#TheSMLProject wins back to back title in the Digital Youth Summit

By Regina Noelle Arquiza

The #TheSMLProject snags the title as Digital Youth Ambassador again in this year’s Digital Youth Summit held at the Grand Hyatt, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig last October 24-25,2019 with their new campaign, #YouDoNoteCyberbully.

In its third year, the Digital Youth summit welcomes advocacies that promote digital literacy, in line with their major partner, Facebook Philippines’s goal, which is to create digital literate Filipinos and for the advocacies to run their Digital Tayo Modules.

In line with this year’s theme, 19 advocacies came through, but only 11 were allowed to pitch their campaigns to a panel of judges. The first day of the summit was all about talks from speakers Clare Amador, Facebook Public Policy Head, Facebook Public Policy Manager, Christopher Kuzhuppilly and a workshop/ training session of how to conduct the Digital Tayo modules by Richard Amazona a Master Trainer from AHA Behavioural Design.

The second day of the summit was dedicated for the campaigns to prepare their pitch to their respective mentors and for the chosen 11 to finalize their pitches to the panel of judges composed of Facebook Policy Heads and Mano Amiga executives.

Out of the 11, five are awarded with a cash prize and Facebook ad credits for their online campaigns. These five campaigns were, Qapwa, Break the Fake, LenteLikha, Senior Safety and #TheSMLProject, making this their second win.

“After winning the second time it feels surreal because there are more delegates and all participants are very passionate about their advocacies. This win is for the youth, that there is a need for us to talk about media literacy. That we should be the front lines of this as digital natives and make a meaningful discourse about it. This win means that the youth are never too young to lead. Never too young to advocate,” says Jalen Elarmo, #TheSMLProject’s team leader.