Lifestart coordinators Kirrily McNamara and Deborah Emalhain acknowledging book donations from INC Giving Project team members.

The books were handed over yesterday morning by INCGiving Project members to Lifestart Marketing Co-ordinator Kirrily McNamara and Lifestart Nepean branch manager Deborah Emalhain.

“We are overwhelmed with your kindness and generosity,” said McNamara to the INCGiving group members, adding that the books will go a long way in building up the library of Lifestart’s St Marys and other playgroup centres.

Lifestart is a charitable organisation which provides early childhood intervention and school aged services to children with additional needs including Down syndrome, Autism Spectrum Disorder, global developmental delay and rare genetic disorders.

The organisation has seven playgroup centres in Metropolitan Sydney and currently serves 750 children.

INCGiving Project team members with Lifestart teachers

The donor, INCGiving, is a worldwide project of the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) – Church of Christ launched in 2011 as part of its community partnering services.

Last year, Iglesia Ni Cristo inaugurated its INCGiving projects in Australia with free community services held in various parts of the country through its Neighbourhood Appreciation Day, Singing for a Cause (Grandparents Day), and Teachers Appreciation Day events.

INCGiving Project coordinator in Australia Glenn David said that yesterday’s book donation is the first of a series of INCGiving’s book drives in Australia.

“Our congregations in Metro Sydney and other Australian metropolitan centres will also conduct similar book drives to help local libraries and community- and family-focused organisations,” David added.

The Philippine Communities Council of NSW is staging “Lift Off”, a musical extravaganza showcasing the talents of Generation XY on Friday October 14 at the Blacktown Civic Centre’s Bowman Hall.

Participated in by a cast of young Filipino Australian performers plus special guest performers, proceeds from the musical show will go to victims of the recent typhoons “Pedring” and “Quel” in the Philippines.

Ticket: $15.00
Contact:
Marco Selorio 0420307753
Serna Ladia 0430185350
Millie Banan 0403021358
Solina Lapalma 0422451642

Sent by PCC-NSW.

Philippine-born Carl Michelangelo Ramirez, 15, from Glenmore Park High School, gained the highest score nationally in the inaugural Australian History Competition, obtaining equal first with two other students from NSW.

Organized and produced by the History Teachers Association of Australia and The Giant Classroom, this inaugural competition was participated in by 6718 Year 10 students from 141 schools Australia-wide.

It was held last June 1st. Only 5% of participants were awarded a certificate of High Distinction, including Carl.

The competition challenged the students’ knowledge, skills and understandings based broadly on the Year 10 Australian History Curriculum.

Sent by: M.Ramirez

Let’s Fight It Together is designed with teenagers in classroom situations in mind. The program aims to equip young people with strategies to avoid, get out of or help others deal with cyberbullying behaviour and to show adults how they can help.

‘The impact of cyberbullying— the use of social networking sites, mobile text messages, instant messaging, email and other websites to bully others—can be very damaging, and is becoming a significant issue for children and for schools,’ said Chris Chapman, Chairman of the ACMA.

‘Cyberbullying can be more pernicious than traditional forms of bullying: hostile messages can be sent at any time from any place; they can be sent anonymously and distributed more rapidly to wider audiences. For the target of the cyberbullying, there can be nowhere to run—places previously considered safe and personal are safe no longer.’

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, said educational resources such as Let’s Fight It Together are a key part of the Government’s comprehensive approach to cybersafety.

‘New technologies offer a world of opportunity but it is important that young people are empowered to address issues such as bullying in the online environment. This new resource will help raise awareness while providing important advice and support for young Australians, teachers and parents,’ Senator Conroy said.

Let’s fight It Together is based around a short video story which presents a cyberbullying scenario derived from real experiences of teenagers who have been cyberbullied. The DVD also includes interviews with the characters in the story—teachers, parents and young people—about their perspective on the cyberbullying scenario presented. The accompanying booklet is a comprehensive guide for teachers with lesson plans and activities to help get the most out of the DVD.

The Let’s Fight It Together resource materials have been customised to Australian schools by mapping to Australia’s national Statements of Learning for ICT. It was originally developed by Childnet International and the UK Department for Children Schools and Families where it has received high acclaim. It is also being used by schools in New Zealand and Europe. The resource can not only be used in schools, but also by parents and others involved in the care of children. The ACMA already has orders from over 200 schools for Let’s Fight It Together.

The DVD includes an introduction by Chris Chapman, Chairman of the ACMA, addressing parents and carers on dealing with cyberbullying and vox pops with Australian students discussing their reaction to the cyberbullying scenario and their own experiences with cyberbullying.

