DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental (PIA) — The Outstanding Students of the Philippines (TOSP) Alumni Community will hold the first TOSP-AC Region VII Day on December 4 at 10:30 a.m. at the Robinson’s Place Dumaguete Main Atrium.

It is a community outreach and awareness initiative which will bring together students from all over the province to compete in Extemporaneous Speaking, several rounds of British Parliamentary Debate, Assessment of Children with Disabilities, Information Booth on Disability, Blood Pressure Taking, and Blood Glucose Monitoring, explained TOSP regional representative Rolando Villamero Jr.

D.O.S.T Orientation

KALIBO, Aklan (PIA) — Aklan province, through its Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO), will conduct an orientation to teach Aklan’s disaster point persons and officers to read data from weather equipments installed here by the Department of Science and Technology (DoST).

The orientation will be on Nov. 25 at the Governor Corazon Cabanot Tourism and Training Center, in Old Buswang, Kalibo, Aklan. The DoST-provided equipment include an Automatic Rain Gauge (ARG) placed in Madalag and two Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) set up in two other areas in the province.

Antique Training

SAN JOSE, Antique (PIA) — The San Jose Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (MDRRMC) has partnered with Handicap International (HI) in conducting training of trainers on Integrating Persons with Disability in Disaster Risk Reduction and Management.

The training was aimed at equipping key players in disaster risk reduction such as local government planners, health care service providers, social workers, emergency responders and persons with disability with knowledge and skills on making DRR inclusive.

V.A.W. Campaign

ILOILO CITY, Iloilo (PIA) — The 18-day international campaign to end violence against women (VAW) will culminate with a simultaneous blowing of whistles at 8 a.m., Dec. 12 here. Multi-sectoral group, Ugsad, which is focused in promoting and protecting women’s rights has joined the campaign and said campaign organizers see the whistle as a symbolic device to show their unity in preventing VAW, in speaking against VAW and in supporting VAW survivors.

Ugsad Gender and Resource Center chairperson, Prof. Evelyn Alobba said the campaign will create venues for the holding of creative dialogues among key government agencies and service providers on VAW.

POPCOM Celebration

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte (PIA) — The Commission on Population Regional Office 8 headed by Director Leo R. Rama will be celebrating Population and Development Week on November 23-29, 2011.

Centered on the theme “Population, Poverty and Governance,” it was learned from POPCOM’s Administrative Officer Ms. Myrna Banez that a photo competition will be conducted as a medium in advocating social issues and concerns tied to population levels, patterns and changes in the communities.