The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Non-governmental organization Unilab Foundation, through its youth-engagement program Ideas Positive, is again inviting young people between 18 and 30 years old to form a team of five members and a mentor, and submit innovative ideas in solving health issues in their communities.
The team with the best ideas gets the chance to receive up to P100,000 as seed money to implement those ideas in their chosen communities.
Founded in 2010 on the belief that young people can help build a healthier Philippines, Ideas Positive has transformed 105 communities, engaged more than 16,900 young people, and touched the lives of more than 39,000 individuals.
The program will adopt the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Health Systems Framework in addressing health concerns in the teams’ chosen communities. The building blocks of the framework are healthcare financing; health information and research; governance and leadership in health; human resource for health; health technology and products; and health-service delivery.
Ideas Positive also welcomes ideas that address health issues tackled by the foundation’s advocacies: climate-change adaptation and disaster-risk reduction; and the health of people with disability (PWDs) and the elderly.
To join, youth teams can visit the Ideas Positive’s website (www.ideaspositive.org), create an account, and start creating their proposal. From there, teams will be notified via e-mail if they make it to the live screening. The entire registration and entry-submission process is online.
Teams that pass the screening will advance to the three-day Boot Camp, which will equip them with skills in community development, communications, project management, and leadership. At the end of the Boot Camp, teams will be given seed money to implement their projects within six months. The Ideas Positive team will conduct periodic community visits to monitor the projects.
After six months, teams will present the outcomes of their projects to an esteemed panel of judges during the Ideas Positive National Youth Forum on Public Health (IPNYFPH), a gathering of youth health leaders from all over the country.
At least three teams with the most outstanding health outcomes will receive cash prizes of up to P50,000, and awards for the team members, mentors, and their schools or organizations. But the biggest reward of joining Ideas Positive, according to participants of previous editions, is seeing the transformations that have been sparked in their communities.
Wider reach
In its previous editions, most entries to Ideas Positive came from Northern Luzon and the Visayas. This year, the Unilab Foundation hopes that young people from all regions take part.
To ensure a wider reach, and to provide opportunities to young people in other regions, the seventh edition of Ideas Positive presents iStorya: Stories of Youth in Action. iStorya events aim to start youth conversations about health issues in each region, and to encourage young people to come up with solutions to address them. Each iStorya is organized in partnership with a local school or youth organization.
iStorya events have taken or will take place in these regions until October: 1 (Ilocos)—Colegio de Dagupan; 2 (Cagayan Valley)—Cagayan State University; 3 (Central Luzon)—Ramon Magsaysay Technological University and Tarlac State University; Metro Manila—National Institutes of Health; 4B (Mimaropa, or Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan)— Palawan State University; 5 (Bicol)—Mabini Colleges; 6 (Western Visayas)—Capiz State University; 7 (Central Visayas)—University of Cebu-Banilad; 8 (Eastern Visayas)—Community Center of Tingog Sinirangan, Tacloban City; 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula)—Ateneo de Zamboanga University, Western Mindanao State University and Basilan State College; and 12 (Soccsksargen, or South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos City)—Cotabato City.
For more information about Ideas Positive, visit www.ideaspositive.org, or contact Judy Santiago at 0917-5316524 or send an e-mail to judy.santiago@unilabfoundation.org.