School: Saint Louis Laboratory High School
    Baguio City, Benguet, Philippines

4 students, ages 15 worked together to complete this Doors to Diplomacy project on March 15, 2012. They have participated in Doors to Diplomacy in the following year(s): 2011

Classes and Teachers: Florida Martin, Vincent Tabor, King, Jessica, Maridel, Ciara

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.slu.edu.ph

1. Description of Our Team

Our team is composed of King, a 15 year old boy, who is competent, kind, naughty but a very understanding person; Ciara, a 15 year old girl, who is naughty but is a person with great generosity and cheerfulness; Aica, 15 years old, a girl who is kind, helpful, reliable and most importantly, a very responsible person; Maridel, a 15 year old girl, who is intelligent, kind, cheerful and a very helpful person especially when you need her the most. We worked as a team because we have a lot of things in common. We are also the team who enjoys things a lot and the people who can be termed as “happy-go-luckies” that’s why we are very comfortable with our teammates. Most importantly, we understand each other; we know the weaknesses and the strengths of each member. Our job is purely cooperation and was divided carefully. King and Ciara would be in-charge of the videos, and pictures. Aica would be in-charge of the technical aspect which covers the htmls, web pages, urls, and the overall appearance of our website. While, Maridel would be in-charge of the contents and the final editing of the words, paragraphs, and phrases that would be seen in our website. Lastly, our subject teacher, Ms. Florida Martin would supervise, help and give us comments and suggestions to make our project.

2. Summary of Our Project

How is their life in their streets? Are the streets safe for them to live in? Can they be able to overcome all problems? These are practically the questions that we have in mind when we here stories about the beggars. This project aims to answer all this questions and to help stop the urging and increasing rate of beggars up until this moment.

Our project aims to serve as an avenue to help the citizens of Baguio realize that we have a big problem at hand. We have increasing rate of beggars in the streets and until today, it is still continuing to increase. Our project also entails the true condition of all the beggars in which, we aim that every citizen would respect them as persons too. We also aim that by this project, we won’t see any beggar being discriminated, being pushed away or being rejected. This is important because by this project we would promote EQUALITY between and among the citizens of Baguio. We foresee that one day; we would learn to accept every beggar in our city.

We know that we all want to see a change in Baguio. We want that when we walk along the streets, we won’t see any beggar begging for food, money or any material and they are just pushed away or rejected by anyone. We want to see clean and orderly streets so that more tourists would love to come here. With these aim, we want to start the move to change and see a better Baguio.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 6

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:2-3

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

First of all, we had a problem regarding the beggars because either they are afraid or ashamed to be taken pictures or to be interviewed. We also have limited time making our researches and interviews and lastly, we had a problem on the pictures because they are difficult to arrange and we have to deal with accidents such as the corruption of the pictures in our saving devices. As solutions to these problems, we assured the beggars that every single answer that they say is kept confidential, their pictures would be respected fully and so they agreed for us to take the pictures and be able to interview them. With the limited time that we have, we did our best to do multi-tasking to be able to meet the demands to produce our researches. Lastly, even if our files, pictures and videos are corrupted, we took effort to start all over again and to have better sets of them.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

“Anything is possible with a heart that aims and with a mind that dreams” Our project helped us a lot especially on our social aspect because we learned how to interact with people we ignored before. It also made us realize that we, students are very lucky. We made this website to give the same benefits to other people and let them see the reality on what is really happening on our present world.

6. How did your activities and research for this Doors to Diplomacy Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

Our project fits our school’s guidelines which are to be a Christian Worker and to be Socially Involved. We made this project for we all know that teenagers know how to use the internet and we want to use this to inform them and to spread our aim. We learned how to become cooperative and dependable after making this project and we discovered our hidden talents.

Our role in our school is to be models and inspiration to others and we would like to lessen the suffering or to let our dear friends know that they are not alone in the battle of life.

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your Doors to Diplomacy project?

We used digital cameras in taking our pictures and in recording our interviews. We also used paper and writing materials to write our researches and we used the computer to organize everything and to make all things possible, we used the internet.

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your Doors to Diplomacy project both on-line and in person.

We acted as speakers/ambassadors by interviewing beggars, and some people who is concerned with the conditions of the beggars and other people who can help us finish our project and for our friends that can help, we chat with them on-line.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

This project’s impact to the community is that, it serves as a role model that promotes goodwill and equality. Also, it served as an “eye-opener” to us, the citizens because we saw what the problem is all about. We also established new working relationship with the people in our community basically because before, we don’t talk to the beggars, neither to bother to confront them. But through this project, we learned that nothing is really scary about them, they don’t hurt people. They are just needed to be understood and to be given opportunity to be understood by the people of our society. We can still have a solution and that if we unite together, we can change everything and we can alleviate their suffering.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

We asked help from our very competent, understanding and professional teacher Ms. Florida Martin who gave us advices regarding our project. We also asked help from our parents who continued to help and support us. And lastly, we give our warmest gratitude to the workers and volunteers from DSWD of Baguio City. We gave our time to create websites, articles, and to make a successful output. We also thank our teachers, who gave us a chance to join the International Cyberfair Competetion.