SULU (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 26, 2013) – Young volunteers called “Kusug Batah Sug” (Youth as Strengths of Sulu) boldly showed the richness and beauty of Sulu’s scenic and historic spots, pristine white beaches, stunning flowers, exotic fruits, exquisite animals to name a few as they initiated the first-ever Sulu photo workshop entitled “Photogra-Peace” with Mon Corpuz, of the Black Pencil Project.
The screened pictures held at Notre Dame of Jolo College Review Center and Jolo Area Coordinating Center were displayed during the workshop and served as reminders that Sulu is indeed a land of promise, promise of simple living, beautiful scenery and a town to live in.
The workshop kicked off with preliminaries followed by messages from Col. Romulo Quemado, of the Marine Battalion Landing Team 2, who was also one of the organizers of the Photograpeace, who stressed the importance of youth’s participation in promoting tourism and the beautiful province of Sulu through the power of lenses.
Norjaidir Majid, Kusug Batah Sug President, expressed his words of encouragement to the participants, a total of 130 youths from different schools and photo aficionados from the 19 municipalities of Sulu.
They all finished the basic photography workshop with Corpuz highlighting the use of Digital Sensor Lens Reflex camera, point and shoot and cellphone cameras as well which all created beautiful and lasting images of Sulu.
Jolo Mayor Hussin Amin also joined the workshop and keenly listened and observed the lectures of Corpuz. Amin is one of those active in promoting Sulu as a peaceful place.
A hands-on exposure to the different places in Sulu was done to see how the participants responded to the inputs given. After hours of shooting, their masterpieces were displayed in power point presentation.
The Photogra-peace contest is now trending on Facebook with 3 photos garnering with the most “liked” wins prizes from Canon Philippines which was also one of the sponsors.
Photograpeace was made possible through the efforts of Kusug Batah Sug, MBLT-2, Jolo Municipal Government, The Asia Foundation, Talipao Municipal Government, Black Pencil Foundation, Community Relations Training, Lifeline Foundation, Notre Dame of Jolo College, Sulu Provincial Police Office, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, Joint Sulu Operations Task Force and humble individuals who contributed to the success of the said initiative.
“It is with the belief that by inspiring the youth to pick up their cameras and harness the power of social media so they can fully express their views on various societal issues afflicting Sulu to a broader audience is just but one of the measures to promote true and lasting peace in the region,” Corpuz said. (Nash Usman Abduhadi)
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