DAVAO CITY—A total of 4,358 youth coming from the different local governments in Davao Region alongside delegation from nearby regions in Mindanao attended the Youth Environment Summit held on April 20 Easter Sunday at the Holy Cross of Davao City Gymnasium.
The YES is organized by the non-government organization Davao City Youth for Green Environment and the Davao City Youth Development Office.
“The main objective of this summit is to put our young people, our young leaders at the forefront of disaster risk reduction management,” Emnanuel Crismas, operations head of the Davao City Youth Development Office said.
The Youth Environment Summit carries the theme “Our Power, Our Planet: Youth at the Forefront of Disaster Risk Reduction and Management.”
“The summit aims to recognize, amplify our youth as proactive leaders and innovates, also critical decision makers particularly in disaster preparedness and resiliency,” Crismas said.
According to the city youth official another objective of the summit is to facilitate actionable solutions exchange to create a dynamic platform for youth to share, integrate, adopt and share solutions for community resilience.
Crismas says the summit wants to push to its participants the emphasis on DRRM in their respective cities, municipalities and barangays. This means prioritizing programs, projects and activities related to DRRM, environment and climate change.
There were 173 participants from Davao de Oro, 426 youth participants from Davao Oriental, 282 from Davao Occidental, 811 from Davao del Norte, 134 from Davao del Sur, 573 from Davao City. The rest came from different regions outside Davao.
Meanwhile, Office of the Civil Defense Davao Regional Director Ednar Dayanghirang who delivered a speech at the summit exhorted the youth to be active in DRRM programs and activities in their respective localities.
“Since it is an inter-generational issue you have to act. Kinihanglan na mag-apil-apil na mo (it is necessary that you must participate) not for yourselves but for the next generations to come,” Dayanghirang said. (PIA/RGA)
