The Apkrasher Diaries: Misadventures of a Youth Volunteer

Disclaimer: It's my blog, so it's MY opinion. Need I say more? 

I must admit: I've thought about sex constantly this week. You know, sex in the context of health and rights, humanitarian situations, culture, and all those profound things, you pervs. If you believe this post is about my wild nights of passion with several foreigners during my 4-day stint as an APC volunteer, well, I'm sorry to disappoint you hun. I was as celibate as one can be!

This post is a pandemonium of a write-up regarding my experience as the volunteer of the 7th Asia Pacific Conference of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.

Expect this to be a rant, a bunch of lists, selfish narratives of my experience, and pictures of a haggard blogger and of cats (because being a member of the Social Media Coverage Committee means you finally submit to your inner desires to coo over cute kitties *meows* =3).

Here ish a picture of a cute sleeping cat from the Internet <3 b="">

By the way, for those interested to know what happened during the sessions, you may want to visit the official #7APCRSHR blog. Clicky clicky. Who says that I can only write about my sex life (or the lack thereof)?

Now that I have shamelessly plug ONE of the fruits of SMCC's fruits of labor, on with the post!

How it started

Back in January 2013, when I was still an officer of the Alliance of Young Nurse Leaders and Advocates, I was invited along with other AYNLAns to be part of the Youth Steering Committee of the 7th Asia Pacific Conference for Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights. Despite being an AYNLAn, it was decided that I represent the Philippine Health Bloggers Society instead. This was a-okay since I was to be a member of the Social Media Coverage Committee, headed by the super awesome, super level-headed dude, Sir Dante Gagelonia of Mulat Pinoy. 

Working with other young SRHR advocates is such an honor and learning from them is such a rare opportunity. Plus it's damn fun. We take the issues of SRHR seriously, but at the same time, "Advocacy ang landi," is definitely central to being a youth SRHR advocate. That simply means we try to make friends (and lovers) while fighting for meaningful youth participation for sexual and reproductive health and rights. 

We are young. hot, and sexy. Photo by the YSC Promotions Committee

Being in the SMC Committee meant that most of the job we'd be doing would be during the conference. We may not be completely toxic pre-7APC, but during the actual event, we could be seen running around like headless chickens covering stuff during our four-day stint as volunteers while some of us were confined in our very own HQ, monitoring tweets, working on Facebook, editing articles and videos, and generally surviving on coffee.

So how was the #7APCRSHR experience as a volunteer? Here you go.

The Good

1. The sessions. The 7th Asia Pacific Conference for Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights gathered the most knowledgeable people from the Asia Pacific to share good practices regarding SRHR. All those who participated in the conference were quite lucky because the insights and information discussed were quite helpful to our advocacy. I cannot wait to take the good practices shared by our neighbors from the Asia Pacific and try them out in the Philippine setting.

2. The work. Oh yes. I am a workaholic. Call it an obsession, a release, a balm for the fact that I am in love with a rock, but there you go. The fact that it is a work I enjoy - writing about the advocacy, MY advocacy, - is a plus.

3. The people. Having the opportunity to meet and work with the Youth Steering Committee was such a privilege. Not only do I got to learn from them, I was also quite inspired by them. I now have the determination to become a much better advocate for SRHR. 

I am quite proud that some of the organizations I am part of are also part of the YSC:
1. Philippine Society of Sexual and Reproductive Health Nurses (PSORHN) which served as medics for the conference. 
2. International Youth Council (IYC)
3. Alliance of Young Health Advocates (AYHA)

It was also quite nice to be able to work with other volunteers and meet new people, particularly the scholars. Despite not having much time with them, I was still rather grateful for the experience. 




Of course, the SMC team was absolutely awesome. Sure, some of us are obsessed with cats, but we worked well together and despite the high pressure, fist fights and attempted murder were avoided. Probably because we're all too busy for it. Everyone kept the atmosphere light, despite the amount of work that needed to be done, despite some of us being sick or on the verge of sickness, despite the fact that we barely sleep. And for this, I love my team.

