Unilab advocates youth empowerment
MANILA, Philippines - Student teams from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman bested 50 other teams to win top honors in the recently concluded Unilab Ideas Positive, the only social marketing competition among college students on health and wellness in the country today.
Team High 5, composed of Business Administration students from UP Diliman, bagged the grand prize for their community-based “3B Laban sa TB” program, a tuberculosis (TB) detection and prevention program for Barangay Payatas Trese in Quezon City. The program aims to reduce, if not totally eradicate, TB incidents in the community. They won P100,000 Unilab seed money for the implementation of their social marketing program for six months. They also won cash prizes for themselves and their coach, plus medals and a trophy for UP.
One of two runners-up is Team AweEights, also from UP Diliman, for their Cloud++ Project, which aims to improve the hygiene and sanitation practices of residents in Pook Daang Tubo in Quezon City through the setting up of a communal toilet using rainwater. The other runner-up is Team Kabalikat of STI Global for their “Hitong Buháy, Hitong Búhay” project, a catfish-raising livelihood program for Bgy. Ibayo-Tipas in Taguig. Aside from the cash prize, medals, and trophy, both teams each won P75,000 Unilab seed money for the implementation of their project.
Now in its second run, Unilab Ideas Positive program was launched to enable the youth to address issues on hygiene and sanitation, nutrition, disease prevention, and environmental care and protection in their own communities. It is Unilab’s partnership program with the youth to provide them with not only a venue to be heard on their positive ideas, but also an opportunity to turn the ideas into reality so that together, both Unilab and the teams can help transform a community for the better.
A total of 56 entries were submitted this year from 28 schools in Metro Manila, Calabarzon, and Camanava. Eleven semi-finalist teams were chosen to attend a three-day social marketing boot camp with thought leaders like Dr. Ned Roberto, Gang Badoy, Harvey Keh, Efren Peñaflorida, and Tony Meloto, among others. The boot camp, which was designed to help the teams improve their social marketing plans, included a one-day immersion at Gawad Kalinga’s Enchanted Farm, a social innovation village in Bulacan.
From the 11, five teams were chosen as finalists who presented their final plans before a panel of judges composed of economist and sociologist Amparo Fabe, former UP College of Social Work and Community Development dean Dr. Angelito Manalili, National Youth Commissioner Gio Tingson, Ogilvy&Mather head of country Randy Aquino, 2010 UIP grand prize winner coach Ana Alejo, and Unilab Foundation executive director Rhodora Palomar-Fresnedi.
