Angono, Calbayog art schools beef up teaching, learning with more support from Rebisco

Wazzup Pilipinas?!

 

Students of music, visual arts, performing arts, literary arts and media arts in Angono, Rizal and Calbayog, Samar received precious gifts from Rebisco, this summer.

 

The snacks and biscuits company made good on its promise to support the two schools’ mission of raising the next generation of artists and performers by providing a variety of tools, equipment, instruments and hardware to the Regional Lead School for the Arts in Angono (RLSAA) and the Calbayog Arts and Design School of Eastern Visayas (CADSEV).

As pandemic restrictions eased, Rebisco wasted no time in turning over its donations in person so gifted students of the two primary art and design schools in the land can better pursue their dreams of excelling in their chosen art forms.

RLSAA teachers and students were ecstatic last March when Rebisco representatives delivered brand new violins, angklung ensemble instruments, keyboards, microphones, high-end professional cameras, sound systems, LED lights and a new round of oil paints and pastels, brushes, pencils and other art materials to the school.

In April, CADSEV school head Dr. Rinalyn Beso welcomed Rebisco representatives who handed over equipment and hardware for their performing arts studios, musical instruments and video equipment.

Both the RLSAA and CADSEV schools feted their benefactors with rousing musical performances, with RSLAA students playing the classics and Filipino tunes and CADSEV students presenting Rebisco with a painting and a tinapa (smoked fish) sculpture made out of recycled Rebisco packs as thank you gifts. Tinapa is said to be a celebrated food product and industry in Calbayog.

“Our art students will make good use of your gifts, especially now that we have returned to a face-to-face set-up. They will help to develop our young artists’ skills because they now have the means to practice and enrich their innate talents with the very best materials. Rest assured they will use them well and they will give back by being recognized, not just in Samar but in the whole country, and hopefully the world,” said Dr. Beso.

 

Leo Cabacungan, Rebisco Assistant Brand Manager, said Rebisco wants to enable more artistically-inclined students to excel in their chosen art forms. “As one of the favorite Filipino snacks that has been a part of Filipino culture for generations, Rebisco wants to give back by nurturing Filipino artists and celebrating the wealth of Filipino talent that make our culture so rich and expressive.”

 

Rebisco has been and continues to be a passionate champion of art education. It had previously provided the RLSAA with an on-site art gallery cum classroom right in the school premises plus a wide variety of art equipment that its students lacked. It featured the works of outstanding art talents in its Special Designer Cans and vowed to make continued contributions to inspire more students to express their artistic capabilities. More recently, it added CADSEV as a beneficiary school.

The upgraded materials and equipment for the art students will improve the quality of the face-to-face learning experience, said the leaders of both schools. The timing of the donations could not have come at a better time.

Philippine National Parks Slowly Coming to Life

Wazzup Pilipinas!?

On the island of Camiguin in Mindanao, a volcano is coming back to life.

Though she hasn’t erupted in 70 years, Mt. Hibok-Hibok has been especially quiet lately. From March 2020 to November 2021, the Timpoong Hibok-Hibok Natural Monument hosted exactly zero visitors.

“Mt. Hibok-Hibok was once a popular hiking destination, especially after Pinoy Mountaineer featured it in 2007. Climbers came daily because our volcano offers elements of other famous Mindanao mountains: Mt. Apo’s crater lake, the roped ascents of Mt. Kitanglad, even Mt. Dulang-Dulang’s mossy forest. Visitors often dive straight to the sea after climbing, for Camiguin is surrounded by famed beaches like white island,” explains mountain guide Ronald Rabiles as we trek up a fern-filled trail.

Ecotourism is a vital lifeline of Philippine protected areas. Zero visitors mean no employment for guides and porters, plus less funds for park upkeep. Here in Mt. Hibok-Hibok, guides earn around PHP1500 (USD30) daily, while porters make PHP800 (USD16) for hauling 20 or so kilos of supplies.

“I come from three generations of mountain guides. This is a way of life for my father, myself and my son,” adds Ronald. “The two-year COVID lockdown hit us hard. Losing our main means of income was like sweeping the rug from under us. I had to look for other ways to support my five kids. Good thing I found temporary employment as a welder and day laborer. I’m one of the lucky ones: other guides tilled land just to feed their families.”