The SMCC. Harassed never looked this good. Photo by Documentation Committee.

The Challenges

1. The food. Dear god, the first day, we barely had anything to eat. Being in the SMC meant that we're either stuck at HQ or moving around too much to have the time to sit down like the rest and have a decent meal. It was good that this was rectified though and we didn't have to starve during the next few days. Anyway, if taste were to be the basis of evaluation, I'd give it four out of five stars. T'was that good. (I did miss tuyo though).

2. Having no time to breath. Of course, I kept getting invites from some of my other advocate friends in other committees - to hang out, drink, maybe go out with a cute boy or two. Unfortunately being a reporter meant that I had to cover events during the conference then write about it after. Instead of being able to hang out with my buddies, I, along with other reporters, had to lock ourselves in the room instead and write. 

3. Headless chicken mode. As reporters, our job was straight-forward. We were to go to our sessions, take pictures, take down notes, live-tweet, and write articles about it. This would have been easy as pie if we had to cover only one or two sessions per day and most of the time this was the situation. Day 3, however, had us all in near-panic, simply because there were so many stuff to cover and write about. Imagine having 3 events to be in at the same time slot. Imagine those events in different locations, in different bloody floors. Imagine having to run from one location to another and asking an usher where Banquet Hall 3 was and being pointed to three different floors. 

The solution would have been simple. I would have escaped headless chicken mode had I been able to do a Kage Bunshin Jutsu to create clones. Unfortunately, there must have been something wrong with my chakra. Oh well. Back to the ninja academy for me.

The Plain-and-Simple Ugly

1. The move to put a TRO on the conference. Ladies and gentlemen we'd prepped for this conference for two bloody years and they only filed the petition - what a week before? But that's cool. More publicity for us. The rationale for the TRO was the three sessions on abortion that the delegates may opt to join. 

They make it sound like we're strapping women and pulling babies out of their uterus, when in fact the conference also tackles STI and HIV/AIDS, Violence Against Women, RELIGION AND SRHR, and many other topics. To proclaim that it is an "Abortion Conference" is intellectual dishonesty. Basa-basa din ng whole program pag may time.

2. The Anti-RH people's methods of argument. Seriously, I have pro-life friends and they make sense. Why don't you? Did I expect anything else from them? No. But I've always had hope they'd try and sound more intelligent and stop sounding like rabid fundamentalists.

3. The fact that we, the Social Media Coverage Committee, who has been in constant communication with the Youth Steering Committee since and before January 2012, was not even mentioned in the Program. That was a pretty nasty blow, to be honest. I actually have a lot to say about this issue, like how a certain person who quit on the SMC team even before the real work started (or he had any contribution to the cause, for that matter) was mentioned in the program whereas the entire committee was omitted as though we did not exist. But what's done is done. Oh well. 

The End

I don't think it ended, really. Sure, the conference is over, but the relationships formed and the things we learned stay with us for much longer. As an advocate, I take the #7APCRSHR experience with me as a challenge as well as an epiphany. It has given me the push to look beyond what know, integrate the knowledge I have gained in future endeavors, and hopefully be a better spokesperson for SRHR. 

If there is one ultimate thing that Apkrasher thought me is that one should never stop learning. Passion can only take us so far, especially of we stand for the rights of others. It is still better to have a wide knowledge of the situation and an even wider network of friends and collaborators.

#8APCRSHR will be held in Myanmar two years from now. Will I try and go there? Yes. Definitely. This is an experience I would love to repeat.




Trivia: I only found out what "Apkrasher" means recently (we say it with more posh, of course). Essentially, we're just doing the old Bob Ong on "APCRSHR". Told you I went through an epiphany.  

