OFW is first UN Citizen Ambassador
NEW YORK City – Twenty-three year old Jonathan Eric Defante's 30-second-pitch on Youtube, his entry to the 2011 Citizen Ambassador's Video Contest, earned him one of the three spots to become the first Filipino Honorary United Nation's Citizen Ambassador.
Honored as best in concept, originality and execution, Defante's "One Bottle, One Life" pitch to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is about using plastic bottles to build model communities around the world.
On his Youtube pitch, Defante said, "So let's create a model community in every Nation, made of used plastic bottles or eco-bricks, built by the people themselves, and are sustained by livelihood from plastic recycled bottles. The communities can be organized into cooperatives to sustain their livelihood for the years to come, changing lives, one bottle at a time."
Defante's entry bested 600 other Youtube entries from 50 countries around the world.
Defante said, "I was like literally jumping (for joy), kasi hindi ko talaga siya in-expect. Kasi after I submitted the video, marami nang pumasok, yung iba talaga may professional editing pa, kasi ako I just used iMovie 11, lahat hiniram ko lang, pati flipcam."
Defante, an OFW working at a Virgin Megastore in Dubai, in the Middle East, together with two other video contest winners from Sudan and Guatemala received round trip tickets to New York and met with the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in person privately last Friday.
“Sinabi niya na “Jonathan, I'm impressed with your idea to build communities in each member State. So, I, myself, as an environmentalist, I would like you to continue this work of yours.” So sana daw hindi lang mag-serve yun as an idea, maging reality daw yun," he said.
The UN Secretary General's inspiring words encouraged Defante to do even more.
"Parang now, I want to do more, to be more involved in humanitarian activities especially sa mga Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), like My Shelter Foundation, saka sa Hug-It Forward in Guatemala," said Defante.
The UN video contest was made in observance of the World Humanitarian Day. Defante encouraged Filipino youths from all over the world to do more humanitarian work, even without getting a prize for doing so.
“Sa mga kabataan especially, this is the best time to express any idea that would benefit mankind kasi we have tools for it, di katulad dati, ngayon we have social networking, we have Youtube, Facebook, etc." he said.
Defante will hold the honorary title as UN Citizen Ambassador for two years but it may be extended by the United Nations if he continues his humanitarian work.
No comments:
Post a Comment