Visitors Trickling In

After two years, the country’s national parks are finally seeing an influx of visitors. Apo Reef in Occidental Mindoro hosted just 35 tourists from March 2020 to March 2022. Since reopening in April 2022, 212 people have visited the park, generating nearly PHP250,000 from fees. Mt. Pulag, the highest peak in Luzon, saw visitor numbers drop from over 43,000 in 2019 to just over a thousand in 2021. Numbers are rebounding with over 2700 visitors since January 2022, generating nearly PHP500,000 in revenues.

With easing travel restrictions, officials from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) hope to see more people visiting Mt. Hibok-Hibok and other Philippine national parks.

“We started accepting clients in December 2021. Since then, over 130 people have visited the mountain, generating about PHP31,000 in park fees and employing dozens of guides and porters. Clients are the lifeblood of the mountain,” says Camiguin-based DENR forester Lito Babaison.

We’re this month’s latest batch of visitors. Our mixed team from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Department of Tourism (DOT) and DENR employed over 20 guides, rangers and porters. We’re here to shoot a video for YoPA or the Year of the Protected Areas, slated to launch this 23 May.

A collaboration between the DENR, DOT and DILG, YoPA aims to bring visitors back to the country’s national parks – renowned biodiversity bastions like Mt. Hamiguitan in Davao Oriental, Bongsanglay Natural Park in Masbate and the Balinsasayao Twin Lakes in Negros Oriental.

“The Philippines hosts 246 protected areas and all of them need funding. With the challenges brought about by the COVID pandemic, government resources are thinly stretched, so part of upkeep funds must come from the public via ecotourism. A good way to sustain our protected areas is to ensure they’re regularly visited by tourists,” says DENR Biodiversity Management Bureau (DENR-BMB) director Natividad Bernardino.

Climbing the Volcano

It’s tough going up Yumbing Trail, one of two paths up Mt. Hibok-Hibok. I’d just climbed a mountain in Africa and this trail is no walk in the park, bristling with thorny rattan palms which love to latch onto on clothing. Mountaineers call these teka-teka vines for “teka-teka” or “Wait a minute while I extricate myself from these damned vines!”

The two-day trek starts among a swaying sea of coconut palms. Soon the trail transforms into a Jurassic Park set, walls of green obscured by wet, rolling mist. Near the top, the trail opens up into a grassy crater several football fields wide. There’s a small lake where swiftlets and other birds play.

“Don’t talk or laugh too loudly,” cautions Ronald. “The old ones swear this mountain hosts an enchanted spirit guardian who lives in the lake.” I silently cancel my original plan of going swimming. That night Ronald swore he saw the spirit walking through our campsite, protecting us.

As we descend the next day, Ronald turns to me. “Climbers keep mountains alive, but some aren’t so disciplined. We guides aren’t just here to take you to the peak and back, but to ensure no one leaves garbage or lights a fire which can burn down the park. We also have plantitas who love to pluck orchids and other plants illegally. Like the guardian in the lake, we protect this mountain too. A beautiful mountain will attract visitors, which means we’ll always have jobs.”

Mt. Hibok-Hibok hasn’t erupted since 1953, but the fire of Ronald and its other protectors are definitely keeping this volcano stoked and alive.

Philippines among APAC winners of Microsoft's AI for Accessibility Hackathon to accelerate inclusive innovation

Wazzup Pilipinas!?

Teams from Thailand, Singapore and Philippines are winners of the Microsoft AI for Accessibility (AI4A) Hackathon in APAC. In its third year, the AI4A Hackathon features teams who are deeply committed to solving real-world challenges faced by people with disabilities (PwD). The hackathon acts as a springboard for creators and developers to launch their applications, with cash prizes, access to Microsoft Technical experts to co-build their solutions on Microsoft Azure and continued mentoring support to build out their solution.

Drawing on real-life challenges faced by PwDs, 14 non-profit organizations (NPOs) shared problem statements that the 75 teams in the AI4A Hackathon used to build innovative solutions around the themes of transport, wearable devices and language tools.

Team Asclepius from Thailand, Team SWIFT Responders from Singapore and Team EIA from Philippines created solutions to bridge the disability divide, which include building an AI-enabled communication aid for people who are deaf, a smart system that allows people with physical disabilities to live independently, as well as inclusive banking for people who are blind.

