Author: JL Aquino

TCS  goIT students develop apps to address different community challenges 

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Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, held an awarding ceremony on September 29 for the students of Cordillera who successfully completed their goIT program journey. Together with TCS executives and the Department of Education-Cordillera Administrative Region (DepED-CAR), ten groups from different schools in the said region created mobile applications to provide solutions to the many societal issues that their respective communities are facing today.

A year after its successful launch in Cordillera, TCS’ goIT program, which aims to demystify computer science and encourage students to pursue STEM education, successfully introduced to the students the design thinking, digital technologies, and agile methodologies. The program helped students gain 21st century skills which prepared them for the tech-driven world and will help to improve their communities and support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

“On behalf of the entire TCS Philippines team, we would like to congratulate our first batch of goIT students in the Philippines. Their output proved that the Filipino youth are capable of creating a better future for the country. TCS is eager to bring the success of goIT Cordillera to the other parts of the Philippines and showcase the Filipino students’ impeccable talent for technology,” shared Shiju Varghese, TCS Philippines Country Head

The goIT program was implemented throughout the academic year with an engaging curriculum which includes innovation life cycle, product prototyping and industry-relevant entrepreneurial skills. The program was facilitated by TCS employee volunteers who are delivery heads, system analysts and team leaders from different business units. These employees provided industry context and real-world scenarios which helped students have a better grasp about the different IT careers.

The technological leaders of Northern Luzon

Through the partnership of TCS and DepEd–CAR, the goIT program reached the six provinces in the region, namely Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Mt. Province and Kalinga and engaged almost 300 students. TCS proudly presents the winning entries who undoubtedly showcased their skills and learnings from the goIT program through a mobile application.

The Cordillera Regional Science High School bagged the champion award with its entry “Transformers”. The app provided solution to the community’s dilemma on waste management. The group highlighted the beauty in trash by creating a market place between companies and regular consumers for an organized recycling and upcycling transactions. The app hopes to collaborate with GPS Tracking and delivery service providers for a more convenient and safe disposal of orders. The app will not only provide income to its users but will also help the environment fight waste pollution.

The Cordillera Regional Science High School also won 1st runner up with its other entry Comstop which aimed to deliver solutions to the region’s food waste problems. The 2nd place was awarded to the app TY Alert from Alejo M. Pacalso Memorial High School. The app was designed as a holistic source of information in times of typhoon and relevant calamities. Baguio City Science National High School with the app Anemo and the Mountain Province General Comprehensive High School with their entry WeCare tied at the 3rd place. The Anemo addressed the challenges in water consumption while WeCare tackled the pressing issues about Mental Health. All winners will receive certificates, medals and trophies.

The Transformers app team from the Cordillera Regional Science High School shares, “It feels surreal to be considered as the TCS goIT Digital Innovation Fair 2021 Champion. We know that everyone put their best foot forward and exerted so much effort to create innovative outputs to help address the issues in our communities. This award won’t be possible without the help and support of our coach, school, teachers, and the people behind TCS Philippines who relentlessly believe in the talent and skills of Filipino Youth. We’re truly grateful for the opportunity and learning experiences. To all the participants, may we all be reminded that we are all game-changers here. We’re all catalysts of change.”

TCS and DepEd-CAR celebrates these students’ achievement in creating a storyboard and mobile app prototype that addresses the issues of their communities such as lack of water supply, electricity consumption, education, mental health and medical assistance, and lack of awareness of natural disasters and calamities.

“We are extremely proud of our students here in the Cordillera Administrative Region for coming up with solutions to help their communities amid the many challenges we are facing today. DepEd-CAR is grateful to TCS Philippines for giving our students this opportunity to learn and contribute to the society. DepEd-CAR remains firm in promoting quality education for every Filipino youth and in helping students become critical thinkers and more adept with technological skills needed in creating a better future. We are hoping that the goIT program will continue to encourage students to pursue STEM. DepEd–CAR is open and looking forward for more projects like this with TCS,” said Estela Cariño, Department of Education–Cordillera Administrative Region Regional Director.

Patrick Veril, TCS Philippines CSR Manager also added that “goIT Cordillera is just the beginning of the many more TCS goIT projects in the Philippines. More than the official culminating of our first leg, our heart is full in witnessing how the young minds are aware of the needs of their communities and are capable of transforming the society. TCS Philippines is grateful to DepEd–CAR for the partnership and the support from day one to this day.”

For the safety of the students and the rest of the participants, the awarding ceremony was held virtually via Zoom. Banking on Building on Belief as its core value, TCS vows to continue its initiative to help students improve their technology skills and build more digital leaders of tomorrow.

TCS’ goIT is a signature community engagement program in North America, LATAM, Europe, and the Asia Pasific. It is tailored to meet the specific needs of local communities in each region. The program is estimated to have reached more than 97,000 students worldwide across 32 countries.

Record High COVID-19 Crowdfunding Campaigns Spike as Delta Virus Hit Hard Southeast Asia

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Despite the stringent effort to curb the pandemic around the globe, the Delta variant found new routes into Southeast Asia. Cases were at an all-time high in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Indonesia has the highest number of cases with 3,989,060 cases and 127,214 deaths followed by the Philippines with 1,857,646 cases and 31,961 deaths and Malaysia with 11,572,765 cases and 14,342 deaths.

The highly contagious Delta variant was first detected in India last October and has become the dominant strain worldwide. With this spike in Southeast Asia, many people sought help to help themselves and their families to raise funds for a variety of causes. During this pandemic, the use of such initiatives has significantly helped individuals or communities requiring money for medical, personal, and other expenses.

The covid-19 pandemic has changed the world a lot, we get to see how the weakness of the system and governments are in handling this crisis, we also get to see how people are unprepared and suffering from this pandemic. Crowdfunding became one of the most helpful ways to alleviate their needs, it became a tool to empower them to rise beyond their needs by asking help from kindhearted people across the globe. Crowdfunding provided

“Airfunding has been helping a lot of people especially COVID-19 related project overall we have raised $321,518 USD for pandemic related projects in the past year and still gearing up to help more people across the globe get help beyond borders and beyond lockdowns.” – Ryosuke Abe, CEO Co-Founder Kiheitai Inc.

Many crowdfunding platforms are available across the globe, however, many of which are not available in Southeast Asia. Not even the world’s biggest crowdfunding platform that helped millions of people get funding is not yet available in the region. But not to fear, as Kiheitai Inc., a Tokyo-based digital company that owns the crowdfunding site called Airfunding is here to help everyone by everyone. In its 3 years of operations, Airfunding has helped close to a million people around the world get funding for medical and other personal or community needs. In the region alone, Airfunding has helped over 300,000 people raise funds for any cause especially in this time of pandemic where people need financial assistance to pay for their medical, business, community, or even personal needs.

Airfunding is a fundraising platform that specializes in small-scale projects made by individuals, groups, or local NGOs, for a personal cause, community initiative, an event, or just anything that needs funding. It is a keep-it-all crowdfunding platform, so the project owners keep the entire amount collected even if the target has not been met.

There is help beyond borders and barriers, Airfunding has over 10,000,000 supporters around the world and can be accessed in 200+ countries. Airfunding is free to use, anyone can register and start creating projects in less than 5 minutes. Joining is completely free, Start your Airfunding project today!