For Rosario, a first-class municipality in the province of Batangas, it has been quite a long journey coming to its first Barangay Education Summit that will be held in each of the 48 barangays across the town starting this June 2017 up to February 2018.

This journey began more than 6 years ago when the late Mayor Felipe Marquez was invited to the National Education Summit and became interested in partnering with Synergeia to improve the quality of basic education in the municipality.  Unfortunately, this never prospered because of the Mayor’s untimely demise.

Fast-forward to 2016, Leovigildo Morpe was elected Vice-Mayor and became Chairperson of the Sanggunian Bayan Committee on Education.  He became committed to the promotion of education in the municipality and put up a Mobile Library that went to different upland barangays to encourage school children to read.  Having been introduced to Synergeia by his Executive Assistant, Boots Cabralda, who had prior experience working with the Foundation in Padre Garcia town, Vice-Mayor Morpe attended the workshop for local government officials who are new members of the Synergeia alliance held last March 2017.  When asked what changed and what would he do differently after attending the workshop, Vice Mayor Morpe had just 3 words:  “commitment, focus, vision.”

Armed with these 3 words, Vice Mayor Morpe is now leading Rosario town’s preparation for the Barangay Education Summits to be held in all of the town’s 48 barangays.   According to the Vice Mayor, the Education Summits aim to find out the problem areas in education in every locality and to generate community participation in finding feasible, time-bound solutions to these problems.  Fay, who is one of the volunteers, said “Hindi kasi pare-pareho ang sitwasyon sa barangay. Maaaring ang problema ng isang barangay ay iba sa katabi nitong barangay. Madami tayong malalaman sa bawat barangay.”

Seeing the need to equip themselves with tools in facilitating a summit, Vice Mayor Morpe and his team of LGU employees and volunteers, with the assistance of Synergeia Foundation, attended the community facilitators’ workshop last May 16, 2017 and learned some important skills and techniques in workshop facilitation under the expert guidance of Dr. Nene Guevara and Councilor Eddy Tiongson.  A fun but useful activity was one which tested their listening skill since facilitators are expected to listen to what their audience have to say.

Following the advice of our Synergeia mentors, this team held a dry-run last June 1 to apply what they’ve learned from their workshop and have a feel of how to conduct a barangay education summit.  They divided themselves in groups, role-played and critiqued each other.  While they think that there are a lot to be improved on, they believe that the activity allowed them to experience for themselves how to conduct a summit and be more confident doing so.

We wish our friends from Rosario, Batangas all the luck in their upcoming Barangay Education Summits.

Last May 4 to 5, 2017, Synergeia facilitated a workshop on “Making the SGC Work” for some 97 participants representing the barangays, Parents-Teachers Associations (PTAs), and teachers and principals of public elementary schools of Bongabong, Oriental Mindoro.  This workshop was made more significant because of the full support and presence of local government officials led by the Mayor of Bongabong, Mayor Eligio Malaluan.  Governor Alfonso Umali and Congressman Reynaldo Umali also came to give their assurances of support to our basic education movers from Bongabong.

Starting with a review of the role of the School Governing Council and followed by a self-assessment exercise to establish the baseline performance of their SGCs, our workshop participants went through different modules that aim to capacitate them  with tools on how to strengthen their respective SGCs.  There were modules on policy making, project planning and task analysis, budgeting and setting SGC ground rules that were ably facilitated by Synergeia mentors.  Add to these were sessions on how to improve attendance in SGC meetings and on who should be elected SGC members to ensure success.

In meta cards at the last workshop session, participants from the Sebastian Umali MES wrote “Na-realize naming ang kahinaan ng aming SGC na di na active and functional. Sa aming pag-uwi ay muli naming bubuhayin ang aming SGC.”  They and the rest of our workshop participants went on to identify activities, milestones, changes and challenges which would make their SGCs work.  In the words of participants from the Pascuala P. Gabia MES, “upang makabuo ng isang aktibong SGC na may ambag at pakialam sa pag-unlad ng mga mag-aaral sa paaralan.” Truly, there is hope that better education for children can happen because of the collaborative effort of all in the community.

Synergeia is so proud that six of our nominees to the 2017 Southeast Asia Youth Leadership Program (SEAYLP) at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, USA from April 5 to 30, 2017 have been selected to participate in the program.

SEAYLP convenes high school students and adult mentors from the ten ASEAN member nations for a three-week U.S.-based exchange program focused on leadership and youth development.  The program explores shared challenges faced by the United States and ASEAN member states as viewed through the three pillars of the ASEAN community:  political and security cooperation, economic cooperation, and socio-cultural cooperation and inclusion.  Participants will develop concrete skills in project development, communication, and leadership while engaging in hands-on activities, workshops, seminars, and site visits.  Participants will also develop projects to address the needs of their communities upon their return home.

Our successful nominees are:

• Hassanal, Abusama, Bulod National High School, Sultan Sabaronguis (Mentor)
• Algan, Lyka, Dr. Bernabe Dela Fuente Sr. National High School, Sultan Sabaronguis
• Pangandil, MUrahisa, Datu Mamalo National High School
• Villegas, Joshua, Making Integrated Vocational Technology High School, Parang
• Estanque , Justine Dave, Amir Bara Lidasan National High School
• Norjamen Guia, ARMM Regional Science High School, Parang

The U.S. Department of State will cover all program participation costs, round trip domestic and international travel, board and lodging, and health insurance.

Congratulations!