Youth group WARAYA covets two project grants from international donors

Press Release
By WARAYA
October 10, 2010

CATBALOGAN, Samar  –  Waray-Waray Youth Advocates (WARAYA), the leading youth organization in Catbalogan City and in the Province of Samar is in full throttle after winning two youth projects from International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and from Family Planning Organization of the Philippines (FPOP).

Alongside FPOP-Samar Chapter, WARAYA’s mother organization, it was one of the few organizations who bagged the small scale project grant of IPPF for its project entry entitled “G.E.T. Peers Project or Girls Education Through Peers” to be implemented from July to December 2010 in Catbalogan City and Basey, Samar. WARAYA’s project aims to form a peer counselors’ group (PCG) consisting of young girls in both the school and community level and use counseling to impart information on Adolescent Reproductive Health (ARH) to their counselees. A different counselors’ group shall be formed in the school and the community in anticipation of differences in issues confronting those in the schools and those who are more immersed in community life.

Apart from the young girls to be trained on ARH, Peer Education and Peer Counseling, a separate group of adults will also be trained during the project duration. Community-Based Volunteers (CBVs) and In-School Volunteers (ISVs) will be tapped to give technical and auxiliary support to the community and in-school PCGs especially in situations wherein the provision of contraceptives is already deemed necessary. For these circumstances, the CBVs and ISVs will also serve as the mediator between the young client and her family and might also be required to perform counseling for them. Because of this, the CBVs and ISVs, along with the identified peer counselors, will also have to undergo training on counseling and advocacy.

The project areas are Basey National High School (BNHS) and Barangay Mercado in Basey, Samar and Catbalogan National Comprehensive High School (CNCHS) and Barangay Silanga in Catbalogan City.

GET Peers was first submitted as an entry to the “Girls Decide: Stand up for choice on sex and pregnancy”, a competition initiated by IPPF for small scale projects or activities that seek to empower young women and girls.

It was part of IPPF’s efforts to show that their work on young women's and girls' pregnancy respects the sexual rights of young people, and to demonstrate its commitment to help and support young women and girls in their decisions related to sexuality, whatever their choices may be.

IPPF is a global service provider and a leading advocate of sexual and reproductive health and rights for all. It is a global network of Member Associations (MAs), working in over 170 countries - providing and campaigning for sexual and reproductive health care and rights. FPOP is the sole member association in the Philippines with over 25 Chapters and Clinics all over the country.

The second project that WARAYA won was the project entry “In Our Eyes: A Youth Documentary and Film Festival Project” for the Youth Innovation Fund of FPOP. The Youth Innovation Fund is a grant competition that seeks to develop the capacity of FPOP through its youth volunteer leaders in promoting adolescent reproductive health. The competition was made open to Chapter Youth Groups of FPOP, which awarded maximum of P40,000 to innovative, creative and original small scale activities with a minimum target beneficiary of 50 young people.

The September 2010 to February 2011 project aims to conduct a youth documentary cum film festival that’ll focus and explore the different aspects of RH and observe closely how the aforementioned issues play in a family set-up. It seeks to address the absence of ample information about RH and also in response to the prevailing media which is directed more towards the general public rather than the concerned sectors, resulting to materials limited in scope and content, often leaving out other important angles. The project will serve as a contest cum film festival, open to young people aging between 15-24 years old. Groups of 6 members with equal gender distribution will be considered eligible. Each group must choose a family with a minimum of 10 family members not including extended family members. The videos must only be within 4-5 minutes and will be judged during the Film Festival on February 2011.

The “GET Peers Project” and the “In Our Eyes: A Youth Documentary and Film Festival Project” awarded WARAYA $9,600 or more than P400,000 and P40,000 respectively.

Waray-Waray Youth Advocates or WARAYA is the youth arm of Family Planning Organization of the Philippines - Samar Chapter (FPOP-Samar). It was established on July 2004 from a group of young volunteers of the chapter after a series of trainings and workshops. It envisions a society that understands, respects and nurtures the rights of young people to sexual and reproductive health. These can be achieved through orientations and workshops to raise their level of awareness; through information, education and communication activities; and through trainings aimed in creating a youth that is informed, decides on choice decisions, and acts responsibly.

It is the only youth organization represented in the region-wide FP coalition, the Coalition of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Advocates 8 (COFPRHA-8) and in Samar Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (SRHAN), a multisectoral network of reproductive health advocates from NGOs, government agencies and media formed to advance RH concerns in the Province of Samar. WARAYA currently sits as the Advocacy and Networking Committee Chair of the Samar Provincial AIDS Council (SPAC); a member of Catbalogan City AIDS Council WARAYA; and a proud member of UNFPA Philippines Youth Advisory Panel (UNFPA YAP) and Y-PEER Pilipinas.

It has received numerous citations and acknowledgement from different organizations like Visayas Reproductive Health Institute (VRHI) and Eastern Visayas Reproductive Health Council (EVRHC) and from different Local Government Units in Samar for initiating youth responsive programs. WARAYA has been consistently a Regional Finalist for the nationwide search for the Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations (TAYO) of the National Youth Commission for 2005 and 2007, and has recently become a National Finalist for 2008 6th TAYO Awards – the first community youth organization in the Province of Samar to make it that far.