The Sydney launch of Let’s Fight It Together was attended by the chief executive officer of Childnet International, Will Gardner, the executive director of Netsafe New Zealand, Martin Cocker, and representatives of Australian education and child welfare bodies.

Schools can order a free copy of the Let’s Fight It Together resource by contacting the Cybersafety Contact Centre on telephone 1800 880 176.

Source: Australian Communications and Media Authority

The youth symposium called “Pag asa ” or “Project HOPE” is an opportunity to share experiences, leadership challenges and discuss issues of common concern. The focus is on empowering the youth and on shaping a brighter future for all Young Filipino Australians.

The symposium will address key issues relating to youth such as volunteering in the local community, getting active through sport, online communications, identity and balancing different responsibilities.

The event will also showcase a mini debate by the local students about values that matter to Filipino-Australian youth.

The keynote speakers of the event include Councilor Charlie Lowles, Mayor of Blacktown city, Consul General Eva Betita and prominent young members of the Philippine community including the 2008 Global Filipino youth awardees.

Chair of Global Filipinos Australia, Lolita Farmer OAM believes Project HOPE, will be part of building a stronger relationship between young people and their community.

“Pag-asa or Project HOPE is about youth activity and engaging youth to be active players in their local communities. In a one day youth symposium the project plans to highlight and showcase youth achievements not just their problems.”

“The project will include behind the scenes work and input from 2008 Global Filipino Youth awardees to continue their valued work with the Filipino community,” Ms Farmer said.

The event was funded by the 2008/09 Community Development Grants Program announced by Minister Virginia Judge in March this year as part of the NSW Rees Government’s $17,000 Filipino community initiative.

The Youth Symposium will be hosted by Rooty Hill High School on Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 9:00 am– 3:00pm and all young Filipino-Australians are encouraged to register for the event.

Filipino Australian handballer, Bevan Calvert, in action. // Photo credit: Handball Australia

The achievements of Sydney-based Filipino-Australian handballer, Bevan Calvert, are being highlighted in interstitials by the ABS-CBN The Filipino Channel.

Interstitials are film clips shown in between TFC program which usually run for one minute and air for one whole quarter. One of ABS-CBN Global’s interstitials production is titled “The Global Filipino” which features Filipinos who have achieved international recognition.

The interstitials on Bevan are slotted for viewing by TFC subscribers between 19 April and 30 June 2009.

Many Filipino-Australians have become familiar with Bevan’s achievements in handball over the years.

At the age of fifteen years, Bevan was selected to be part of the New South Wales Men’s Handball Team.

Three years later he became a member of the Australian Men’s Handball Team.

He represented Australia in the 2005, 2007 and 2009 World Championships, and in other international tournaments.

Since July 2006, he has been playing in the First Division League in Denmark.

More photos.

Workshop instructor Michelle Baltazar, seated centre, is flanked from left by Richard Ford, Assueela Thanapongsakorn and Ania Aquino. Standing is Tom Baena

Young journos joined the second workshop of the Filipino Press Group of Sydney at the Corregidor Centre in Rooty Hill yesterday, Sunday, March 29.

The workshop, News and Feature Writing Basics, was conducted by Financial Standard editor Michelle Baltazar.

Topics, among many, included interviewing techniques, negotiating the subjective, descriptions, titles, timing, the intro, the ”who-what-where-when”, news writing errors to avoid, and references.

Delegates were each presented a ‘Certificate of Attendance’ immediately after the workshop concluded at 1pm.

In attendance were young journalists Ania Aquino and Ausseela Thanapongsakorn, and public relations officers Tom Baena and Richard Ford.

The press group’s next workshop will be conducted by Emanila.com publisher- founder Romy Cayabyab on the subject of New Media and Its Increasing Impact on Today’s Newspaper Industry. It will be held 10am-12.30pm on Sunday, April 26, at the Corregidor Centre in Rooty Hill. #

This brings the total number of unrelated child pornography arrests over the past week to four.

“Those seeking to come to Australia should see this as a warning that Australia has strict laws regarding the importation and possession of such material,” said Customs and Border Protection National Manager Investigations, Richard Janeczko.

On Friday 13 March a 49-year-old Filipino man was stopped by Customs and Border Protection officers for a baggage examination when he arrived on a flight from Singapore.

During the search officers discovered child pornography materials on an external hard drive and a DVD.

The man was subsequently arrested and charged by Customs and Border Protection investigators. He was remanded in custody to appear in Perth Magistrates Court on the 27th March.

