Personal Details:
-
- Secondary – Davao Winchester Colleges, Inc. S.Y. 2013-2018
- Senior High – Davao Winchester Colleges, Inc. – Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS) S.Y. 2018-2020
- Tertiary – Santo Tomas College of Agriculture, Sciences and Technology (STCAST), Bachelor of Technical-Vocational Teacher Education, 2020-Present
Inspirational Success Story:
Hannah Kem M. Bondaon is a proud Mandaya woman who is currently a 4th year student taking up the Bachelor of Technical-Vocational Teacher Education (BTVTED) at Santo Tomas College of Agriculture, Sciences, and Technology (STCAST). She is a strong advocate for the cultural heritage preservation of the different tribes in Barangay Tibal-og, Santo Tomas, and Davao del Norte. She is the reigning Mutya to Pogtonaw to Mahubog No Buye 2022 (an IP Youth Ambassadress in the whole of Santo Tomas) and, at the same time, an active Indigenous Peoples (IP) Youth Vice President since 2022.
She has a burning passion and dedication as a future educator who aims to teach in her community, the Indigenous Peoples. Her utmost dedication to her advocacy led her to create a research paper that unravels the food security strategies of the Ata-Manobo tribe in her barangay. She courageously took it as a challenge for her to document the practices of the tribe to survive in times of food insecurity. With her great perseverance, the paper led her to an international research conference, which motivated her to give back to the community.
She is also an active vice president of an association that targets out-of-school youth in Barangay Tibal-og, which is the Pag-asa Youth Association of the Philippines (PYAP) since 2020. Their programs center on the OSY in assisting them through livelihood trainings, sociocultural activities, and environmentally friendly activities such as coastal cleaning and tree growing. This young woman also extended her leadership not just in her community but also in the religious sector. In GKK San Isidro Labrador Road 4, she has been an active youth officer since 2015. In 2022, she was elected as the Parish Youth Apostolate (PYA) President in their chapel. In the same year, she was also elected as PYA Zone 6 Chairperson (Zone 6 consists of six chapels), where she was on a mission to promote synodality in the church.
Her leadership experiences fully developed when she became the Supreme Student Government (SSG) Representative (2015) and Secretary (2018) of Davao Winchester Colleges, Inc. In her senior high school years, she was also part of the Supreme Student Organization (SSO) as Vice President (Grade 11) and Vice President (Grade 12) at Davao Winchester Colleges, Inc. (2018-2020). Also, in her college years, she continued her leadership journey as part of the Supreme Student Council (SSC) as Senator (2022-2023) and Secretary (2023) at Santo Tomas College of Agriculture, Sciences, and Technology (STCAST). She was also a Music Club Facilitator (2022), where she managed to gather all the musicians in the college and form seven bands with different genres of music. This Mandaya woman was awarded both leadership and service awards during her high school and college years. Despite being a working student and a student leader, she managed to maintain good grades and perform well in her class.
She is a 2nd round finalist of the Institute of Industry and Academic Research Incorporated (IIARI), International Research Conference (IRC) 2023. Her research paper, titled “Food Security and Coping Strategies of the Ata-Manobo Tribe: An Inquiry,” contains the ancestral knowledge of food systems for food security of the Ata-Manobo tribe in her barangay. According to the Municipal Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative (IPMR) and Municipal Tribal Chieftain (MTC), she is the first person in the municipality of Santo Tomas, Davao del Norte, of her age (21 years old) to request a Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) at the National Commission of Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) Provincial Office in compliance with the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) Law.
This Mandaya woman is an inspiration to the Indigenous Peoples and Non-Indigenous Peoples youth because of her service and contributions to the different youth organizations in her barangay and in the municipality of Santo Tomas. The Indigenous Peoples in the municipality are striving to preserve the cultural practices of the different recognized tribes. In her own way, as a youth, she wrote a research paper that documented the unique food security practices of the most established tribe in this municipality. Her paper will serve as a strong basis for effective and sustainable food security programs to the local officials and organizations in their community. Furthermore, she will soon receive the certificate from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) from the provincial and regional offices.
She is one of the living testaments that no matter what your cultural identity it will not be a limiting factor to give an impact to your community. As long as you have the will to serve and persevere, nothing in this world will be a hindrance for you to contribute to the society.
Evidence of her works: