LoveYourself Welcomes 2nd Batch of Volunteers for 2016, "Magayon"

Last June 11, LoveYourself once again welcomed a new set of volunteers, collectively known as Batch Magayon. This new set of volunteers corresponds to LoveYourself’s second wave of recruited volunteers for 2016.

The batch name “magayon” comes from the Bicolano word “beautiful”. LoveYourself hopes that this batch of volunteers will allow beauty to radiate from within themselves and touch the lives of people they will encounter in the organization’s advocacy of HIV awareness and self-worth.

Batch Magayon volunteers will receive training to become counselors in LoveYourself’s two HIV testing clinics - the LoveYourself Uni in Pasay and LoveYourself Anglo in Mandaluyong. Batch Magayon volunteers will also have the opportunity to move further with the option of undertaking life coaching training as part of LoveYourself’s latest program, the NEX+ CHAP+ER program, a life coaching service for PLHIV’s (People Living With HIV).

Behind the Logo

The sinarapan is used as an icon for Batch Magayon. LoveYourself Creatives lead Geno Maglinao connects the diminutive sinarapan, endemic to Bicol and also the world’s smallest edible fish, with beauty. This association conveys the importance of looking beyond traditional perceptions of the beautiful to beauty from within, hearkening to Miss Universe 2016 Pia Wurtzbach’s words, “confidently beautiful with a heart”.

The choice of Philippine endemic species for batch logos is in line with LoveYourself Creatives’ plans for 2016. The first batch for 2016, Kinaadman, utilized the Philippine Eagle Owl, a species prevalent in the Visayas region. Similarly, the choice of virtues and traits expressed in various Filipino dialects as names for batches of new recruits was started this 2016.

Recruiting Magayon

Similar with past recruitments, Magayon recruits underwent a careful review process whereby the candidates’ capacity to perform in and contribute to the organization are evaluated. LoveYourself Recruitment Team Lead Pete Tan shares that as LoveYourself is expanding with the creation of more internal committees in response to its growing number of services, such as the NEX+ CHAPTER program, among others being planned to be launched soon, the considerations for evaluating candidates also correspondingly increased.

With 50 volunteers, Magayon bears the same trend in the increased number of recruits seen in Kinaadman earlier this year. LoveYourself’s stronger social media presence,the success of its mass testing events including this year’s Incognito and exciting fundraisers such as Cherry Poppin’ have all been a big help in attracting people to join the organization.