When young people lead

From Mission ASCEND Facebook page.

When young people lead, even leaders need to follow. That is the power of youth.

I had the amazing opportunity to present the latest Climate Reality slideshow, fresh from the Manila Training, to student leaders of Tacloban, Ground Zero for Super Typhoon Yolanda, on Earth Hour Day, March 19. I was invited by Jude Acidre of Tingog Sinirangan to give the talk. My talk was to present the context for a youth-led action and the launching of Mission ASCEND, a gathering of young voices for the environment.

About a hundred student leaders were there, coming from more than a dozen high schools of Region VIII. It was a particularly daunting experience, knowing these young people were survivors of Haiyan themselves, and the last thing they might need is somebody like me telling them about the impacts of climate change. But thank God they were particularly patient with me, even when my computer stopped working for a while.

The Power of Little Things: Reflections on Liwanag World Festival 2013

There is nothing less than grand about the Liwanag World Festival. But this is only because it is made up of many modest, well thought-out, things. Indeed, we witnessed what Aristotle meant by “the whole is more than the sum of its parts.”

During the last press conference. I donned my Climate Reality hat and helped announce the Beyond Carbon Neutral Initiative for Liwanag. Happy to be in the company of Liwanag’s visionary leader Nicanor Perlas;  Leo “Happy L.A.” Avila, festival consultant; and Maya Vandenbroeck, head of the Volunteer Committee. Photo by Louise Far