Scout group AMAPS joins Rappler’s Lighthouse Communities of Action

MovePH, Rappler’s civic engagement arm, features partners who are part of the Lighthouse platform. As a Lighthouse partner, AMAPS’ content and calls to action may be accessed by a wider audience who benefit from Rappler’s wider reach. Check AMAPS’ Lighthouse page here.

The Amateur Media Association of Philippines Scouts (AMAPS), an independent Scout-led online media site, will now be featured on Rappler’s Lighthouse Communities of Action.

AMAPS is one of the most active online platforms continuously promoting scouting in the Philippines, even in the height of the pandemic lockdown. Beyond promoting scouting ideals, AMAPS has also been an active supporter of press freedom, striving to uphold tenets of journalism: truth, accuracy, courage, fairness, and responsibility.

“AMAPS, also promotes and encourage the participation of Scouts in the society outside the movement as well as it inculcates to its audience the importance of independent journalism – free from influence of the authority,” said AMAPS Executive Director JK Gamora.

In 2021, AMAPS launched the PinasALAMIN: Unravelling the Influence of Powell-ful Voters campaign to promote election awareness and provide voter education to AMAPS Scouts, highlighting the role of the youth for the upcoming elections. In cooperation with MovePH and various other entities, the campaign began on May 5, and concluded with the participation of more than 200 scouts from various parts of the Philippines.

In January 2022, AMAPS launched Kamalayaan 2022, a comprehensive six-day training program on Scout Journalism Skills, and the first of its kind to ever be conducted by an independent Scouting association. The program’s goal was to encourage proactiveness amongst Scouts through heightening their skills in writing, and enlightening them with the importance of truthful and responsible journalism. Kamalayaan 2022 was also in line with AMAPS’ commitment to the fact-checking alliance #FactsFirstPH.

#FactsFirstPH is a first-of-a-kind initiative that aims to debunk dubious claims online, make facts spread faster and further than hate and lies, flag disinformation narratives and actors, and hold online perpetrators accountable.

“We also wanted to break the stigma among our members that journalism is just a simple news writing, but it also comes with responsibilities like bringing factual and accurate news, and being the voice of the voiceless society,” said Gamora.

With their shared advocacies in the importance of civic engagement and values of independent and truthful journalism, AMAPS and MovePH have been long-time partners for various initiatives, several of these being the #CourageOn and #PHVote coalitions.

“For the past couple of months, AMAPS can say that we’ve built a fruitful and strategic partnership with MovePH,” Gamora said.

As one of the community partners of MovePH on Lighthouse, AMAPS hopes to expand its audience and strengthen engagement with fellow Scouts.

“Of course, with [the] Lighthouse partnership, we are expecting to get more experience in CMS management, a very important technical skill for our members. However, we are looking forward to learn and, at the same time, propagate our advocacies and stands,” said Gamora.

With this opportunity to find new audiences, AMAPS will also continue to advocate for their stands in press freedom, youth empowerment, gender equality, environmental sustainability, and fact-checking. AMAPS will be publishing editorials and opinion articles on their Lighthouse platform, along with notable Scouting news and achievements of AMAPS.

Check out AMAPS’ Lighthouse page by visiting scoutmediaph.rappler.com. – Andrea Abadia/Rappler.com

Lighthouse Communities of Action integrates Rappler’s third pillar – the communities we have worked with since Rappler was launched in 2012 – into the platform. It also features collaboration across several efforts through Movements. Know more about this initiative here.

Here are some of our partners’ pages on Lighthouse: