MANILA, Philippines - Using Nokia Messaging via the social networking-savvy Nokia C3, Jaton answered our questions on the go:
What message do you try to communicate through your personal projects?
“A wonderful Mahatma Gandhi quote: ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’ Both projects started in 2009, during a particularly intense bout of quarter-life crisis (haha). They fulfill a dream—A-HA!, my love for teaching, and New Slang fulfills my love for writing. I just got tired of waiting for other people to think of initiatives I wanted to be part of, so I started New Slang with my friends Marla Cabanban and Alice Sarmiento, and I started A-HA with my sister Aina Valencia.”
What has been the most important message you received this past workweek?
“A one-word reply of a major partner for A-HA!, who I’ve been courting for months: ‘Game :)’”
How does social networking complement what you do?
“In New Slang, we’re three editors, and in A-HA!, we’re really just a team of five. Social networking serves as the marketing we could never really afford. For New Slang, we get contributors we’ve never really met, and some even from abroad, through Facebook. With A-HA, to use a ‘90s term, it’s been a never-ending eyeball. Since we’ve uploaded pictures of the kids’ drawings, we’ve hit a record 132 volunteers in six weeks, which really is ridiculously amazing for a small group like ours.”
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Log on to New Slang at www.new-slang.com. For more information on A-HA’s daily tutoring and weekend literacy programs, search for A-HA on Facebook.