By Saul E. Pa-a
CALAMBA CITY, Laguna, Nov. 10 (PNA) — The country’s more than 100 delegates to the week-long 2015 Junior Chamber International (JCI) World Congress held in Kanazawa, Japan from November 3 to 8 took pride for bringing home the bacon as among the world’s JCI international awardees as JCI marks its centennial year.
Jeffrey Rodriguez, city public affairs chief of the Calamba City Mayor’s Office and now a life-time member as JCI Senator told PNA here on Tuesday that JCI Manila romped off with the World’s Most Outstanding Local JCI Organization.
Rodriguez said the Manila Jaycees was recognized for its Project 101 with its National Flagship Project on its Rescue Operations amid the devastation wrought by Super Typhoon “Yolanda.”
He said the Philippine delegation presented five entries out of the participating 30 JCI chapters for the global competition.
JCI Imus (Cavite) Wagayway also bested other countries for bagging the “World’s Best New Local Chapter Award” following the feat as “Most Outstanding Local New Chapter Organization” in the Asia Pacific region.
Rodriguez also revealed that JCI Philippines nominee Dagupan Vice Mayor Brian Lim of JCI Dagupan Bangus was elected world vice president for next year’s term of JCI elected world officials.
The city public affairs chief and JCI Calamba Dimasalang official shared how JCI’s world leaders underwent an enriching experience during the poverty simulation as part of the workshop exercises in the week-long congress.
Rodriguez observed how delegates from the first world and developing countries have varying degrees of assessing poverty situations during the “role play” as a poor senior citizen left to fend for himself or an indigent youth who has to quit school to serve as caregiver to her aging parents.
He said the delegates also experienced how a poor single mom strives to make both ends meet and how poor people have to face day-to-day subsistence mired in poverty.
Rodriguez said the JCI members also explored ideas for international initiatives and leadership of the young generation to address poverty in the more than 100 member countries and territories with highly diverse backgrounds.
Calamba’s JCI Dimasalang delegates also learned from shared experiences and ways of the JCI movement to create positive change at the local levels then to the global arena especially in fostering world peace and international understanding.
The Philippine delegation was awed by the Kanazawa JCI World Congress logo which depicts a “paper crane” as a symbol of peace, care for others, friendship, social activity and a flight into the future.
The delegates heaped praises for the JCI forum’s crane symbol of choice colors where red stands for passion; orange for wisdom; green for peace; light blue for co-existence and co-prosperity and blue for the youth dynamism that could spur into action for positive impacts. (PNA)