The young advocates

Mao Tse-Tung once said that women held half the sky. Indeed, in this last decade alone, the fairer sex has constantly proved their invaluable impact in every conceivable field — from medicine, sports, politics to humanitarian service. This Sunday, Uptown/Downtown features three vibrant young women whose dedication to their advocacies is making a huge difference in the lives of Filipinos.

Anna Oposa — Marine environmentalist

While in her third year as a college student, Anna Oposa volunteered to participate in an underwater cleanup. The overwhelming amount of diapers, sanitary napkins and other forms of refuse left in the ocean created an indelible mark on her. In between submitting her thesis and attending graduation practices, Anna took time out to learn more about the issue of large-scale extraction of marine resources (a.k.a. “the rape of the Philippine seas”). This issue inspired the founding of Save Philippine Seas (SPS).

Anna shares, “Our sea is an underappreciated, undervalued resource of the Philippines. I’m one of the lucky ones who have seen its wealth as a diver and traveller. Our waters are incredibly rich with natural resources and consequently, potential to power our economy by providing jobs in tourism and agriculture and providing seafood. If we used ecologically sound fishing methods, NO ONE in the Philippines should go hungry.”

Anna would like to see the Philippines become known as the center for biodiversity instead of the center of environmental adversity. SPS offers several online campaigns to empower Filipinos to make better choices for the environment. Recently, Anna initiated a community-based, multi-stakeholder project in Cebu called the Shark Shelter Project that aims to work with dive guides, teachers, students, government officials, law enforcers and corporate partners like Globe Telecom and Island Souvenirs to protect the island’s marine resources.

“I believe we should all stop ‘global whining.’ While it’s important to advocate against the impacts of global warming, it’s also important to stop ‘global complaining’ and be proactive about the issues that make us angry. Every excuse is a choice to fail. So when you hear yourself say, ‘I’m not an NGO worker, I can’t do anything,’ that’s a choice to fail. Or worse, ‘I don’t have time.’ Then make time. Advancing a cause doesn’t mean joining an NGO; it’s in the lifestyle choices we make every single day.”

(To learn more about caring for our environment, visit annaoposa.ph, follow @annaoposa on Twitter or e-mail annaoposa@gmail.com.)

Lyn Pinugu — Educator of underprivileged children

Lyn’s passion for education began in 2003 when she received the Raul Locsin Scholarship for Student Excellence in Journalism, which enabled her to study for free at the Ateneo de Manila University during her last two years of college. This stroke of good luck came at an opportune time — just a month after a famous insurance firm filed for bankruptcy, causing Lyn’s mom to lose her job. The experience was humbling for her and something that made her appreciate existing efforts of other people to provide good educational opportunities to children who otherwise could not afford them. It was at this time that Lyn made a pact with herself to help other people receive the same opportunity she did.

 In 2006, she left for Mexico to be an international youth volunteer for the Regnum Christi co-worker exchange program. It was there that she first encountered the Mano Amiga model and their mission to provide its disadvantaged students an education at par with the best schools in the world. In 2008, upon hearing that there are plans to bring the Mano Amiga model to the Philippines, she immediately resigned from her public relations job and set out to help put up the first Mano Amiga school in the Philippines.

Mano Amiga Academy is a school that seeks to provide high quality education to children from low-income families. This is achieved by using an enhanced curriculum (patterned after Everest Academy International School), maintaining small class sizes (30 students per class), investing in teacher training and support and using a highly personalized approach in catering to the diverse needs of our students and families. The academy also serves as a development center giving them access to programs focused on improving nutrition, providing skills training and livelihood opportunities, as well as strengthening their values and spiritual formation. Through the project, Mano Amiga aims to demonstrate that high-quality education need not be a luxury reserved only for the affluent. Through passion, creativity and innovation, all children, whether rich or poor, could actually receive a good education and build better lives for themselves.

“My dream for the country is for every child to receive high quality education no matter what their socio-economic background is. The Department of Education’s recent efforts to uplift the state of education in the country have been really commendable but the challenges are just too numerous and we cannot solely rely on DepEd for the solutions. I believe Mano Amiga Academy is a small but significant step toward that dream,” says Lyn.

(To learn more about Mano Amiga, visit www.manoamigapilipinas.blogspot.com, facebook.com/ManoAmigaPilipinas, e-mail lynpinugu@yahoo.com or call 882-5019 local 105.)

Marie Gonzalez — Holistic, plant-based lifestyle advocate

Marie started Kitchen Revolution in 2008 as a response to a personal conundrum: how to find vegan food in Manila. Frustrated by the almost non-existent options, Marie started Kitchen Revolution, a gourmet food company specializing in plant-based cuisine. Although initially a strictly for-profit setup, Kitchen Revolution slowly grew into an advocacy for veganism — a lifestyle that promotes health to both the consumer and to Mother Earth.

A vegetarian diet has a clear advantage over other diets — it can help prevent cancer, control diabetes and lower the risk of osteoporosis. Plant food is naturally cholesterol-free, as it is free from animal products — the only source of dietary cholesterol. The United Nations has declared that a global shift away from animal-based foods is necessary to save the world from the most devastating impacts of climate change. The livestock industry is one of the largest contributors to environmental degradation locally and worldwide.

Since its conception, Kitchen Revolution has caught the attention of several media entities. Recently, Marie has been invited as a regular columnist for the famous Yummy magazine. Through her classes and seminars, Marie continuously impresses the importance of food’s relationship to the environment. It is also in her classes that she showcases the endless possibilities of plant-based cuisine and in so doing, debunks the myth that only meat and animal fat-based cuisine tastes delicious. “I hope to be able to share the health and environmental benefits of a plant-based lifestyle one student at a time,” says Marie. “I believe in holistic wellness for our planet and for the people living in it. Holistic wellness entails not inflicting any harm to one’s self as well as those that share the world with us.”

(To learn more about Kitchen Revolution, visit www.kitchenrevolution.ph, facebook.com/kitchenrevolution, e-mail info@kitchenrevolution.ph or call 0917-8945086.)