#7APCRSHR: Things I'm Looking Forward To

Who ISN'T totally psyched about the 7th Asia Pacific Conference for Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights? I know I am! I have been waiting for this event since January last year, when I attended my first meeting as part of the Youth Steering Committee at Max's in Gateway Mall. I was lucky enough to be recruited to the Social Media Committee. One of the nurses representing the Philippine Society of Sexual and Reproductive Health Nurses, I have been tasked as one of the reporters for the conference, and we will be covering the Youth's activities as well as the main conference. 

Picture from #7APCRSHR

The 7th APCRSHR has a LOT to offer. Not only does it have internationally-renowned speakers from the Asia Pacific, the Youth Steering Committee has something up their sleeves to make sure that SRHR is as fun and as sexy as it should be. I'm sure that, apart from learning about sexual and reproductive health and rights, those who attend the 7th APCRSHR will enjoy all the festivities of the conference.

As a member of the Youth Steering Committee, I am also looking forward to a lot of things. Of course, there are the talks about topics I am very much passionate about: violence against women (especially rape and sexual abuse), HIV/AIDS, and sociological factors affecting the status of SRHR, like religion and private-public collaboration - orgasmic, right? - but there are also the things I'll be experiencing as a volunteer. 

1. Working with young people I can learn from. 

Photo from #7APCRSHR

One of the best things about the advocacy and advocating with young people is the probability of learning from your peers. Having been a part of the SMC committee gives me so much to look forward too, because my week-long bosses have been working as social media influencers for RH and popdev for years. I'm excited to get grilled by them (oh yes, I'm a masochist that way XD). 

2. Sleepless nights.

I'm anticipating that we won't be sleeping much. After all, we have a conference to tweet about, pictures to take, stuff to learn, and a lot articles to write. Sleep won't be a problem because we probably won't be sleeping at all!

That's ok. Sabi nga ni kapatid na Likes, "Puso lang talaga". That's the best investment in advocacy work.

Likes tagged me to this post. How very accurate. :P

3. Living my long lost dream of being a full time writer (even for just a week).

I've always wanted to be a journalist - you know, covering events, writing for it, making money from writing. I've got the "making money from writing" down, but SEO and corporate writing is really quite different from covering a beat you love. Writing about SRHR is a dream come true - especially about the things I care most about: rape survival and prevention, women empowerment, HIV/AIDS. 

4. Learning more about SRHR.

My wonderful ex-boss, LEZ, thought me one thing : that you can't be an effective advocate if you only have heart. To be an effective advocate, you need to know what really happens, what the people really need. You can only do this by knowing as much as you can about what you are advocating for. And what better venue do I have than the APCRSHR?

Interested to find our more? Check out our social media accounts and join the discussion! ^^

• Email: contributions.APCRSHR7 (at) gmail.com
• Facebook: facebook.com/7thAPCRSHR
• Twitter: @7thAPCRSHR
• Blog: http://7thapcrshr.wordpress.com/ 
• Hashtag: #7APCRSHR

Victim Blaming Rant: My Make-up and My Boobs are NOT Your Excuse!

(or Why Victim Blaming is Detrimental to a Progressive Society and is a Stupid Excuse)

I happen to like make-up. Just this year I got three really lovely make-up stuff that I can play with when I'm bored. My sister-in-law finally relented and bought me an E.L.F. Beauty Book. My office mate, Ms. Deby, gave me this lovely gold eye line which I absolutely LOVE. And I got this palette from Beauty UK Cosmetics that one of my favorite beauty guru on Youtube uses. Cool.

I like make-up because it's like painting, except your face is the canvas. I love how you can change the way you look with different colors and textures, using different techniques. It's like creating a mask (which I've loved making since I was a little kid). I like make-up so much, I actually posted a couple of (pretty weak) attempts on make-up tutorials on this blog, one of which is my Effie Trinket-inspired look.

So why am I blabbing about make-up?

Because of this:

That's right. First it was the way we dressed, and now it's what we put on our faces. What next, dermatological treatments? It seems that victim blamers are looking into anything that can focus the spotlight on the ones being raped rather that the ones doing the raping. 

