UNESCO Commemorates World AIDS Day (WAD) 2010 in Manila

• © UNESCO Natcom Philippines/ UE
• Two Winning Videos recognizing the Critic’s Choice and the People’s Choice were awarded for the WAD 2010 “I Am the Next Generation Anti-Virus: Response to HIV and AIDS through Responsible Choices” Online Video Contest.

In an effort to increase awareness and involvement of the Filipino youth in the response to HIV and AIDS, the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines and UNESCO Office Jakarta in partnership with the University of the East (UE) marked the 2010 World AIDS Day (WAD) in Manila, Philippines, with an Online Video Competition for young people entitled "I am the Next Generation Anti-Virus: Responding to HIV and AIDS through Responsible Choices."

The competition served as an excellent opportunity for secondary schools from the cities of Manila and Quezon, two of the top five cities in the Philippines with the highest incidence of AIDS, to share their views on HIV and AIDS prevention through short videos. The students’ original work was uploaded to YouTube, which has a large worldwide juvenile following that provides the most fitting avenue for this advocacy.

In the 2010 Global AIDS report recently released by UNAIDS, the Philippines was one of seven nations (in a survey of 63 countries) which reported over 25 percent in new HIV infections between 2001 and 2009, whereas 56 countries have either stabilized or shown significant declines in the rate of new infections. Unfortunately most people in the country are not alarmed, possibly due to lack of visible information. Recent data also indicates a significant shift of the cases from an age group of 30-39 to 20-29. This underscores a greater need for vigilance and support, especially among the young. With only five years into the deadline to achieve its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the country continues to fall short of its sixth goal, which is to halt and reserve the spread of HIV.

The contest which ran for a month, drew a number of participants and garnered 5,867 hits on the video-sharing website. A three person jury consisting of a communication specialist, an educator, and a member of People Living with HIV (PLHIV) community appraised and selected one winning entry to be hailed as the Critic’s Choice. The selection was based on relevance to the theme, accuracy of information, production mechanics and elements of design, artistic value and style, and use of language and conventions. The entry "Spread the Love, Not the Virus" produced by Jemima Grace Yabes of the UP Integrated School, bagged the said award. Meanwhile, a People’s Choice Award, given to the video entry obtaining the most number of votes on the YouTube, was awarded to Kryston Jan Ricio of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) High School, with his entry entitled "Torch of Hope."

The two winners were each given a cash prize, a certificate of recognition, and tokens from the organizers during the opening ceremony of a UNESCO Natcom-sponsored "Seminar-Workshop on HIV Preventive Education for Teachers" held on December 1st of 2010 at UE. Ms. Concepcion Pasumbal, representing the Department of Education; Ms. Jeannette Davila-Tuason, Deputy Executive Director II, UNESCO Natcom; Dr. Linda Posadas, UE Chancellor and former UNESCO Jakarta Programme Specialist for Basic Sciences; and Dr. Evelina M. Vicencio, Dean, UE College of Education awarded the prizes to the winners. Video entries may be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/wad2010videocontest

The one-day seminar workshop featured discussions led by Dr. Susan P. Gregorio of the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC); Prof. Grace Reyes-Sumayo and Dr. Evelina Maclang-Vicencio, UNESCO NATCOM’s consultants in the Philippine adaptation of the UNESCO HIV Prevention Manuals. Convening 100 teachers from selected academic institutions, the activity aimed at assisting the Philippine Education agencies in their operationalization of teaching HIV Preventive Education in the classrooms by training 50 pre-service and 50 in-service educators to build technical knowledge on HIV and AIDS, complemented by appropriate teaching resource materials. The workshop was able to aggregate a collection of creative strategies for teaching HIV and AIDS prevention based on the two adapted UNESCO Teacher Education manuals, published with financial support from UNESCO Jakarta and UNESCO Bangkok. Both manuals are available for free download at http://unesconatcom.ph/soc-humansci_buk.html.

The WAD activities support the UNESCO-led framework of EDUCAIDS- the UNAIDS Global Initiative on Education and HIV and AIDS, which seeks to promote, develop and support comprehensive education sector responses to HIV and AIDS, with the young people at the heart of the solution. UNESCO’s contribution to the activities was backed by funding from UNAIDS (under the UBW mechanism) and from Regular Programme Budget of UNESCO.

For inquires please contact:
Anwar Alsaid – Head of Education Unit (a.alsaid@unesco.org)
Ahmed Afzal – HIV-AIDS & School Health (a.afzal@unesco.org)
Emmy Yanga - Program Officer for Social and Human Sciences and Communication - NatCom Philippines (emmyyanga@yahoo.com)

• 21-12-2010

• Image 2: - ©UNESCO Natcom Philippines/ UE
• Image 3: - ©UNESCO Natcom Philippines/ UE