Our infomediaries

After almost a year of working with young people, we are now about to end our campaign in Aurora. The campaign mobilises young individuals to serve as infomediaries for their parents. Infomediaries are people who facilitate access to information for those who are having difficulty accessing it. Our months of work in Aurora included classroom discussions coupled with activities such as the infomediary quiz bee, putting up of rice garden, and endless promotion of the extension platforms such as the PhilRice Text Center and the Pinoy Rice Knowledge Bank. 

The infomediary quiz bee was a huge activity. The students showcased their technical know-how on rice production, which really surprised us. The photo below shows the practical exam as part of the quiz bee. The task was for them to identify parts of a rice plant, and to differentiate rice plants from weedy rice.

Aside from the practical exam, the infomediary quiz bee also showcased their proficiency in using the offline version of the Pinoy Rice Knowledge Bank. PRKB is a platform that contains most information one has to know about rice farming in the Philippines. Hence, even if the students are not knowledgeable about rice farming and even if they don’t have Internet access in their area, they can still search for rice farming information through the offline version of the Pinoy Rice Knowledge Bank. The students were fast and accurate in searching through the offline version of the PRKB.

The rice garden gave the participants hands-on experience in managing a rice farm. We needed to do this to increase the confidence of the students in discussing rice farming information to their parents. Rice gardens in two participating high schools showcased varieties that can be planted in their respective areas. This way, the students can recommend to their parents the variety they see fit for their agroclimatic conditions.

After months of working with young people, we were so pleased when we had the chance to converse with them regarding the campaign. Not only did they relate to us experiences when they performed infomediary roles, they were also very comfortable telling their stories to us—something we did not see before. When we first came to Aurora, the students were rather timid. They would not say a word to us. It is a big thing for us that the students have developed the trust to tell their stories to us over the course of campaign implementation. Not only we have groomed new rice farming infomediaries, we have also gained new friends.