Another group made art a vehicle to reach out to the marginalized and staged art workshops for children with Down’s syndrome and other special needs.

A sorority of medical students broke stereotypes and trained residents in a Malate community to become health workers.

Another group decided they could no longer wait for government and took matters into their own hands before a communicable disease engulfs their barangay in Tondo. Its members paid door-to-door visits to residents with tuberculosis to personally administer the daily intake of medicines.

Theirs are the stories and faces you do not always read or see in the headlines. To many, these youth groups are mere exceptions to the rule. After all, today’s young people elected blonde millionaire heiress Paris Hilton and shrewd billionaire Donald Trump as their role models, according to a recent survey conducted in Metro Manila by McCann Erickson among college students and young people in their early careers. (They’re classified as career builders: College-age, early career age please reword)

Unlike the model youth groups, a majority of the 25 million young people in the country, who are ages 15 to 30, are not into dancing the Diasporo (an ancestral prewedding dance) or converting their tambayan into a TB treatment facility. Today’s youth, the survey says, love everything high-tech, desire quick bucks (thus work in call centers), and do not care much for community.

But Bam Aquino, chairman of the National Youth Commission (NYC), the government’s youth policymaking body, says this is not so. And the TAYO awards, which the NYC holds annually, should change the perception.

"We have always believed that the youth can make a difference, given the chance and the opportunity," says Aquino, who initiated the annual search during his just-ended five-year term at NYC, together with Sen. Francis Pangilinan.

Run jointly by the NYC, the TAYO Foundation and KilosKo, with support from Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines, Inc., the Office of Senator Francis Pangilinan, with support from the Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines, Inc., the Search for TAYO (Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations) aims to recognize, reward and encourage the efforts of young people in nation building.

Every year, 10 outstanding youth groups whose projects have benefited local communities are named and receive cash prizes of P50,000 each and trophies especially made by sculptor Toym de Leon Imao. The 10 winners and 10 finalists also get to be awarded in Malacañang and invited to weeklong workshops in Manila. For this year, youth groups have until March 31 to submit entries.

Since it started in 2001, the TAYO search has already attracted more than 500 youth organizations all over the country.

In 2005, the third TAYO search produced the likes of Sining Bulakenyo, which has since mounted several folk dance performances at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and attracted concert sponsorships; the Mu Sigma Phi Sorority of the UP College of Medicine, which has already trained and certified more than 50 health workers in Malate; and the UP Special Education Council, which used its cash prize to mount an arts workshop for orphaned and abandoned kids and also received the Quezon City Youth Achievers Award for being the best student college organization.

"Our previous winners in the TAYO search have already obtained funding support from institutions such as the World Bank and other non-government organizations. Some have expanded their memberships as a result of all the interest. More importantly, TAYO legitimizes youth organizations, especially those based in communities, and opens a lot of doors for their members," says Aquino.

"Our dream is for these groups to spread the message and the inspiration. If we were able to attract more than 200 to join in 2005 alone, I believe there are still more youth groups out there, silently making a difference in our country," he adds. "Our goal is to showcase them as the real role models for our young people."

For more details about the TAYO search, text 0917-TXT-TAYO (8988296) or visit www.tayoawards.org.