Founded in 2013, Humanist Alliance Philippines, International (HAPI) is an Associate of Humanists International since 2015. Thanks to its capillary grassroots approach, HAPI has now eight active chapters all around the country. Building on the success achieved in the past years, with this project HAPI aims to organize a series of webinars and live meetings to connect young humanists and train the next generation of humanist advocates in the Philippines.
Humanist Alliance Philippines, International (HAPI) is a not-for-profit community of progressive secular humanists from all over the world, united with common goals for the greater good of humanity. HAPI works on an international basis but with primary focus in the Philippines as the beneficiary of its services, with a vision of a happy world lifted from ignorance, chaos, and poverty in general. HAPI is a democratic organization with members from different social sectors aiming to defend each individual’s right to personal and collective freedom, equal treatment and opportunity, safe and healthy living, and a world free from violence and division.
In 2021, with a small support from Humanists International, HAPI launched a series of “Humanist Pantries” to support the local community struggling to provide food for their families during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Derived from the word ‘bloc’ which means “a union of people or groups of different origin forming a unit to forward a common cause”, the project “Building Blocs” aims to create diverse connections between young Filipinos to further the value and advocacy of humanism. Further, this program will also hone leaders to continue the legacy in the coming years.
This project is the future’s springboard in training leaders that advocates mainly humanism, leadership, environmentalism, and the value of volunteerism where the heart is the most essential reason to serve others who are in need. HAPI has a network that aims to empower the voices of young people and maximize their full potential through rational thinking— HAPI Youth. They will be the main host for this project and conduct webinars on the aforementioned humanist advocacy.
A Café Humaniste organized by HAPI’s Dumaguete Chapter in 2019 at the Silliman University on the philosophical concept of Tao.
HAPI aims to reach out to the youth all over the country, and for this reason the seminars will be done through an online platform where they can exchange ideas and collaborate. All reading materials will be in electronic form for the participants to be able to conveniently carry them and reiterate them to those who would like to know more about HAPI Youth in the future.
The content of the instructional materials shall consist of vital information about the purpose of humanism and leadership when it comes to the sustainability of one’s advocacy work. This shall be published in the English, one of the official languages of the Philippines, and will contain infographics about HAPI’s work and mission.
The webinars are divided into two meetings with collaborative activities testing critical thinking and individual knowledge of the participants. On the second day, each group will choose a community in their region where they can reach out to provide kits and goods as a form of advocacy work and execution of what they have learned during the two-day activity.
Since participants will be grouped according to the region where they belong, they will be able to choose one community per region and start the preparation of the outreach which will be a four-week duration. They may coordinate with the local authorities in the area to commence with the project. The preparations per week shall be:
Week 1 – Coordinating with the Community
Week 2 – Canvassing of items to provide for the community
Week 3 – Purchasing the items and confirming the attendance of participants
Week 4 – Finalization of the activity
Since HAPI’s founding, the organization has valued advocacy and has done activities similar to this, but Building Blocs applies an approach to the youth and involves their collaborative thinking to accomplish not only informational activities but also those that reach out to communities that most need them.
