GREENIN' Philippines IEC

As representatives of our own youth organizations who are partners with RAFI - Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc., of GREENIN’ Philippines (Generation, REdemption, and Expansion of Natural resources INitiatives in the Philippines, of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc.), we, the Cebu Association of Biology Students’ Evanjohnn Mendoza, Cebu Blogger’s Society, Inc.’s Vernon Joseph Go, and Janelle Moran of the Aboitiz Leaders of Excellence (ALEx) conducted the GREENIN' Philippines IEC which is an Information-Education Campaign in various schools (Specifically Universities) here in Cebu.

The targeted participants of the program are student body officers from the different organizations, partner school-student organizations of each schools, faculty, admin. and interested individuals. We aim to make them  aware, and encourage them to take action on the problems of the environment through the upcoming RUN2PLANT 4 Greenin Philippines.

Speaking Assignments:

• Evanjohnn Mendoza, being the first speaker talked about Cebu biodiversity. He pointed out the importance of trees in the environment and how things are inextricably interconnected. He also emphasized on what happens usually in Tree Planting activities; like planting Mahogany seedlings because they’re easy to grow. But even so, Mahogany is an exotic kind of tree and it disrupts the environment. When it thrives, a native specie of tree may die.

• I (Vernon Joseph Go) was the next speaker and I basically discussed some data that was pre-provided from DENR, other LGUs and of course from RAFI. I presented some statistics but put more emphasis on the current forest cover in the Philippines and Cebu and the urgency to reforest. I also presented a situationer where I  revealed that in 1999, about 18% of the total forest cover are left. That was already the number in 1999 while now, it is estimated that we have a remaining forest cover of less than 4%.

• The last speaker was Janelle Moran, who put emphasis on the Run2Plant for Greenin Philippines Event by RAFI. This activity fuses two events into one; There is going to be a running segment and a planting segment. She mentioned to choose 8K for die-hard supporters/environmentalists, 5K for beginners/enthusiasts and 1K if you are really not fit enough or that you just have a Burning Passion!

Run2Plant is going to be a Cebu-wide event in commemoration of the World Environment day and in celebration of June as the Philippine month for the environment. This is hosted by RAFI’s GREENIN’ Philippines in collaboration with the Cebu Provincial Government and the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources.

Lessons Learned/Realizations:

• On Speaking~Still not that consistent, and Internal Preparations do MATTER for it affects ones' mindset and performance (Gloomy weather, EMOness, Exercise, Other Stressors..etc..)
• A 1st to have back-to-back speaking engagements in a month; 1st to do an Environment-related topic for speaking-->Madami pa akong dapat matutunan!
• Some Students are very lucky to have airconditioned SSC/G offices, School Orgs.Offices and allocated BUDGET for there activities in there respective schools-->LRJ-DMD-DKML!!!
• Learned something new from my fellow speakers :D and prepare yourself, there will always be a NEW question per different audience XD
• EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED...LITERALLY!!!
• I had a glimpse and a closer look at the various SCHOOL CULTUREs (USC-Main Studs are ridiculously serious academically? USJR are naning as well, they are calm but always enjoy what they do--it's a good type of naning we had so many laughs; Technologians are of course IMBA, the Host was IMBA, there was IMBA everywhere which is a good thing since they are very engaging during talks)

Heavy Audience in University of the Visayas

Insane participation during the 1st National Biodiversity and Environmental management Conference 2011

School Touring...hehehe :P

Photographer Credits to Glenna, Mark R., Izza 2Towns,  for being our photo-documenters in the various schools that we went to. Also some pix from JAM!

Thank you to the hospitality of each school that we went to especially to partner student organizations there! Thumbs up to CIT-University SSG, USJR-Main SSC, USC-Main JPIA, USC-TC Biology, UV-Freshmen+CAS Dean for having us and for the hospitality.