Batangas State University (BSU) Pablo Borbon campus won as first placers in the college level of the first-ever United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Team Presentation Contest hosted by De La Salle Lipa (DLSL) as part of its 61st Foundation Week celebration at Diokno Auditorium, Feb. 5.
With the theme “Advocating Community Change through the lens of UN-SDG”, various educational institutions in the Batangas province from senior high school and college level presented different programs and initiatives that would address the global issues encompassed by the UN-SDG.
BSU centered their advocacy on health, quality education, and equality, with their program entitled Project Totoott: Theater’s Objectives towards Openness on Taboo Topics. They highlighted the lack of sex education in the country, which results to increasing rates of pregnancy, human immunodeficiency virus, and sexual abuse cases.
In addition, their advocacy intends to address the insufficiency of comprehensive sex education through reclaiming the stage of theaters as platforms for bold conversations and sexual communication topics.
In an interview with Lavoxa, Ace Abu, one of the participating students from BSU, shared the significance of the event in addressing global issues as well as the motivation behind their advocacy.
“We need to localize the Sustainable Development Goals in the communities dahil sila talaga ‘yung higit na nangangailangan. We’re so much about SDGs pero ano nga ba ang nalalaman ng mga komunidad? We use theater to promote different advocacies […] With these stories, we can create a concept using their context,” said Abu.
Meanwhile, Lipa Science Integrated National High School won the first place for senior high school level with The SMART City Initiative, focusing on sustainability through programs like Plasticlop, SSS: Suporta sa Sakahan, and Advokasi, which are intended to reduce waste, support local farmers, and educate the youth through social media.
The presentation contest aimed to be a transformative journey for the youth, framing it as an opportunity to cultivate a sense of global citizenship through engaging the youth in a universal call to action.
Article by Hazel Landicho
