The Villar SIPAG awards - Youth Poverty Reduction Challenge is an annual search for empowered youth organizations trying to make a significant impact in society through their advocacies.
Now on its fifth year, the SIPAG awards is a friendly competition among the Filipino youth whose social enterprises contribute in alleviating the poverty situation in their respective communities.
This is the Villar SIPAG founders’ spouses Manny and Cynthia Villar way of supporting youth empowerment in the hope to further encourage more young people to significantly contribute to nation building. The award is a recognition of the youth’s efforts, passion and selfless dedication in creating positive change in society.
For this year, 75 participating groups were nominated and submitted their documents for screening. Twenty went through rigorous final validation by a panel of judges using the following criteria: originality or uniqueness, adaptability, sustainability and community upliftment. Ultimately, 10 groups were named Most Outstanding Youth Social Enterprises, and one has been chosen for a special award.
This year's winning groups champion the promotion and preservation of the Filipino arts and culture, entrepreneurship in agriculture, environment preservation, leadership development, together with social media and sports training.
The awarding ceremony was held on August 5, 2022, where the winners each received P150,000 and a trophy at the Villar SIPAG Center, in Las Piñas City. The special awardee also got a trophy and P50,000 cash.
The awardees were: Gloria Compound Youth Organization (Pilar, Las Pinas) It was established on January 1, 2011 and currently have 570 members. Their community programs include: GCYO Online Hub; Youth Data Management System,Gloria Youth Center; Project A.R.A.L. (Access to Resource for Alternative Learning); Project H.O.P.E. (Help Other People Eat); Miss Gloria; Kabataang Gloria Basketball League; Halloween Parade and Linggo ng Kabataan Annual Celebration.
Tondo Youth Pataas Community Care Inc. (Tondo, Manila) Established in August 2017, Tondo Youth Pataas had an initial six members and has grown to 423 members as of to date. TYPCI educates and trains aspiring youth in performing arts, administrative services, social media, job preparedness, and event production. They initiated various job-generating projects such as on-site job hiring, job and project referral programs, and the "Ambagan Sa Bike" livelihood project and conducts feeding, relief operations, and gift-giving to people who are greatly in need in Tondo. They provide manpower to be utilized as service crew from some fast-food store such as Jollibee and McDonalds. Social media awareness is their platform in promoting the dance group.
Simeona F. Chanyungco Lahing Kayumanggi Mananayaw ng Marikina (Marikina City) Established was in July 2011, and grew to 31 members from the initial six pioneers. SFCLKM is a living legacy of Marikina's local artist in dance,Mrs. Simeona F. Chanyungco who dedicated her life as a cultural advocate.
Their group aims to enrich Mrs. Simeona F. Chanyungco dedication in folk dancing and propagate her loyalty for the community. The organization conducts free dance workshops for the community, boosting engagements and empowering the underprivileged youth by fostering their talents and skills to dance. Their Pagmulat and Indayog workshops enable great young dance artists to become full scholars in college. SFCLKM consists mostly of young and talented artists from early teenage years who value folk dancing more than modern dance. Dancing has become their structure to sustain their education and they are being hired to perform.
San Carlos City Federation of 4-H Club (San Carlos City, Pangasinan) Established in 2019, the group is composed of 470 members from 22 barangays out of 31 barangays or 70 percent penetration of all barangays with initial members of 69 members from 4 barangays only.
San Carlos City 4H Club is an active youth organization that participates in agriculture activities and community services. Members are actively participating in building a vegetable garden and engaging in Free-Range Chicken production. They provide trainings on agriculture related activities and livelihood to enable the young individual to gain knowledge and generate income.