In addition to these winners, two additional teams from Indonesia (Arabic Braille Converter) and Singapore (MeetMeHear) will receive coaching by Microsoft and its partners, including access to cloud architects, business consultation guidance to develop their solution, from a proof-of-concept to an application hosted on Microsoft Azure.

“We are inspired to see the continued enthusiasm of submissions this year for the hackathon to improve the lives of PwDs and congratulate the winners who so passionately brought their solutions to fruition,” said Pratima Amonkar, Chair for D&I and Accessibility for Microsoft Asia Pacific. “The month of May will be an important time for us to see the tremendous possibility of the contribution of PwDs as we roll out exciting awareness, training and mentorship programs with our customers, partners and wider community across the region.”

 

With more than 1 billion people with disabilities in the world, and 650 million in Asia, Microsoft believes that accessibility is essential to delivering on our mission to “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” Accessibility is the vehicle to enable inclusion of people with disabilities. To highlight how technology can unlock solutions that empower people with disabilities and enable transformative change within communities in APAC, Microsoft has dedicated the month of May in 2022 to Accessibility Awareness Month, with a series of workshops, trainings and events as well as awarding and celebrating winners of the AI for Accessibility Hackathon winners.

 

Thailand: Team Asclepius

To help people who are deaf or hard of hearing, Team Asclepius from Thailand, developed a sign-to-text application that uses AI deep learning models to capture movement sequences and body postures that predicts alphabets, words and numbers based on American Sign Language. This group of passionate high school students from Thailand have ambitious plans to include other commonly used sign languages such as British and French Sign Language and enhance it for wider tech applications such as live web events.

 

Singapore: Team SWIFT Responders

From Singapore, Team SWIFT Responders designed an AI-enabled solution that supports the independent living of adult persons with muscular dystrophy who use motorized wheelchairs for mobility. The Support Wheelchair-user Independence Fall Tracker (SWIFT) smart system that they have developed renders immediate assistance to a wheelchair user who falls off-balance from their functional position. This inspires confidence for wheelchair users, and assures their caretakers, that they can live independently and engage in meaningful activity as their safety is assured.

 

Philippines: Team EIA

To build a more inclusive banking experience for the blind and the elderly, Team EIA from the Philippines developed an Accessibility and Vision Assistant (AVA), powered by AI and machine learning, that works as a smart financial assistant and mobile wallet for the blind and elderly that makes digital banking accessible and clear. This drives financial inclusion for these groups of people and enables them to access payments and banking services quickly and securely.

 

Two additional outstanding teams have won coaching by Microsoft and its partners to bring their projects into fully running applications hosted on Microsoft Azure:

 

1.     Arabic Braille Converter (Indonesia): an app that could scan and convert Arabic text or graphics into Indonesian Braille format which can be read by screen readers or braille displays. It also has the function to back-translate from Arabic Braille into Arabic text.

 

2.     MeetMeHear (Singapore): an app to assist the deaf and hard-of-hearing to better communicate with others during physical meetings, through the use of AI for speech recognition to provide more accurate live captions.

 

Problem Statements from Non-Profit Organizations

NPOs across the region contributed to the hackathon through problem statements, based on real experiences faced by PwD. Some of the problem statements shared include:

·        How can AI provide wearable devices that will help persons with visual impairment traverse the streets independently and safely?

·        How can AI provide accessibility for online applicant assessment tools such as language assessments, verbal reasoning tests, and abstract reasoning tests?

·        How might we automatically create closed captions for offline use to help the deaf and hard of hearing community?

 

The NPOs represent a variety of organizations committed to improving the lives of people with disabilities in Asia Pacific.

Korea – Korea Differently Abled Federation	Malaysia – Malaysia Pan-Disability Football Club	Philippines – AHA! Learning Center
Philippines – Atriev	Philippines – Project Inclusion	Philippines – Virtualahan
Singapore – SG Enable	Sri Lanka – MJF Charitable Foundation	Thailand – Tab Foundation
Thailand – The Redemptorist Foundation for People with Disabilities	United Nations Development Program	Vietnam – Disability Research and Capacity Development