Honestly, I'm not surprised. I have been exposed to extent of ignorance and idiocy of those who blame rape victims. I have heard them justify their premises by several preposterous ways, from quoting the Bible to screwing up Psychology. It's atrocious. 

I had this conversation with a victim blamer last year and it totally blew my mind...in an "I wanna put a revolver against my temple and shoot" kind of way. 

I don't remember how the conversation turned to rape; what struck me was this person's conviction that a rape victim must have done something in order to provoke the attack. 

I asked this person to justify her statement. I asked her to present me with empirical data to back her claims. This mentioned the Bible. This person reasoned that since this is a "book that has been in history for the longest time", it must have something to say about the subject. When asked what the book has to say about blaming rape victims, I was not answered.

Of COURSE I rolled my eyes. 

I gave this person another chance and presented a case which is painfully familiar: a child growing into puberty gets raped by a family member. The victim blamer replied that it must be something done by the victim to entice the rapist into committing the act...even if it's involuntary and innocent, if the act has enticed some asshole to fuck with a girl's life, "the blame should not fall solely on the rapist".

What, we're blaming kids for growing up and getting boobs now?

Dear god.

This story is something I've heard from a lot of people, even my own parents. I swear, my heart breaks (and I freak out) whenever I hear these poor uneducated people talk about rape with uneducated brains.

As an advocate for rape prevention and survival, one of the most important thing that should be understood about rape is this:

The cause of rape is above and beyond the primal need to copulate; it is as much a societal problem as a psychological one. 

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am saying that rapists have problems with what's up there...although I am also assuring you that most of them aren't completely cuckoo and are fit to stand trial. The psychological basis of rape is domination and insecurity. We have both anecdotal evidence and research from international institutions which support this claim. Here is a little something I wrote about the topic.

Why am I so outspoken about blaming rape victims? I have several reasons. The first of which is that I have large boobs. What is a relatively-acceptable neckline to others is completely lewd on me. And I'd really put on clothes without my parents worrying about my mortal soul and my dignity.

Somebody buy me this shirt.

Seriously, victim-blaming has many undesirable consequences. Victim blaming, first and foremost, does not only instil guilt over the ones violated, it creates a mentality which affects both the victim and society in general: that the victim deserved the attack.

 In a victim-blaming society, women are judged for wearing  her skirt too shortly or showing way too much cleavage or wearing a seductive red lip or going out to drink with her friends or having the courage that, yes, damn it, sex feels good . Women are blamed when some arse on the street throw disgusting comments about her boobs, or for when women are not taken seriously because they are vocal about sex (more on this on another post). Women are blamed for provoking rape because of these same behaviors. 

This guilt that a victim feels is detrimental to survival and justice. In 2009 there were about 9,000 reported cases of rape. The operational word, ladies and gentlemen, is reported. This means that the number of rape cases for that year may well exceed this number. Why do you think victims are afraid to tell people -authorities - that they have been violated? Because these things can radically change someone's life. Once you have been violated in the most primal of ways, life is never the same. Survival and a semblance of a normal life beyond the abuse are things that can be achieved only with a strong heart, and at this point in time, even the strongest ones are vulnerable. The judgement an Idiot Society will make, the blame a victim will receive from the members of this idiot society, is a huge blow to the victim's self esteem, and make her question if she is truly a victim or an accomplice to the attack. The what-ifs would haunt her and self forgiveness for something she never had control of would be something very difficult to achieve. Why do you think some rape victims prefer killing the themselves over continuing to live?

"Siguro kung hindi ako uminom, nagmukhang puta, nagsuot ng maikling damit, nag-make-up, hindi ako magagahasa."

