contribute their talents (e.g.face painting, dance, storytelling, arts and crafts) and the kids will go around each booth
Venue: Washington Sycip Park, Makati

September 15 - Community Kids field trip
Volunteers will serve as the big brother/sister for the day
Venue: To be announced

October 13: UN Day- Volunteers will transform the different areas of the school into a particular country and the children will go around, have their passports stamped and learn about different cultures.

December 1: Advent- themed activity with the objective of helping children understand the real meaning of Christmas (arts and crafts, storytelling and cookie-decorating)


If you're interested to volunteer, send us an email at manoamigaphilippines@gmail.com!

Development Director Eleanor Pinugu on Education and Social inclusion

The World Economic Forum recently asked the Global Young Shapers worldwide to share how the WEF Annual Forum could help them improve their respective projects and advocacies. Mano Amiga Development Director Eleanor Pinugu talks about her dream of building a country where every child has access to quality education, and the small steps she has taken towards this vision. 

Mano Amiga Development Director to present at the World Economic Forum

Mano Amiga Academy Development Director Eleanor Pinugu was recently heralded by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as a Global Young Shaper. She will be joining Save the Philippine Seas movement founder Anna Oposa and San Vicente Mayor Carmela Alvarez in representing the Philippines at the upcoming WEF Annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.  

Eleanor has also been asked to present the Mano Amiga project in the Ideaslab session where she'll be discussing with the WEF participants, including different heads of state, the Mano Amiga model, it successes and how she could further improve it. 

MANILA, Philippines - Nine outstanding young Filipinos were chosen as among the 2012 “Young Global Shapers” of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The young achievers are Anna Rosario Oposa, Mayor Maria Carmela Alvarez of San Vicente in Palawan, Ponce Ernest Samaniego, Jay Michael Jaboneta, Dr. Bryan Albert Lim, Eleanor Rosa Pinugu, Mildred Ople, television host Bianca Gonzalez, and Alexandra Amanda Eduque.

“The Young Global Shapers are exceptional achievers who initiated projects that have positive impact in the community,” said ABS-CBN news anchor Karen Davila, WEF Young Global Leader 2010 and Founding Curator for the YGS Manila Hub.

The nine individuals – whose ages range from 20 to 30 - have been accepted by the WEF as potential leaders because of their positive impact in their communities, said Davila.

Oposa, 23, co-founded the Save Philippine Seas movement to protect the world’s richest marine life, and “Isko Cleans UP,” a waste management program in the University of the Philippines-Diliman. She is the daughter of Ramon Magsaysay awardee, environmentalist lawyer Tony Oposa.

Alvarez, 24, the youngest female mayor of San Vicente, has a degree in International Business Administration with a concentration in Environmental Technology and Global Marketing Management from Babson College in Boston. She aims to transform the town into a tourist destination municipality using sustainable development technology to preserve its natural environment and help residents become self-reliant in terms of its present and future needs. 

Samaniego, 21, is co-founder and chief executive officer of Outliers, a social enterprise that serves as an outsourced business expertise for non-profit organizations.

Jaboneta, 30, founded the movement Philippine Funds for Little Kids that helps schoolchildren in Zamboanga City who had to swim to go to school. He was the first and former New Media Head of the Presidential Communications Operations Office under President Aquino. He is also a board member of the Kabayanihan Foundation and Team Pinoy, Inc.

Lim is a practicing physician in San Pablo, Laguna. He is a program consultant of the Asian Institute of Management Zuellig Center for Asian Business Transformation, a research associate of the UP Universal Health Care Study Group, and the proponent of the Quisumbing-Escandor Film Festival for Health and serves as adviser in various health-related projects.

Pinugu is the founder of Mano Amiga Academy, Inc, a non-profit school that provides underprivileged Filipino children access to fourteen years of high quality education (K-12th grade), and all other support they need to have a better life. After two years of raising funds for the students’ scholarships through private donations and corporate partnerships, she helped establish a social enterprise that would generate a steady income for Mano Amiga, and at the same time give employment opportunities to the mothers of the students.

Ople, 25, is an advocate of countryside development through the adoption of innovative agricultural technology with profitable business concepts and ideas. She is also one of the founders of the Hagonoy Young Leaders Program and has worked with the Ayala Foundation on youth leadership and development projects. She is currently taking up law.

Gonzalez was recently appointed as Special Advocate for Children for the United Nations Children’s Fund-Philippines.

Eduque, 21, is involved with various humanitarian projects and endeavors in partnership with Habitat for Humanity Philippines. She has been working with the organization for about seven years now, and is the founder and chairperson of the Habitat for Humanity Philippines Youth Council.

Davila said of the nine achievers, only Oposa, Pinugu and Alvarez were invited by the WEF to the 2012 conference in Davos, Switzerland next week.

