BUTUAN CITY -- The Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Federation of Butuan City successfully celebrated this year’s Linggo ng Kabataan by launching various activities in line with the theme “Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health.” 

Despite limitations in funding and mobility, the City SK lined up a combination of virtual and face-to-face activities to shed light on pressing societal issues such as food security and nutrition. 

“Pag Linggo ng Kabataan, [we think of it as] a celebration. However, this year it’s a difficult one since it’s an issue that we tend to forget so we focused on the basic, the fundamentals kung saan tayo [dapat] magtuon ng pansin,” said SK Federation President Cynth Zephanee Nietes during an exclusive interview with PIA-Caraga on Wednesday, August 18.

To kick-off the activity, a tree growing activity was launched on August 12, 2021, where nearly 100 youth volunteers from various organizations such as the City Youth Development Council (CYDC), in- and out-of-school youths (ISY/OSY) and the Propelling Our Inherited Nation Through Our Youth (POINTY), Inc. and officials from the 65th Infantry Brigade, Philippine Army planted acacia and narra seedlings in Brgy. Anticala. 

An outreach and feeding program was hosted on the same day in Lingap Center in partnership with the City Social Welfare and Development (CSWD) and the Department of Education (DepEd) Caraga. Nietes said that this was launched to focus on issues concerning hunger. The local SK Federation provided 150 food packs donated by Virginia Foods Inc. and toys to the 47 neglected, abused, exploited, and abandoned children housed in the center.

The latter half of the weeklong celebration consisted of a two-day Facebook Live discourse dubbed as “An Hour with YOUth” that tackled issues on agriculture, nutrition and even local sports, the last topic being a homage to the historic win of the country during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Game. 

“We tried to find a correlation between food security and nutrition, on how important [it is] that we encourage our youth to go into agriculture and how important it is when you produce your own food kasi that’s one major reason in giving good nutrition to the Filipino youth,” the SK president said. 

By raising awareness on these sectors, Nietes said she is hopeful that “in at least one of the 70 participants, one will amplify and eventually conduct sustainable programs.” 

“It was a simple [celebration] but we want to tell a story during Linggo ng Kabataan [that] ‘hey, even if we want to celebrate things especially this pandemic but we need to remember that there are existing issues na kailangan natin pagtuonan ng pansin’,” Nietes said of the recent celebration, adding that the theme has sparked an urgency among participants, especially the members of the City SK Federation, to invest on nutrition and agriculture. 

She also revealed that they will continue advocating for these sectors in upcoming youth-led activities. 

“It will not end here. Siguro [by] next month, may mga ma-partner din kami na mga other government agencies, we will have another special series kasi relevant na we are having a dialogue in social media with these opinions, information. We will craft a program kung saan tutugma sa mga monthly na celebration,” she said. (DMNR/PIA-Caraga)