The organization also challenged the youth and barangay leaders to champion health, education, gender equality, and child protection.
On Tuesday, August 11, an estimated 1,000 youth leaders joined to mark the Sirak Kabataan movement’s 5th anniversary, with Department of Education Secretary Sonny Angara also being present during the activity.
The gathering is part of the Linggo Ng Kabataan celebrations around the country, with the non-government organization Plan International Pilipinas expressing that it seees potential in Filipino youth.
They then posed the challenge to incoming Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) and Barangay officials to champion causes in health, education, gender equality, and child protection — especially with the Barangay and SK elections taking place in November 2026.
Plan International Pilipinas also urged incoming SK and Barangay leaders nationwide to turn those aspirations into action by translating the Girls’ Agenda into concrete local ordinances.
The Girls’ Agenda is a four-point blueprint that Plan International Pilipinas facilitated the creation of with the agenda being crafted by 400 girl advocates, focusing on safety, resilience in crisis, health, and education and economic empowerment.
The said agenda was made to address the gaps in various facets of society, with key data points being four Filipino adolescents nationwide falling behind academically by age 18; more than 10,600 adolescent mothers were recorded in 2024, with pregnancies rising among girls under 15; child labor reached over half a million in 2025; and nearly 20% of internet-using children aged 12 to 17 have faced grave online sexual abuse and exploitation (OSAEC).
Since 2025, the organization has reached 2.83 million people, protected over 740,000 individuals through violence prevention programs, and trained more than 14,000 child protection advocates.
Twyla Raros David, Country Program Manager for Gender and Child Rights said, “The Girls’ Agenda came directly from young people, mostly girls, who told us where the gaps are. Training incoming SK and Barangay leaders to carry that agenda into their own communities is how we turn those numbers around, one barangay at a time.”
Thus, together with other youth training initiatives, the organization looks to highlight the youth’s enthusiasm and leadership capabilities, and the urgent barriers they need to address as leaders for their peers.
Programs are underway across the Visayas and Mindanao, from Samar’s youth advocacy panels and peer educators to Cotabato City’s mental health initiatives under Plan International Pilipinas’ Global Youth Ambassador program.
Among these initiatives are the Youth Advisory Panel, which empowers young advocates to influence community decisions; the Youth Peer Educators and Youth Reporters, who train high schoolers on OSAEC, SOGIESC, child rights, mental health, and leadership, enabling them to counsel their schoolmates; and the Girls’ Challenge Grants Group, which equips girls from vulnerable communities to design their own solutions to local problems.
These initiatives, as per PIP, are being carried out in partnership with local governments, communities, and schools, ensure that SK councils and barangay leaders are supported by trained youth voices.
Moreover, these efforts echo the United Nations’ 2026 International Youth Day theme, “Different Contexts, Common Aspirations,” underscoring how Filipino youth share the same hopes for safety, health, and opportunity no matter where they live.
