Telco adopts Boracay as 1st Community of Practice

GLOBE Telecom adopted Boracay as its first Community of Practice (CoP) in the Visayas to help the island achieve social, environmental and economic development.

Globe finds necessary to protect the area’s marine life, support conservation efforts by local stakeholders and participate in raising environmental awareness among the youth and local residents.

CoP is a program designed to synergize the different initiatives of Globe Bridging Communities, the corporate social responsibility arm of Globe, through active partnerships with community-based non-government organizations, barangay leaders, youth and the beneficiaries.

For this undertaking, Globe has allotted P1 million for various support activities that will be implemented in Boracay and has also tapped Huawei, its end-to-end network solutions provider, as a resource partner.

BridgeCom has five pillars which will serve Boracay, namely: iLead (good governance), iAccess (social services delivery), iProsper (entrepreneurship), iConserve (environment and sustainability), and iGive (active citizenship through volunteerism).

Initially centered on iLead and iConserve pillars, Globe has entered into a one year partnership with Sangkalikasan Cooperative to support the sustainability of the marine protected area initiative called The Code Blue Project.

Through Code Blue marine habitat enhancement component, 5,000 artificial reef buds have been planted within the 20-hectare marine protected area by grafting or attaching fragments of semi-live corals to the buds to assist in propagation and maintain high survival rate of the corals.

Globe donated marine epoxy as well as water buoys and markers to cordon off the area and set demarcation lines for navigation, swimming and recreational activities.

Early next year, Globe employees who are also divers will be mobilized for off-shore clean-up and training so they can take part in the quarterly preventive maintenance of the area.

Globe already has an existing Sagot Ka ni Kap (SKK) program in barangay Manok-Manok which covers the whole of Boracay.

SKK equips local barangay officials with the necessary tools to upgrade the capacity of the barangay tanods and the Boracay Action Group for necessary coast-line patrolling.

Globe provides a multi-cab vehicle and boat to beef up coast and sea patrol activities.

Likewise, Globe will help Sangkalikasan monitor its Reef Patrol volunteers and other partners through information and communication technology tools such as the Globe TxtConnect facility which allows text messages to be blasted off simultaneously to members of an organization for easier coordination and reporting as well as receiving real-time feedback.

Environmental education is another drive which Globe will provide to three public elementary schools in Boracay — Manok-Manok E.S., Balabag E.S., and Yapak E.S. using the Text2Teach (T2T) program implemented through Ayala Foundation Inc. (AFI). T2T utilizes educational videos to make it easier for young students to learn Math, Science, and English. This time, more environmental conservation materials will be shown to the students to make them aware of the environmental situation in Boracay and encourage them to be proactive in protecting the area and saving it from further destruction. The effort will also be extended to the other nine public elementary schools in the whole municipality of Malay where Boracay is located.

Youth clubs and private schools will also be tapped for the six-month youth education program to be handled by Sangkalikasan partner University of San Carlos Cebu, also aimed at opening the eyes of the youth to the ecological destruction at the popular tourist spot and their responsibility as young active citizens to protect the island’s future.