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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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