On its mission of empowering citizens from across the globe and cultivating intercultural learning, the AFS IPP conducts its three-day YES and Jenesys Program Coordinators Training and workshop this April 13-15, 2018 at The Linden Suites Hotel, Pasig City.
It showcased simultaneous activities for the AFS volunteers and facilitators who came from various regions in the Philippines. Most of the selected participants traveled and came all the way from Visayas and even up to farthest cities of Mindanao not just to finally reunite with their co-AFS alumni, but to once again witness the beauty of volunteerism and involvement.
In fact, through the Pool of Trainers (P.O.T.) activity it enabled the participants’ leadership skills to be applied and utilized. Their unique cultural backgrounds did not become a hindrance to cooperation since they knew the essence of “unity in diversity” allowing them to finish and agree as one in the simulated team building activities.
Indeed, alumni involvement in this program plays a massive role in guiding Filipino students to adapt to the cultural differences that was not inherently introduced in their individual homes” (Mr. Abdul Rahman Alongan, YES alumnus from Cotabato City).
In the Cultural Bazaar, the participants were able to showcase their local delicacies and costumes. They have made the rest of the participants feel the culture they have in their locality. It was a very warm and colorful night filled with all the eye-catching designs and displays that came from different provinces. Indeed, it showed that anything is possible and that we can work on each other’s differences and eventually become one through a uniform advocacy.
Just like what President John F. Kennedy (JFK) mentioned in his speech, “no generation is bad.” We all have our own ways in making a relevant mark in the society we are in. This, to end, AFS would like to thank all the alumni, school administrators, and CPOs for allowing the organization to be a part of their lives. “Without the 5,000 volunteers, AFS would not be able to implement all its programs around 60 communities while touching the lives of more than 80 students a year (Armieyah D. Ayob, AFS-PP National Director).”
Yes, the answer to the global challenges is seen and addressed today. By influencing people to embody the same objectives for the Philippines and its country men, AFS creates the trajectory to success. Thus, together with various communities, non-governmental organizations, and socio-civic entities, AFS hopes that in unison, through the years they would continue to share the same mission of educating the youth to be unique leaders of their own.
One person, school, and community, at a time aids AFS in building bridges between people of different religion, beliefs, and even sexual orientation; thus, the success of AFS would always be the success of the people behind it.