Sometimes, victim-blaming is almost as violating as rape itself, although instead of raping someone's vagina, anus, or mouth, victim blamers fuck with a person's integrity, by merely suggesting that the victim is has provoked and thus deserving of the attack. I don't blame victim blamers, although they honestly piss me off. I blame their ignorance of the science and psychology of rape, I blame the idiot conservatism that they have been fed with by those who are equally ignorant of this subject but are placed in positions of power (our elders, our teachers, our law-implementing authority, our government, our religious leaders), and I blame the underlying ideology that men have underdeveloped superego who would rape any woman who displays the smallest bit of sexual action (even something as innocent as developing boobs?).

Victim blaming and its detrimental effects - suicide, low self esteem, post traumatic stress disorder, preferring silence to justice, and giving rapists an excuse to do it - can only be solved by cultural change and empowerment through education.

Let's start with this simple thing:

PRESS RELEASE: Mulat Pinoy-KNN to cover 7th APCRSHR

The 7th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (APCRSHR) will be taking place in the Philippines on January 21-24, 2014 at the Philippine International Convention Center. Mulat Pinoy-Kabataan News Network will be present at the conference as part of its social media coverage committee, producing material from the event's activities for posting in online venues.

The APCRSHR is an international conference that discusses critical issues affecting sexual and reproductive health concerns, particularly in national contexts across the Asia-Pacific region. The conference theme of “Examining achievements, good practices and challenges: towards a strategic positioning of SRHR for all” is in line with Mulat Pinoy-KNN's continuing vision to help expand public awareness regarding issues relevant to young people.

By having its reporters and video teams present during the conference, the conference's social media coverage committee intends to supplement the broader coverage of established media outlets. Photos, articles and video interviews are intended to be among the coverage materials produced and shared online. “Social media is everywhere now,” explains Mulat Pinoy-KNN's editorial coordinator, Dante Gagelonia. “We should always recognize the value of delivering credible information to as many venues as possible, especially online. Since not everyone can physically attend the conference, we want to be able to help disseminate its key points and messages through social networks, in the hopes of reaching more people.”

Mulat Pinoy-Kabataan News Network is a population and development awareness project of the Probe Media Foundation, Incorporated (PMFI). The Mulat Pinoy project was created in 2009 to help deliver research-based information to the public through online engagement and corresponding offline events, and it has since evolved to focus on issues relevant to the youth, eventually combining with Kabataan News Network (KNN), a related project of PMFI. The Probe Media Foundation, in turn, is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of media in the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific region through training of professional and aspiring media practitioners.

Facebook: facebook.com/7thAPCRSHR 

Twitter: @7thAPCRSHR

Blog: http://7thapcrshr.wordpress.com/ 

Hashtag: #7APCRSHR

For more information, please contact:

Regina Layug Rosero, Project Coordinator

regina@mulatpinoy.ph

Janina: I am excited to be part of the Youth Steering Committee's Social Media group and I honestly can't wait for the conference proper to start. As an advocate of sexual and reproductive health and rights, APCSRHR, I believe, is the best way to start 2014. 

See you there advocates! <3

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The Jargon-less Guide to Pancreatic Cancer

We all have our jargons. For us nurses, it's a combination of a mountain of medical terminologies (and, if you're like me and some of my friends, advocacy language). The problems with jargons is that (1) it is usually not understood outside the field it is used in and (2) some idiots think it makes them smarter to use it in regular conversations. 

As an occasional communications teacher, I absolutely abhor people using jargons outside groups that can understand them. For instance, who seriously uses "herewith" and "hereafter" in their Facebook status if his or her Facebook is filled with non-law persons? Ano 'to, pa-cute lang? Useful as it may seem in law jargon and in ye olde prose and poetry, these are archaic terms in conversational English. I'd very much like to kick the habit of using highfalutin words for the sake of impressing our fellow men and women. After all, what are words for if not understood? This is especially true when trying to convey significant information to a group of people with varied backgrounds.

Common expression when people spew jargons just to sound smart

Which brings me to my point: as a health care professional who should be in the forefront of patient education, we nurses must let go of ye language of the clinical area and bring out our talents and getting info out there in creative and UNDERSTANDABLE ways. 

