On this 3rd Day of June, 2022, we wish to share with you about EMPOWER, our 30-month EU (European Union) funded disaster risk reduction project that was implemented in partnership with Humanity and Inclusion in Itogon, Benguet, and Pinukpuk, Kalinga that ended last May 31.
The EMPOWER project’s goal is to strengthen the resilience of the high-risk communities of Itogon and Pinukpuk during disasters by working with the local government units and the different sectors to improve the formulation and implementation of their DRR policies by making it more INCLUSIVE.
The project EMPOWERed the different sectors like youth, women, persons-with-disabilities, the elderly by training their representatives to become municipal CHAMPIONS, to ensure their participation when the barangays created their DRR plans. These CHAMPIONS also attended lectures on disability, gender, and age, and trained in public speaking to raise awareness and discourage discrimination.
An Inclusive Community Resilience and Adaptation & Mitigation component or ICRAM was also introduced by the project to Civil Society Organizations like farming cooperatives where they got small grants for projects like planting Napier and Tricanthera, which can help reduce erosion on the mountain side, and be used as feed for livestock.
The Barangay and Municipal DRR Members were given inclusive trainings on disaster and climate risk governance. They were also brought on a cross learning visitation to see how this was successfully being implemented in nearby municipalities.
To further assist Itogon and Pinukpuk in their journey to resiliency, their high-risk barangays were given Inclusive Early Warning Kits (megaphones, vests, signs, flags, emergency lights) to be used when the next disaster strikes.
A proud moment for the project was the visit of the EU Ambassador Luc Veron last October where he commended the project and all its accomplishments.
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The Child Sponsorship Program, our on-going education assistance project that is funded by ADRA Korea, celebrated Children’s Day last Wednesday. The kids, together with 1 parent, were invited to the ADRA compound where they could play games and enjoy themselves. We are thankful the kids didn’t seem to mind the rain, and were still able to play the games and enjoy the food that the staff were prepared for them. They went home with school supplies to help them prepare to go back to school.
The Stronger Together: Race For YOUmanity, our 2nd annual fundraising Virtual Team Race that was implemented with the SSD Adventist Health Ministries, ended with a flurry of activities last Sunday. From May 1 to 29, the teams and solo participants logged into the AtlasGo App to encode the distances that they had walked, ran, and biked that day, and as a result, the 284 participants logged in a total of 4,102 workouts, and went over 80,000km! 78 of them recorded over 500km, and 11 teams surpass the 3517km team goal.
With this year’s participants coming from the 7 unions within the Southern-Asia Pacific Division territory plus the US, Macau, and Australia, we hope even more people can join us next year for season 3!
Congratulations to all our Race for YOUmanity participants and Thank You for supporting the Adventist Health Ministries and ADRA.