Last Monday, 16 March, a 34-year-old Malaysian man was also arrested and charged when Customs and Border Protection officers discovered child pornography on various electronic media contained in the man’s baggage.

The man had arrived at Perth International Airport on a flight from Malaysia.

A 39-year-old Indonesian man and a 34-year-old Chinese man were also arrested at Perth International Airport last week for attempting to import child pornography.

The importation of child pornography is illegal under s233BAB of the Customs Act 1901.

“Australia has strict laws regarding child pornography and those who attempt to import such materials face very serious consequences,” Mr Janeczko said.

The maximum penalty for importing child pornography is $275,000 and/or 10 years imprisonment. //

Sons of Lapu Lapu Rugby Team members in Kiama NSW

“We traveled for 5 hours to get here only to be beaten by a bunch of Filipinos” jibed a Grenfell RUFC Rugby player as he contemplated losing 31-5 to the Sons of Lapu Lapu rugby team.

This may have been similar words uttered by Magellan as he confronted Lapu Lapu on the beaches of Cebu and it certainly were the words from the Grenfell rugby team dealing with the Sons of Lapu Lapu which fittingly had 3 Cebuanoes on the shores of Kiama beach.

Grenfell RUFC is a country team from Central NSW playing in the tough Waga Waga & Hay competition and they came into this game with a surprising amount of intelligence on the Sons of Lapu Lapu and its players.

So they went into the match feeling that they had done their homework to defeat the team, which was not to be because in the space of the first 30 seconds of the match Cleo Gomez in his first appearance for a Philippines rugby team opened the scoring for the Sons of Lapu Lapu.

Philippines National Rugby 7s Head Coach Rick Hartley liked what he saw in this inaugural Filipino-Heritage rugby team and the work his Australian based coaches Mike Letts and Alan Macdonald had done to prepare this team within a short month.

Head Coach Rick Hartley is now aware of the rugby talent he has to work with as he prepares the Philippines National Rugby 7s team for the ARFU Rugby 7s tournament in Sri Lanka in September and the South East Asian games in Laos in December if Rugby 7s is included in this regional sporting event where he coached the Philippines to a Silver medal in Thailand in 2007.

The squad acquitted themselves well in their first appearance in this prestigious rugby tournament against NSW leading professional rugby union clubs who had been preparing for this tournament since November 2008.

Our young Filipino rugby players forced last years Kiama 7s Champion Manly RUFC to step up a gear to deal with Filipino players who were smaller than them.

The Manly team were surprised that they only had a 7-0 lead for most of the 1st half with the Sons of Lapu Lapu only conceding a 2nd try near the end to go into the break with a 12-0 lead.

The defending Champions increased their intensity in the 2nd half to overcome the Sons of Lapu Lapu using their bulk, speed and experience to stretch the team’s defense and create the overlaps to score their remaining tries with a final score of 33-0.

As the squad progressed into the Plate Group stage of matches they put a scare on last year’s semi- finalist Parramatta 2Blues RUFC as they scored the first try through the combination of the two youngest members of the team 16 year olds Ned Stephenson who made a brilliant 30metre run to break up the Parramatta defense and off load to Ben Saunders who scored in the corner.

The Sons of Lapu Lapu held off their larger Parramatta opponents for most of the 1st half and it was only late into the game that they equalized and took a slim 10-5 lead after scoring on the siren.

Parramatta realized they had a game on their hands and were forced to dig deep to overcome a valiant Filipino-heritage team, but they were only able to score one additional try in the second half being held back by dogged Sons of Lapu Lapu defense, with only inexperience, wrong options and dropped balls awarding Parramatta a lucky victory.

Captain Oliver Saunders and his Vice Captain Jake Letts, both from the Warringah RUFC were the only two grade players in this squad and they were proud of their young team’s performance against professional opposition.

With current Philippines rugby internationals Ben Saunders and Andrew Barbecetto as reliable as ever having strong games and new blood’s Cleo Gomez, Ned Stephenson and Thamer Wilczynski showing the depth of Filipino-heritage rugby talent in Sydney.

It was evident from the team’s performance and results on the day that with more preparation, game time and experience, the Sons of Lapu Lapu can mix it up with NSW premier rugby union teams, even the ones that have won this tournament and challenge them on an equal footing in the not to distant future.

