Youth as heritage champions

CEBU, Philippines - To promote heritage awareness among the youth, especially in preserving Cebu's culture and history, youth participation should be linked in the process of creating this awareness.

“As what Dr. Jose Rizal said, the youth is the hope of the nation. To realize this, we should educate and let our youth understand their role in preserving our culture and heritage,” Karl Hegel Damayo, Exhibitions and Museum Collections officer of Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.'s (RAFI) Casa Gorodo Museum, said.

During the Sept. 15 episode of “Pagtuki”, the official radio program of RAFI, Damayo stressed out that knowing one’s culture is the first step to working for a better community.

“The more we are proud of our culture and heritage, the more we are encouraged to contribute to community development,” he added.

Max Capatan, a History student from University of San Carlos (USC), said that contrary to people’s perception, today’s youth are more interested of the past. He said that the youth have a role to perform in promoting Cebuano culture locally or nationally.

“When we see pictures of old streets in Cebu City, we are curious on the origin of the names of the streets as well as the stories behind their names. To know our culture contributes on how we see ourselves and with whom we identify with,” Capatan said.

“As I study Cebuano culture, observable aspects of culture such as food, celebrations, religion, and language are only part of cultural identity. The values, customs, and the histories are also an important part of our culture,” he added.

According to Capatan, in the age of internet, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can widen the promotion of Cebuano culture and heritage.

“These online sites are good venues for the youth to engage themselves in the promotion of our culture and heritage, especially to fellow young people,” he said.

This Sept. 29, RAFI's Culture & Heritage unit, in partnership with the Cebu City Government and University of San Carlos-Department of Anthropology, Sociology and History (USC-DASH), will hold the fourth run of Kabataan, Kultura, Kabilin (KKK), which aims to expand the youth’s learning on cultures from different periods by visiting local museums and heritage sites.

For more information on KKK, please contact 418-7234 loc. 703 and look for Karl Hegel Damayo.

“Pagtuki” is aired over dyLA every Saturday at 10 a.m.-11 a.m. The program, which is one of the Knowledge Sharing & Advocacy capabilities of RAFI, tackles timely and relevant issues affecting the Cebuano community.

For more information about RAFI’s radio program, please contact Fatrick Tabada at 418-7234 loc. 542, or visit www.rafi.org.ph or www.facebook.com/rafi.org.ph. (FREEMAN)