On November 22, 2024, six selected MSGSB officers along with four selected Araling Panlipunan club members went to Adamson University’s Basic Education Department in Ermita, Manila to attend a seminar about disaster management and capacity building. We arrived early in Manresa before sunrise to catch the van to Adamson, which got there with no complications of traffic.

We were enlightened by the practical seminar hosted by Mrs. Joanne Saldana Quintos, a renowned survival and disaster management expert and PE teacher at Adamson. Her speech was engaging and helped us understand how to be a capacity in a world of vulnerabilities. Among other things, we learned about the difference between hazard, vulnerability, and capacity, and how these all played out in the Disaster Risk Formula, which can show if a place is low, medium, or high risk, as well as early warning systems and capacitating others and our families by teaching them the emergency preparedness skills we have.

                                                                                                                                                                                                          We also had an activity in which we were divided into groups and went to different buildings of the school to identify their hazards, vulnerabilities, and capacities. We then presented them to the rest of the group by making a map of them on manila paper.

After the seminar, we had a lunch break in which we were allowed to explore the school, then a tour into Adamson University’s museum where we learned about the school’s history and its founder, George Lucas Adamson.

We bonded with the Adamsonian students and had a good time learning and talking together, especially about such a pressing, universal, and practical topic.

We hope that next time, they may be able to visit us next.

Article by: Jacob A. Perez, Grade 10-Hopefulness