By John Piermont Montilla | President and Chief Executive Officer
KABATAANG GABAY SA POSITIBONG PAMUMUHAY (KGPP), INC.
“Celebrating 15 Years in Battling Exploitation and Co-creating Solutions for the Youth”
Get to Zero and Be a Hero Campaign:The MDG 2015 Countdown, a Starbucks Creative Update for the GlobalGiving Open Challenge: Learning from Unheard Voices: A Dialogue
Title of Report: Learning from unheard voices: how the River of Life tools made young men in exploitative and illicit work tell their journey toward the brighter side of life
February 28, 2013
Cebu City Philippines –The River of Life Initiative engages 30 emergent leaders reaching 162 male sex workers, those afflicted with drug abuse and exploited youth groups with their duty-bearers to implement the Get to Zero and Be a Hero Campaign by 2015. The project supported the development and use of the River of Life tools to enable young people to address their risk behaviors and facilitate a dialogue that help them share their behavior change milestones with their duty-bearers particularly the HIV care providers and the law enforcement agencies.
The initiative is a youth-led undertaking of the KabataangGabaysaPositibongPamumuhay and the Peers Enabling Each other’s Recovery Social (PEERS) Network as a contribution to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Through the community empowerment approach, the organization wishes to transition its members as power holders in the response to HIV as well as to combat trafficking for exploitation and to battle the proliferation of illicit drugs that fuels risky behaviors among youth.
The River of Life Initiative was enabled by the Starbucks Youth Action Grants – a key component of the Starbucks™ commitment to communities through the YouthActionNet Program of the International Youth Foundation. The “Learning from Unheard Voices: A Dialogue” was an offshoot of the Public Service Project of the Philippines Asia 21 Young Leaders Initiative Class of 2011 through the fund-raising platform of GlobalGiving. This provided a sustainable avenue for dialogue and co-operation between sex workers and drug addicts’ with stakeholders that support them.
Success stories of community-based organizations adopting the River of Life Tools from the cities of Manila, Iloilo, Cebu, Zamboanga and Davao was presented at the Global Village during the XIX International AIDS Conference, on July 22 - 27, Washington DC, USA with the support from the International HIV/AIDS Alliance through its linking organization, the Philippine NGO Support Program (PHANSuP), Inc. and the Philippine National AIDS Council. Starbucks Youth Action Grants built upon these success and sustained grassroots efforts of youth in communities needing prevention resources most.
See the ROL Tools in Annex 1-2 and CBOs adopting the Tools in Annex 3.
For more information, please see attached report
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