JCI Dagupan Bangus (Dagupan, Pangasinan) Established in 1951 and has since recruited 2,347 with currently 91 active members. JCI Dagupan Bangus provides job opportunities through partnerships in businesses owned by the members of JCI Dagupan Bangus. The organization makes partnerships with government and private entities quarterly, to conduct coastal and community clean-up drives, tree and mangrove planting as well as participating in the policy development of the government and planning in formulating a sustainable program with regards to green projects. They conduct health services, provides seminars and symposium with regards to anti-violence against women and children, safe spaces act, partnership and membership in peace and order council of Dagupan City Local Government and participation in planning for peace and order. Since establishment, they focused on bangusdevelopment, give trainings on bangus growing, distributed bangus fingerlings and other needed equipment as starting kits to sustain the City’s production. They consistently joined the yearly Bangus Festival.
Mga Tala at Tula Community (Candaba, Pampanga) Established on April 15, 2018, the organization has now 136,200 members from 15 initial. The programs and services they offer includes Poetry Collaboration in social media, spoken poetry competition, virtual poetry reading, nationwide distribution of basic needs and online donation drive.
The organization started the "We Write To Help Campaign," a social media campaign in 2020 to help communities especially the marginalized and affected by calamities. They were able to collect funds for relief operations in Cagayan Valley during the aftermath of Typhoon Rolly and Ulysses. They were able to aid indigenous communities such as Aetas in Nueva Ecija and Dumagat in Bulacan. Through the "We Write To Help Program" they were able to set-up ten Community Pantries in different parts of the country, serving basic needs during the start of the pandemic and mobilizing hundreds of youth volunteers from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
Katoto Project (Paete, Laguna) Established in June 2019, the organization currently has forty two members from the original ten. One of their initiatives is Aklaya or “Ang Classroom na Malaya” use mobile kariton classroom to teach children and provide school supply through Balik Sigla, BalikEskwela Project. Others project includes ; Almusal-Ang Saya ng Almusal – feeding program,AniniKatoto- Community Pantry for farmers, KatotoHanan – Ang tahananniKatoto: Housing project. A housing project using nipa hut materials.
Katoto Project was recognized by the National Youth Commission receiving Platinum Award or the Seal of Good Youth Governance in 2021 and by the Province of Laguna as one of top ten best organizations also in 2021.
Youth Proyekto Philippines Inc. (Iloilo City) Established on June 29, 201, they currently have 60 volunteer members nationwide. It is a non-profit organization duly recognized by the Province of Iloilo and has partnered with of some LGUs. The organization gathers youth people for the welfare of our environment.
Their advocacies includes: “Youth Environment Support, Yes You Can!” Eco Run where they collect pet bottles and sacks of soft plastic annually which they made into eco bricks. They also have an annual coastal clean – up. They have adopted IP Community or the Calinog ATI Tribe Indigenous Crafts Maker through their "PagkalingasaKatutubo; Sila ay atingKapwa"project.
Youth Proyekto partners with of various groups in promoting Panay through Ecotourism activities.
Mushroom City (Malaybalay, Bukidnon) Established on November 12, 2019, Mushroom City is a private enterprise started by two siblings who learned about mushroom while they were students in Central Mindanao State University. Today, they already have six employees under the enterprise.
Mushroom City is accredited by Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) and TESDA as a farm school/learning site. They provide free training on mushroom production, lakbay-aral and farm tours to interested groups, and promote farm tourism in Malaybalay.
They also ventured into chicharon making, mushroom drying and powdering, and currently constructing a café for their guests. Their buyers came from all over Mindanao regions.
During the pandemic, they gave mushroom to 15 barangays in Bukidnon as food aid and they also gave mushroom tempura to the community dubbed as “Mushroom for Frontliners.” Butwa’an Arts Center/Butwa’an Dance Ensemble (Butuan City, Agusan del Norte) Established on May 8, 2018, the organization promotes local culture and arts. They are composed of young people ranging from 17 to 25 years old, and teach traditional dance, yoga and zumba online, where their income is shared to both the organization and performers/talents to support their education.
The National Commission for Culture and Arts discovered them through their online fundraising to save their art studio that was put at risk due to the pandemic.