Submitted by: Group 2 - Fantastic 9

LCLSTWO Y03

BUILDING BRIDGES:
Bridging people, communities, and the great gender divide

1. Context of the Problem

a. Background
Gender inequality is a global issue in which hurtful and biased treatment occurs
depending on one’s sex or gender in social, political, cultural, and economic
areas. It has not only limited affected minorities’ access to basic human rights
and opportunities, but has also built barriers that impede positive development
and community growth. Gender inequality stems from patriarchal beliefs that
define the male species as the superior sex, which has created a dangerous
system where men have overall authority and power in all aspects of society and
institutions. As a result, women and the LGBTQIA+ community face different
forms of abuse and discrimination fueled by misogyny, homophobia, and sexism.

In hindsight, there have been advancements in achieving gender equality – from

the women’s liberation movement to the legalization of same-sex marriage in
select countries. However, the issue still persists in the solitude of our homes,
workplaces, justice systems, governments, and many other social arenas.
Without us realizing the repercussions, society at large has made detrimental
impacts to these people’s physical health and mental wellbeing. As such, our
group has recognized the plight faced by women and the LGBTQIA+ in the
Philippines, and we desire to aim our efforts towards making a safe space for
them in our community.

b. Lasallian Virtues
In the context of Zeal for service, we as human beings tend to identify our own
necessities and needs before another person’s. However, it is crucial to impose
our motivation to transition ourselves by being available servants for those
experiencing the corruption of society to form a sense of urgency. We may be
able to utilize this through mitigating the issues in gender inequality and reviving
the rights of LGBTQIA+ individuals, where collective action, commitment, and
initiative are the first steps in adjusting the progress in regulations, laws, and
institutional interventions that affect gender inequality.

Through Prudence, we would be able to examine our parts in fabricating

practical influence and solutions to damaging behaviors. This is to encourage a
better awareness and sensitivity to the different values, leadership positions, and
competencies of people regardless of gender and identity, in order to facilitate
equitable participation in political and socio-economic pursuits, as well as to
 explore gendered attitudes that hinder future development in the workplace and
in personal interactions.

2. Objectives
With issues of gender inequality in mind, the group aims to create Building Bridges, an
online environment designed to foster empathy and raise awareness about the realities
lived by women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community in the Philippines. Building
Bridges will serve as a digital center with the following main features:

● Social media site

The primary goal of Building Bridges is to create a safe social space for women
and LGBTQIA+ members to connect, interact, and share their experiences with
gender inequality, as well as how they participate in gender equality-promoting
activities. Advocates and existing organizations pushing for gender equality may
also use Building Bridges as a tool to invite supporters to their activities and/or
find other individuals or groups with similar advocacies to collaborate with.

● Library of resources
Another purpose of Building Bridges is to provide a free and easily-accessible
repository of credible resources related to the topic of gender inequality. To
gather sources, the online platform could partner with researchers and
organizations who have studies on such matters and feature their work in the
Building Bridges library. This is purposed to better equip people with resources
that would educate and deepen their understanding of gender equality.

● Services
As mentioned earlier, organizations and advocates may use the social media
feature of Building Bridges to promote their own projects. To further assist them,
the Building Bridges team would also be offering free planning and marketing
services so they may place more focus and effort into implementation. These
services would also make collaboration between individuals and organizations
easier with Building Bridges as their middleman.

● Donation Page
Lastly, Building Bridges seeks to create a simple, easy, and convenient way to
donate to various gender-related advocacy groups and organizations. Here,
Building Bridges and the involved beneficiaries will practice transparency by
informing donors about how and where their monetary and/or non-monetary
donations were used by posting updates and publishing project documentation.

The website’s purpose is to, as the name suggests, build bridges and forge
connections between all members of society. To achieve equality, the group
believes that each must have a platform upon which their voices can be heard,
 and Building Bridges will be exactly that for women and the LGBTQIA+
community.

Phase I: Website

In Phase 1, the group will create a website which will contain information regarding its
mission, work, and advocacy. The struggles of women and the LGBTQIA+ will be
highlighted as well as their experiences to further raise awareness on why gender
inequality must be addressed. The group aims to make the website as user friendly as
possible to ensure that those who will navigate the page won’t have a hard time seeing
all the necessary information.

Within the website, there will be a menu tab which will have headers to make it easier for
users to navigate and select which details they would want to see. For example, an
“About Us” tab for them to get to know the background of the Building Bridges advocacy.
A “Feature” tab where the team responsible for handling and maintaining the website
can also publish content featuring, as inspired by the “Humans of New York” photoblog
series by Brandon Stanton, stories about women or LGBTQIA+ members that
experienced systemic sexism and internalized homophobia which can shed more light
on how this issue is really evident in real life. Moreover, the website can also have a
“Program” page in which the events and initiatives of partner organizations can be seen
if ever the viewers want to engage in events that would cater to the needs of those who
experience gender inequality.