The WEF is a Geneva-based non-profit organization best known for its annual meeting in Davos. It is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

The organization launched last year the Global Shapers community aimed at providing the youth with a global platform to shape the future – integrating personal, community and global dimensions. This community will help youth develop their leadership potential to serve society.

The Global Shapers community includes extraordinary young individuals with great potential for future leadership roles in society. Aged between 20 and 30 years, they represent all walks of life and share a spirit of entrepreneurship in the global public interest, the WEF said.

Click here for the link to the original article:

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=768252&publicationSubCategoryId=63

Learning Place

P3 features Mano Amiga volunteer Florian Trinidad's insights on what's so unique about the Mano Amiga school model and how more people could help the organization fulfill its mission of providing quality education to underprivileged youth.

Have you ever wondered why a four year old child selling sampaguita in the middle of the street is a normal sight here in the Philippines? Ever wondered why people don’t get surprised with seeing families sleeping on the sidewalks with beds made of cardboard and newspaper? Well this is a pretty normal scene in the Taguig area.

What Started It All
Despite the fact that most of us are insensitive about the matter, fortunately someone noticed. Enter Mano Amiga, an academy that aims to provide education to marginalized families. “The thing is, people keep saying how they support education because it has that equalizing promise but how can it be an equalizer in the Philippines if the poor have access to poor quality education and only privileged families have access to quality education” says Lynn Pinugu, Institutional Development Director of the Mano Amiga Academy. Mano Amiga was founded in Mexico by privileged highschool students who saw how bad reality was in their country. They raised funds in order to put up a school that would offer the same books, curriculum and every academic advantage that these high school students have in order to give the less fortunate the equal treatment that they deserve. They started small but they started with heart, so it’s no surprise that Mano Amiga has been growing since. “The model became successful that it eventually grew into a network of schools all over Mexico and it mushroomed all over Latin America,” Lynn says. Apparently, it didn’t stop at Latin America. In 2008, Mano Amiga was finally brought to the Philippines.

How You Can Help
To be a helping hand in this mission, you don’t have to be a major corporation or a millionaire for that matter. Be a volunteer and help in building a better life for these wonderful scholars. Build schools and houses for them, educate them in proper cooking and good nutrition and teach them what is right and wrong. You not only save a child’s future but you also get yourself saved from the whole experience.

Read this article in full by visiting: http://www.p-3.ph/view/794

A New Perspective

Volunteer Cristina Lobregat shares the experience of watching the Azkals-Galaxy game with twelve exuberant Mano Amiga kids in tow, and the insights she gained along the way.

"Kung nandiyan lang sana si Coach Richard, siguro panalo na yung Azkals." Said in the most matter-of-fact tone, this was one of the endearing moments that really put the Philippine Azkals-LA Galaxy match into perspective; Particularly, the perspective of a grade 2 Mano Amiga student. Though it may come as a surprise to some, the students in Mano Amiga are actually football fans, thanks to the generosity of Coach Candice and Avery del Rosario of Futbol Funatics, who together with Coach Richard, volunteer to teach football every Friday to the Mano Amiga kids. The weekly games in Mano Amiga, coupled with the growing popularity of the Philippine Azkals peaked the students’ interest in football. With their newfound love for the sport, it was almost too good to be true that twelve students were given the chance to see the much-anticipated match last December 3.

While many people who watched the friendly match were looking forward to seeing David Beckham, the Mano Amiga students who trooped over to the Rizal Memorial Stadium from FTI, Taguig barely had an idea on who he was. In fact, they were more excited about finally seeing the Azkals live, so much so that the students actually prayed before the game, asking God to help the Azkals win. What a sight they were, twelve small children sitting quietly in prayer amidst a noisy, cheering crowd. Their excitement showed as their voices stood out from the rest during the National Anthem, prompting others seated around them to look over, where many, if not all, couldn’t help but smile.he Mano Amiga students were oblivious to the hype over LA Galaxy, continuously rooting for their home team, cheering with the rest of the crowd when the Azkals had finally scored a goal. The energy and excitement in the air had gotten to them as they were running up and down the bleachers, calling out the names of the most popular Azkals they knew.

But as with all children their age, by the time the game was winding down, so were they; Understandably so, it being way past their bedtime, the game ending at almost 10pm. But despite their sleepy eyes, tired but grateful smiles filled their faces as they walked out of the stadium. While waiting for the van, there was a renewed energy as the students recounted the highlights of the match. This experience was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime event for all those who watched the game, but for these students, the reason for that differs from the rest. In the end, it didn’t matter that David Beckham and the rest of LA Galaxy were there, nor did it matter that the score was 6-1, what mattered was that these students were able to watch a team they knew, play the sport they love.