The University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), through its Ugnayan ng Pahinungod Office and Multimedia Center, provided programming and technical support in the holding of the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Youth Volunteer Program (e-AYVP Philippines 2021). The University of the Philippines System, through the UP System Ugnayan ng Pahinungod Office, and Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Youth Volunteer Programme (AYVP) Secretariat at the Universiti Kebangsan Malaysia (UKM), in partnership with the ASEAN Secretariat and Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia hosted the e-AYVP Philippines 2021. With the theme “Strengthening ASEAN Education Delivery Systems in Challenging Times,” the 3-week online training program sought to develop the future leaders of ASEAN, the youths who will take the lead in reinforcing the education systems, especially in this new normal, together with the local communities. eAYVP 2021 commenced on 30 August 2021, and ran until 17 September 2021.
UPOU Chancellor Bandalaria discussed Digital Citizenship in the e-AYVP Philippines 2021. (Screen capture from Ugnayan ng Pahinungod UPOU)
The program featured various international prominent figures in education that tackled topics in ASEAN Identity, Project Management & Volunteerism, and Education Resilience. Dr. Melinda dela Peña Bandalaria, UPOU Chancellor and International Council for Distance Education (ICDE) Ambassador for Open Education Resources (OER), served as one of the speakers. She discussed Digital Citizenship as part of the Education Resilience topic. Keynote speakers of the e-AYVP Philippines 2021 included The Honourable Prof. Dr. J. Prospero “Popoy” de Vera Chairperson, The Commission on Higher Education of the Philippines, who tackled “Strengthening ASEAN Education Delivery Systems in Challenging Times,” and His Royal Highness Tunku Zain Al-‘Abidin ibni Tuanku Mukhriz, Royal Fellow, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, whose speech was about “Leaders of The Future: The Role of Youth in ASEAN Community.” Other speakers for the entire program were education experts from the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.
The eAYVP 2021 online training program had two components. It had synchronous sessions, which were held via a video conferencing app, and an asynchronous session, held via UPOU’s Massive Open Distance e-Learning (MODeL) platform. The course site hosted program related readings, recorded sessions, announcements and information about the sessions, and evaluations. There was an online fora set up in the course site to encourage interactions among the participants.
The ASEAN Youth Volunteer Programme (AYVP) is the permanent secretariat based in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (The National University of Malaysia – UKM) under the auspices of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and is a dedicated youth volunteerism platform that creates opportunities for knowledge-driven volunteerism, support the exchange of learning experience , develop capacity, enhance cross-cultural understanding, and forge a sense of regional identity while making a sustainable difference to communities across ASEAN.
More than 200 youths from Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Cambodia, Lao PDR, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, The People’s Republic of China, and Japan participated in the event.
The UPOU Team was headed by Ms. Rhonna Marie Vereña, Director of Ugnayan ng Pahinungod UPOU, and Ms. Luisa A. Gelisan, Director of the Multimedia Center.
Written by Phoebe Apostol and Anna Cañas-Llamas
Edited by Joane V. Serrano
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