MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Pinay Collection, a Toronto-based Filipina-owned clothing line that aims to celebrate, own, and reclaim Filipina identity, is launching its Maarte, Maldita, Maganda calligraphy workshop in Metro Manila and Rizal Province starting on October 13. The workshop uses brush calligraphy and art as a tool to address the impact of hurtful and derogatory words in Filipino culture that are often rooted in colonization and intergenerational harm. 

“The goal of this workshop is to provide a safe and supportive environment where participants can explore the art of brush calligraphy while addressing the impact of painful and derogatory words that have often been used to put us down,” says Jovie Galit, founder of Pinay Collection. “The workshop is meant to create a space for empowerment and collective storytelling.”

While cultivating play, the workshop series encourages participants to explore the role of language in developing our self-worth, as well as practicing creative healing in community. For instance, workshop participants look at words and phrases like “bruha,” “taba,” or “walang hiya” that have been used to shame Filipinas and transform them into words of resistance. The workshop series have been popular among diasporic communities in Canada and aims to reconnect to Filipinos in the homeland. 

“This workshop was always about confronting the words that our titas (aunts) and nanays (moms) used to make us millennial Filipinas feel some kind of way as we were growing up,” says Karla Villanueva Danan, a workshop participant. “Seeing how I can turn these hurtful words into beautiful calligraphy pieces while reflecting deeply on the hurt it comes from has been transformative.”  

Maarte, Maldita, Maganda calligraphy workshops will be taking place in the following locations:

• Friday, October 13, 2023 | 6 pm to 8 pm | Badass Shop + Cafe
  Marikina-Infanta Highway, Antipolo, 1800 Rizal
• Saturday, October 14, 2023 | 2 pm to 4:30 pm | Paraluman Flora Studio
  109 Kamias Road, Quezon City
• Sunday, October 15, 2023 | 1 pm to 3:30 pm | Good Food Sundays at Mandala Park
  Shaw Blvd, Pleasant Hills, Mandaluyong
• Sunday, October 22, 2023 | 2 pm to 4:30 pm | Manila Middle Ground
  2F, Unit 6, Comuna, 238 Pablo Ocampo Sr. Extension, San Antonio, Makati City

—Rappler.com

To help mitigate the long-lasting impact brought about by COVID-19 to the education system, Security Bank Foundation, Inc. (SBFI), the social development arm of Security Bank Corporation, launched a 3-year training program for teachers this August 22, 2023. Sixty elementary English and Mathematics teachers from SBFI’S classroom beneficiary schools nationwide attended the Year One in-person training program at Ateneo de Iloilo from August 22 to 24, 2023.

“Academics say that the learning loss from the pandemic resulted in all students being ‘minus two’ from their current grade levels. To address this, SBFI took on a three-year long term structured approach to improve teachers’ expertise,” said Grace Ayson, Security Bank assistant corporate secretary and Security Bank Foundation training programs adviser.

Entitled “Mentoring Future Leaders for Nation Building,” the program was created to improve the teachers’ pedagogy to develop students’ 21st century skills, create effective lessons for struggling and advanced learners, develop effective assessments, and engage stakeholders to improve student performance.

SBFI and its partner, Ateneo de Manila University, designed the program to be sustainable by creating a three-year roadmap that targets the Self in Year One, the School in Year Two, and the Community in Year Three. Teachers are expected to produce model lesson plans and learning improvement programs throughout the three years. After their training, participants will have the opportunity to be mentors of other teachers from other schools as a part of professional fellowship.

“The new teaching methodologies aimed at improving 21st century skills helped us in becoming better educators. It also ignited our passion as educators to share our learnings to our fellow teachers,” said Jane Angeli Gavasan, an English teacher from Catalunan Pequeño Elementary School, Davao City.

“We want the beneficiaries of Security Bank’s classroom donation program to have teachers equipped with meaningful training in content and pedagogy before they return to their teaching stations prior to the start of classes,” said Carmela Oracion, managing director of the Ateneo Center for Educational Development.

To learn more about Security Bank Foundation’s projects and how you can contribute, visit www.securitybank.com/foundation. – Rappler.com