AdZU, Community Responds to Call on Analyzing Youth Situation in
ZC
Over thirty participants gathered at the Garden Orchid Hotel to
attend “HU YOUth?: A Participatory Workshop to Understand Our Adolescents
in Zamboanga City,” held last March 14 and 15, 2018.
Organized by AdZU’s Center for Culture and the Arts, the workshop
aimed to gather stakeholders in analyzing key issues that adolescents in
Zamboanga City were facing.
“As we dive deeper in our program development process, we
have to ensure that we understand the problem with our stakeholders,” said
Kiko Miranda, project director of ACCA-SUGPAT, “so we brought everyone into one
common understanding of complex problems facing our adolescents.”
A myriad of data
Different data on adolescents from the global perspective down to
the local landscape were presented.
Adolescent and HIV Officer Emee Valdehuesa of UNICEF Philippines
presented their study on their consultation of over 6,000 children in the
Philippines. It showed that “Vices” followed by “Health” were the most
important issues facing young Filipinos today, from among a pre-determined set
of issues.
Further, bullying, humiliation, and addiction were some of the
important issues not pre-enlisted, but surfaced as key problems among the
youth.
Meanwhile, National Youth Commission (NYC) Officer for Region 9
Raymond Domingo shared about the government’s Philippine Youth Development Plan
(PYDP).
In his presentation, Domingo showed that almost 30% of the
Philippine population is composed of the youth. This showed a window of
opportunity for the PYDP’s thrust in youth participation which the NYC defines
as the “youth’s attendance and immersion in programs and projects
conceptualized and implemented for, by, and with them.”
Showing the status and framework of the alternative learning
system of education of the Department of Education was Mr. Danilo Tolentino,
Division ALS Coordinator.
Tolentino mentioned that an estimate of almost 4 million Filipinos
aged 6-24 years old were out-of-school-youth, according to the 2016 Annual
Poverty Indicator Survey.
Adolescent health was also given prime importance during the
workshop as McDan Aporador, Assistant Regional Coordinator of the City Health
Office Region 9, showed that there have been over 350 cases of HIV and AIDS in
the city since 1995, with more than 60 deaths reported.
A causality analysis of the key issues
Of the many issues that were presented, three prevailed: youth
participation among adolescents, violent extremism, and alternative education
for out-of-school-youth in Zamboanga.
From these, participants broke out into groups and did a causality
analysis of the issues at hand, which was eventually followed by the creation
of the Theory of Change, a specific type of methodology to show the change
processes in possible interventions to a desired goal or outcome.
“Because of this process, I can already picture out what the
future looks like for the OSYs in Zamboanga when this program gets
implemented,” said Al-Rashid Ismael, OSYDA representative.
Among those in attendance included Commission on Population
Regional Director for Zamboanga Peninsula, Reynaldo Wong, Officer-in-charge of
the Zamboanga City Police Office, Police Community Relation Branch PSINSP
Abdulgafur Maani, Assistant City Health Officer Dr. Zibtiya Uddin, Ayale Techincal
Vocational School Administrator Christian Olasiman, and MARIPOSA President
Edwin Abu.
The Social Development Office of ADZU was also in full force led
by John Mayo Enriquez who is Assistant to the President for Social Development.
Joining him were Aurora Gonzales, director of the Ateneo Center for Leadership
and Governance with Alma Bulanon and Alvin Arcete, as well as Al-Fatima Ahiyal,
Program Officer of the Center for Community Extension.
The Human Development and Empowerment Services (HDES),
Out-of-School-Youth Development Association (OSYDA), Silsilah Dialogue Movement,
Liga ng mga Barangay, ALS implementers, as well as former SUGPAT learners and
their parents were all well-represented during the workshop.
After the two-day workshop with key stakeholders, the ACCA-SUGPAT
team together with UNICEF’s Communications for Development officer Kathleen
Solis, HIV Specialist Mx Mario Balibago, Valdehuesa, and SUGPAT Advocacy and
Communications independent consultant Dr. Mayette Rivera further met and
created the communications plan as a result of the causality analysis done with
stakeholders.
“We were able to validate the issues and hear really
interesting insights which will help guide us in programming,” Valdehuesa
said.
SUGPAT
is now on its third year and will focus on Adolescent Development and
Participation with the aim of establishing a resource center for adolescent
development, leadership, and participation.
Val Amiel Vestil / Ateneo Center for Culture and Arts