This will be the main platform of the project to increase awareness and to broaden our
grasp of the reality that this inequality must be tackled.

Phase II: Partnership and Collaboration

This phase, being the most crucial part in the plan’s implementation, focuses on
reaching out to various organizations whose advocacies are aligned with the group’s
mission and goals. After research and evaluation, the group has decided to collaborate
and partner, if agreed upon between both parties, with a current number of 4
organizations. The names of the organizations are as follows: Gender Equality Resource
Center (GERC), COLORS Inc., GALANG Philippines, Inc., and GABRIELA.

● Gender Equality Resource Center (GERC)

○ A non-governmental organization established in 2013 with aims of
promoting gender equality for development through cooperatives. A vision
that they have is to enable social and economic upliftment of co-op
members in the community, which is one of Building Bridges’ goals. Some
of their programs focus on promoting gender mainstreaming, enterprise
development and management, and organizational development.
 Moreover, they also supplement various training seminars that are
centered around improving the gender sensitivity of NGOs, government
agencies, LGUs, and other agencies.

○ To discuss Building Bridges’ plan to coordinate and partner with GERC,

we firstly recall what the organization has done. With GERC’s numerous
programs in the forms of Empowering Women Entrepreneurs in Co-ops
(EWEC), Study-Visit to Co-op Business Development Centers (CBDC)
and Planning, Empowering Women Entrepreneurs in Co-ops (EWEC),
Building Bridges aims to increase the popularity of GERC by featuring
their past events in the group’s social media sites. This opportunity allows
them to raise awareness regarding their organization, and how it can
benefit the community. Moreover, by allowing GERC to utilize Building
Bridges’ donation page, additional barriers that were set by financial
restrictions would then be alleviated, allowing more opportunities for
programs and seminars. As such, these programs and seminars would
then be volunteered by members of Building Bridges.

○ Contact person: Ms. Wilma A. Ganibe

○ Cellphone numbers: +639186354943, +639355492471
○ Email address: info@gerc.ph

● COLORS Inc.
○ A non-stock, non-profit, and non-political organization whose goals are to
advance the development of the Transgender sector, while
correspondingly advocating for equality amongst Lesbians, Gays,
Bisexuals, Transpeople, and other parts of the LGBTQIA+ community.

○ Coordinating and partnering with COLORS Inc. begins by supporting

some key functions of the organization. With their previous passing of an
anti-discrimination ordinance, Building Bridges can offer their manpower
to further strengthen the ordinance through efforts in research and data
gathering. As such, the group will also offer their social media presence to
the organization in order to have more reach. With their previous project
called as FEMINA TRANS which was created to provide Trans-specific
health services, having a renowned and distinguishable social media
presence would allow COLORS Inc. to reach more people who are in
need of such services.

○ Email address: colorful.colors@gmail.com

● GALANG Philippines, Inc.

○ A non-governmental organization established to empower LGBTQIA+
individuals that would help progress social and economic equity made
 through their continuous efforts towards initiating organizations with
characteristics of being lesbian-led, feminist, and proper attention to
human rights. A mission of theirs is to promote awareness regarding the
intersections of sexual identity, social inequality, and be a catalyst in
advancing techonology that is accessible to urban people within the
LGBTQIA+ community. GALANG Philippines Inc. has had notable
success in terms of their produced programs, evident through their
Educate, Liberate, and Celebrate! Pride March, their MOU Signing with
TESDA-WC for Inclusive Trainings, to their Advancing Sexual and
Reproductive Health & Rights with ARROW.

○ Building Bridges aims to be additional support to their continuous

successful efforts, and once again offer their social media sites. The to-be
produced website of the group would then become another tool to allow
the masses to be more informed regarding organizations with goals that
revolve around the well-being of individuals. Further, with GALANG
Philippines Inc.’s success in their finished projects, their resources would
become vital information towards Building Bridges’ library resources.
These contributions would allow the public to be much more informed and
aware regarding issues surrounding gender equality.

○ Telephone number: +6324354103

○ Cellphone number: +639272933731
○ Email address: galangphilippines@gmail.com

● GABRIELA
○ A grassroots-based national alliance of Filipino women that can be
located throughout Southeast Asia, having more than 200 organizations
and institutions located within the Philippines. Their focus lies within
Filipino women located within marginalized sectors, and their aim is to
provide them with proper education and allow them to fulfill a sense of
belonging through collective means to attain basic rights. Furthermore,
they also provide direct services to these women through counseling,
medical missions, relief and rehabilitation, and capacity building in terms
of women’s health and women’s rights.