Thanks must go to Warringah RUFC who provided administrative support and Physiotherapist Eliza Collier for this team and our sponsors’ Focused Business Solutions and RJH Consultancy, Inc, who were pleased with the performance of this young and courageous Filipino-heritage rugby team, as they went up against older and more experienced elite NSW rugby clubs who have previously won this event.

Our sponsors’ support has allowed the NSW public to get a glimpse at what future and more experienced Filipino-heritage rugby team can do in this tournament.

Sons of Lapu Lapu score sheet:
{column1}
Game 1: Sons of Lapu Lapu v Grenfell RUFC 31-5

Tries: Cleo Gomez, Ned Stephenson, Ben Saunders *2, Oliver Saunders
Conversions: Oliver Saunders * 3

{/column1}{column2}
Game 2: Sons of Lapu Lapu v Manly RUFC 0 – 33

Plate Cup Group games: Sons of Lapu Lapu v Parramatta RUFC 5 – 17
Tries: Ben Saunders
{/column2}

* Erick Elefante is Regional Representative for Australia and Asia Pacific Region, Philippine Rugby Football Union. The Philippine Rugby Football Union (PRFU) is the governing body of Rugby Football in the Philippines. Its mission is to encourage rugby development among Filipinos and for Philippine Rugby Football Union clubs to be competitive players in the Asian Rugby environment. It is tasked to support the promotion, development and efficient administration of the sport of rugby union in the Philippines. They are a non-stock, non-profit Volunteer organization. The Philippines is a member of the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) and an associate member of the International Rugby Board (IRB) based in Dublin.

The Awards recognised 28 youth and 2 youth groups in arts, academic, community service, sports, journalism, business and entertainment. Four awardees are based in the Philippines, one in France, one in USA, and 24 in Australia.

The two youth groups are the Pinoy TV Cast & Crew based in Melbourne and University of the Visayas Choir who also treated the audience with their special brand of music.

See related pre-event media release for photos of awardees. [Requires Acrobat Reader]

Global Filipino Youth awardees

The awardees are Berline A. Aguinaldo (Arts/Community Service, Philippines), Krisanne Alcantara (Academic/Journalism, Australia), Ania Jaucian Aquino (Journalism, Australia), Michelle Baltazar (Journalism, Australia), Julie Anne Bankowski (Sports/Community Service, Australia), Andrew Barbacetio (Community Service, Australia), Cynthia Abenojar-Barbieri (Community Service, France), Christian P. Bulos (Arts, Australia), Bevan Calvert (Sports, Australia), Pia Castray (Sports, Australia), Ana Gacis (Academic/Community Service, Australia), Keziah Llare DG Gallardo (Community Service, Philippines), Melissa Gamat (Academic/Community Service, Australia), Dr Fay Catherine K. Gloria (Community Service, Philippines), Tania Gomez (Journalism, Australia), Warren Kaiser (Government/Technology, Australia), Elaine Laforteza (Academic, Australia), Kristine Marie E. Liberato (Academic/Community Service, Philippines), Jerome Martin (Academic, Australia), Ma. Luisa Mauricio (Academic / Community Service, Philippines), Dr Rose Anne Misajon PhD (Academic/Community Service, Australia), Emma E. Montalbo (Academic/Community Service, Philippines), Joe Natoli (Arts/Community Service, Australia), Rafaella Nepales (Arts/Entertainment, USA), Kathy Novak (Journalism TV SBS, Australia), Pinoy TV Cast & Crew (Arts/Entertainment/ Community Service, Australia), Dave Michael Ramas (Sports/Community Service, Australia), Marco Selorio (Business/Sports, Australia), Ausseela Thanaphongsakorn (Journalism/Community Service, Australia), and University of the Visayas Choir (Arts/Entertainment, Philippines).

Enriching the Australian multicultural society

In their separate speeches, Mr John Aquilina MP, and Mr Stepan Kerkyasharian AM, both recognised the contributions of the Filipino community to the enrichment of Australian multicultural society and exhorted the youth to be proud of their heritage. Mr Aquilina is the Leader of the House of the NSW Parliament and Mr Kerkyasharian is the Chairperson of the NSW Community Relations Commission.

Ms Lolita Farmer OAM, Global Filipino Australia president, is very hopeful that with the support of the government, business and the community, the Global Filipino Youth Awards will start a tradition to recognise the many young people of Filipino ancestry around the world “whose energy, idealism, enthusiasm and commitment can strengthen democracy and offer protection and assistance to the poor.”

“Let us hope the Awards will continue as a rallying point to harness and mobilise our youth in the development of the community and the country,” Ms Farmer continued.

Awarding video clips (from the files of The Filipino Australian):