Let's start of with pancreatic cancer.

The pancreas is part of the body responsible for several functions:

1. In contains exocrine glands that produces enzymes which digest fat, proteins, and carbohydrates. To be adequately nourished, the pancreas should be in tip-top shape.

2. It contains endocrine cells which release insulin to the blood stream, thus lowering blood sugar level and allowing the body to use the energy that food gives.

Cancer is a condition in which the cells of the organ multiply. Normally, this is all fine and dandy, but there's one tiny problem: cancer cells are pretty much like vampires (the non-Twilight ones). They are abnormal, very difficult to kill, and they suck the nutrients from normal functioning cells. Which is why you basically get lumps or tumors that have no biological benefits. What's scary about  cancer is that it spreads (the fancy word for this is metastasize) and invades the healthy tissues of the body.

For those with pancreatic cancer,  several symptoms can be observed:

1. Pain in the upper left abdomen

2. Yellowish skin and tea-colored urine. The fancy term for this is jaundice, which is also observable in persons with hepatitis.

Left: Normal skin color (Caucasian). Right: Yellowish skin

3. Lose of appetite, nausea, and vomiting

4. Weight loss and weakness

5. Ash-colored stool and excess fat in the stool

Although the true cause of cancer has yet to be found, there are several ways of reducing the factors that can make you susceptible to it. Experts suggest the following: Since smoking has been thought to be a main factor in 20-30% of pancreatic cancer, quitting the cigs may help lessen the risk factor to the cancer. Also, we can try keeping a healthy weight, exercise, and eating more rabbit food instead of going complete carnivore.

Pancreatic cancer is detectable in so many ways. A patient can undergo ultrasound, CT scan,  MRI, and PET scan. Essentially, all of these would allow the doctor to visualize the pancreas and determine the existence of the tumor. But a tumor may just be a harmless tumor. We call this a benign growth. In order to determine if the tumor is something more nefarious, a patient shall have to undergo a biopsy. In this procedure, a sample tissue from the pancreas shall be taken and studied under a microscope.


Once diagnosed, pancreatic cancer can be managed in several ways.The patient may undergo surgery for the partial or complete removal of the pancreas. He or she may be made to undergo chemotherapy, wherein several drugs will be prescribed and administered in the hopes of killing the cancer cells. The patient may also be treated using radiation.

Pancreatic cancer is curable, but the likelihood of a good prognosis is high only if the cancer is diagnosed early. This is why vigilance about what your body is telling you is very important.

You're probably wondering why I started the year by posting about pancreatic cancer. Why not something closer to home, like a heart problem (which has held my fascination ever since Elizabeth Gregori discussed it with ease and expertise), or diabetes (which half of my clan has, including my mother), or asthma (which I have), or HIV/AIDS (which is an infection worthy of admiration and an infection which has been one of the centers of my life as an SRHR advocate), or stroke (which has recently affected one of my friends). Why not renal failure, which took the life of my great aunt on the 29th of December. I will most probably write about those as well, but you see, I'm running against time here.

One of my friends is doing a donation drive for his aunt, who has pancreatic cancer. It's not even a donation drive, really. My friend's name is Jeth Gaston, and he has this awesome (and rather sexy) talent of designing shirts. He's selling some of these babies to help raise funds for his aunt's treatment. He's selling the shirt for PHP250.00. I can promise you that the quality is up there, ladies and gentlemen. This is no cheap statement shirt, but it is by all means the perfect one if you have a loved one who is fighting the disease, either as the one with cancer or a significant other.

The word play is cool as it is true: I Can Fight Cancer, in the color of pancreatic cancer awareness. 

What Jeth wrote in this shirt is right: Cancer can be fought.

We just have to do so together.


If you want your own FIGHT CANCER shirt, check out Jeth Gaston's Facebook profile here.

Let's start 2014 right, everyone.