○ With GABRIELA’s current goal of establishing a collective movement to

end rape and sexual violence against women, Building Bridges can offer
their social media presence to further promote said movement. With the
compelling issue still being rampant through parts of the world, every
contribution towards raising awareness matters. Subsequently, their
resources would then be also added to the group’s library of resources to
initiate and raise the importance and severity of this issue.
 ○ Email address: gabriela.international@gmail.com,
gabwomen@yahoo.com
○ FB page: GABRIELA: A National Alliance of Women

Phase III: Social events for women and LGBTQIA+

We would also like to organize a social event where women and members of the
LGBTQIA+ community can interact, learn, and make connections with one another. Our
proposed idea for this is Better Together, a bi-annual 2-day celebration held once
during Women’s Month (March) and once more during Pride Month (June), recognizing
the impact of female and LGBTQIA+ figures in society, forging friendships and
camaraderie between the two groups, as well as educating them on how to be better
allies to each other’s causes.

People of any gender and sexual orientation – friends, allies, and family – are welcome
to participate. We actually encourage the more, the merrier, as we hope this to be a
teaching event as well as a recreational one. Better together honors the struggle,
triumphs, and diversity of all involved groups. Increased social acceptance would help
fight against abuse, corruption, and discrimination, and so we further emphasize the
importance of showing mass support at gatherings such as this.

We hope to explore different themes and inspirations for each year that the event is held,
but for our inaugural outing, we decided on the theme of “Living Life in Color.” A
sample of the event program is as follows:

Day 1 6:00 am - 8:00 am

Color fun run (with proceeds going to

partner NGO’s)

8:30 am - 9:15 am

Breakfast featuring female and

LGBTQIA+ owned restaurants

9:30 am - 10:00 am

Opening message with featured speaker

10:00 am - 11:00 am

Keynote presentation

11:15 am - onwards
 Ribbon-cutting for bazaar featuring female
and LGBTQIA+ owned local businesses

11:45 am - 12:30 pm

Lunch and learn (catered lunch while

invited guest speakers present their topic)

12:45 pm - 2:45 pm

Film screening (preferably a local indie

film from the recent “Pista ng Pelikulang
Pilipino” or “Cinemalaya” with themes
relevant to the event)

3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Trivia time (attendees will be split into

groups and compete in a trivia challenge
featuring various topics – women’s and
LGBTIA+ history, entertainment, pop
culture, etc. with exciting prizes and
giveaways)

Day 2 9:00 am - onwards

Opening of bazaar featuring female and

LGBTQIA+ owned local businesses

9:00 am - 10:00 am

Panel discussion on women and

LGBTQIA+ rights

10:00 am - 11:30 am

Barkada Brunch (catered brunch featuring

female and LGBTQIA+ owned
restaurants, with an accompanying
stand-up show from local comics)

11:45 am - 12:30 pm

Preparation for drag show (for competing

participants)

Presentation from partner orgs (to

encourage volunteer work and introduce
their NGO’s)
 12:35 pm - 2:05 pm

The Category is Colorful Queens: Drag

Race Competition (with guest judges and
special prizes)

2:10 pm - 2:45 pm

Poetry reading / spoken word poetry from

featured female writers

2:45 - 3:15 pm

Merienda break (guests are free to

explore food booths in the bazaar)

3:15 - 4:00 pm

Mini concert from featured featured

female and LGBTQIA+ artists

3. Specific Characteristics

a. Capacitating
Building Bridges is a project that aims to support the female and LGBTQIA+
communities in the battle against gender inequality. Through the use of social
media, Building Bridges would provide opportunities and raise awareness
through the accessible information found in our online pages. A social safe space
will be created for users to interact with one another. Additionally, a photoblog
series where stories of victims would be shown to inform those who are unaware.

Supplying users with a library of credible resources will further equip them with
knowledge that would not only deepen their understanding of the issue, but
would also help them be more effective in communicating with others about
gender inequality, in sharing one’s advocacies to others, and in participating in
formal conversations and efforts to address the issue.

Aside from enabling them to place further focus and resources on implementing
their projects, offering planning and marketing services to these organizations will
assist and, thus, make it easier for them to carry out projects efficiently, as well
as reach more people who are interested in being a part of such efforts to
support women and the LGBTQIA+ community. Furthermore, having a
convenient and easy-to-navigate donation page gives people the opportunity to
directly aid organizations and advocacy groups.
 These actions are all aligned with the goal of bridging the gap between genders
as well as capacitating individuals and organizations in contributing to gender
equality-promoting efforts.

b. Life Affirming
The goals and actions of Building Bridges give hope to the victims of gender
inequality and prevent these problems from happening again. This project allows
women and LGBTQIA+ members to actively participate in raising awareness and
increasing others’ empathy. Informing others is not the only goal of Building
Bridges but the collective effort of the users volunteering to help one another
solve this issue.

c. Mutually Empowering
Building Bridges aims to create an outlet and safe space for women and
members of the LGBTQIA+ through social events and collaborations with other
related organizations. These projects will create an avenue that can connect and
bring together members of these communities and volunteers to celebrate,
support, and empower each other.

d. Context Sensitive
The planned activities and projects of Building Bridges are aligned with the goal
of the project and the Lasallian virtues. The project is also timely and appropriate
for the target audience, being friends, families, allies, as well as the women and
LGBTQIA+ members themselves.