YSEALI SEA Camp – Philippines 2017 Applications now open!
Manila, Philippines—Are you a true-blue Filipino seatizen capable of making a positive environmental impact? Save Philippine Seas (SPS), in partnership with the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines, is pleased to announce the call for applications for the 2017 Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Sea and Earth Advocates (SEA) Camp in Subic!
The YSEALI SEA Camp-Philippines is seeking civic-minded, environmentally-passionate Filipino youth leaders to create and implement solutions that address environmental issues threatening the coastal and marine resources of the Philippines. The program will bring together 25 youth leaders from all over the Philippines, ages 18-23, from January 23 to 30, 2017. All expenses (e.g., transportation, accommodations, materials) will be covered by the project.
The YSEALI SEA Camp is a U.S. Embassy initiative to promote ocean conservation, a priority of the U.S. government. During the 2016 Our Ocean Conference held in Washington D.C., Secretary of State John Kerry said, “[The ocean] is essential to all life on Earth. It is responsible for almost 50 percent of the oxygen that we breathe, for the food that we eat, for the climate in which we live, for the employment of hundreds of millions of people around the planet… Today the ocean is also the economic lifeblood of communities big and small on every single corner of the world, employing roughly 12 percent of the world’s population.”
“The U.S. Embassy is proud to sponsor the SEA Camp project,” said Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer, Ryan Bradeen. “The SEA Camp program exemplifies the goals U.S. President Barack Obama set out when he established YSEALI in 2013 – to empower young leaders to work together to develop innovative solutions to challenges they see in their own communities. Since 2015, more than 125 young Filipino leaders have joined seven previous SEA Camps around the Philippines and returned to their hometowns better informed about the environmental issues the region faces, better equipped to lead, and empowered to pursue creative ways to tackle problems in their own communities.”
The time for talk is over
“The SEA Camp is not your average leadership training program or youth conference—we don’t just talk; we act on issues,” shared Anna Oposa, Co-Founder of SPS and SEA Camp Project Director. “Similar to the 2016 SEA Camp in Boracay last June, participants will work with mentors and groupmates online and offline to implement environmental projects in Subic during the SEA Camp.”
In the application form, aspiring SEA Campers must choose one of the four on-site projects to join: Arts, Ati, and Atolls; Junior Seatizens; Waste Reduction (HUGOTS, Straw Wars, and Zero Sachet PH); or Project SEAyasat. They may also suggest a new project or improvements to past SEA Camp projects.
At the end of SEA Camp, participants will also pitch project ideas to protect marine resources in their home communities. The top ideas will receive mini-grants to support project implementation. Grant winners will attend a culminating ASEAN SEA Camp in Palawan in March 2017.
Apply now!
All YSEALI SEA Camp – Philippines applicants must be 18-23 years old during the SEA Camp, be a member of YSEALI, and be a Filipino citizen residing in the Philippines.
They can apply using the online SEA Camp application form. Forms cannot be edited once submitted. SPS strongly recommends reading and answering the Word version of the application form before filling in the online form. View and download the form here.
For full details on eligibility and application requirements, please visit the SEA Camp 2017 page and the FAQs. Questions and issues addressed in the FAQs will not be answered via email or social media channels.
Deadline for applications is 11:59PM on October 28, 2016. Late submissions will not be accepted.
