Hello!
Much has happened in the month of May! From the first-ever run of the Komunidad: Organization Series to welcoming our new EA PH Introductory Fellowship Core Team. May also proved to be a very fortunate month for fundraising with the organization set to run most of the programs it planned to do for the year.
Here’s to a productive May and hopefully a great June!
📣 Highlights
SPOTLIGHT: Welcome our EA PH Introductory Fellowship Core Team!
Jasmin De Jesus and Joseph Alcantara, both active members of the EA community, have joined the team in running the EA Philippines Introductory Fellowship!
Jasmin De Jesus will be taking on the role of Program Head. Jas is a sociology undergraduate in UPD, currently working in admin with a feminist nonprofit. She first learned about EA through the Utak at Puso Fellowship hosted by EA UPD, and has since then been involved with the organization as their Fellowship Head (‘22-‘23) and VP for Learning Experience (‘22-‘24).
Joseph Alcantara will be our Fellows & Facilitators Manager. He is a consultant for Mercy for Animals and helps grassroots organizations in fundraising and campaigns. He got into EA because he has been working on Animal Welfare for more than 6 years with various organizations that are EA-aligned.
Sam and Zian will also provide program support to running the Introductory Fellowship. Sam will oversee administrative and logistical support while Zian will provide communications and finance support.
We expect to launch the Introductory Fellowship around mid-July of 2024. Stay tuned for updates on applications for facilitators and fellows!
EA Philippines May Komunidad: Organization Series
Last May 25, EA Philippines had its first run of the Komunidad: Organization Series!
This series is meant to celebrate and learn from all of the good work that our members are doing, especially by those who are currently organizing, leading, or spearheading local EA organizations and/or initiatives. This is a space for them to share the milestones, updates, and activities that each of your EA orgs/initiatives to the rest of the community.
We would like to thank Keyur Healthy Futures Global and Roc, Shen, and Joseph of Phlourish Mental Health Initiative for taking the time to be our speakers last Saturday. We were able to learn about each of your works within the Global Health and Development cause area and what it takes to co-found/lead an EA-aligned organization! A big thank you also to the community for joining us and to Valery Tolentino for volunteering to help run the event!
If you would like to access the presentation, photos, and recordings of the event, please feel free to do so here.
Updates on Fundraising
EA Philippines' current funding as of May 31, 2024:
Manifund: ~Php 666,132
EA Forum Post: ~Php 32,555
Individual Donations: ~Php 126,100
CEA Group Support Funding: ~ Php 395,000
Total amount raised: ~Php 1,219,700
Total minimum funding goal: ~Php 1,606,700
Total preferred funding goal: ~Php 2,566,000
This means we’ve currently covered ~75.9% of our minimum funding goal or ~47.5% of our preferred funding goal.
We are grateful to the community and donors for all your support, whether it be in the form of your presence, time, or donations!
If you’d like to help fund EA Philippines’ operations and staffing, you can do so by clicking the button below:
🇵🇭 Philippine EA: Local News
Animal Empathy Philippines. Last May 15, AEP participated in the hearing on the Revised Animal Welfare Act championed by Sen. Grace Poe. The Revised Animal Welfare Act aims to address animal cruelty and stray overpopulation with stricter regulation. The act can be read here. AEP also attended Gulay Pa More last May 25, an event that featured an organic market, innovative food merchants, learning sessions on food heritage and security, workshops like community cooking and art, tributes to notable figures, health and wellness booths, and live music and entertainment. Congratulations for this milestone, AEP!
Phlourish Mental Health Initiative. Phlourish will be launching their pilot program starting from this May until July 2024. The pilot will involve 200 Filipinos aged 13 to 15 from Bulacan, Metro Manila, and Benguet. It aims to test the effectiveness and potential for scale of guided self-help workbooks (toolkit) in improving Filipino adolescents’ life satisfaction. The toolkit to be tested was internally developed by Phlourish, based on the findings of their Needs Assessment and User Experience Research and expert consultations. It has also undergone expert reviews and two stages of user testing, each comprising at least three small group testing. We wish you the best of luck in your pilot program, Phlourish!
Condor Global. Condor Global has opened their expression of interest application for Condor Camp SEA. Condor Camp SEA is an upcoming 6-day AI safety career accelerator camp in Manila for Southeast Asian students aged 18-25 to upskill in AI alignment and AI governance. This program is spearheaded by Lexley Villasis, Lenz Dagohoy, and Kyle Reynoso, fellow EA PH members. You can express your interest in the program here.
We would also like to commend our members, Lexley Villasis and Kyle Reynoso, for winning Apart Research’s AI and Democracy Hackathon last May 3-5! Lexley and Kyle’s team won 1st place worth $1,000 for their project “Beyond Refusal: Scrubbing Hazards from Open-Source Models.” Their project “investigated how open-source models can potentially be ‘scrubbed’ of their hazardous knowledge before being released rather than just being trained to refuse to give hazardous answers.” The project entry can be found here. Congratulations, Lexley and Kyle!
⭐️ Opportunities
Upcoming Conferences
EA Global Boston - link
NOVEMBER 1 – 3, 2024
Application deadline: 20th October 2024 (11:59 pm EDT)
Upcoming Programs, Workshops, and Reading Groups
Introductory EA Program - Effective Altruism Virtual Programs - link
START HERE IF YOU’RE NEW TO EA!
24 June - 18 August 2024
Application deadline: June 2, 2024
In-Depth EA Program - Effective Altruism Virtual Programs - link
24 June - 18 August 2024
Application deadline: June 2, 2024
CEA Organizer Support Program (OSP) - link
A three-week mentorship program aimed at EA university group organizers to help them prepare for their semester. It offers regular meetings with an experienced mentor, various workshops, and useful resources to run an effective group.
Fieldbuilder Support Program (FSP) - link
A new program focusing on AI Safety university groups. If you are an organizer of an existing AI Safety group, or if you are interested in starting a new one, see here for more details on the program and how to apply.
Global Challenges Project Existential Risks Workshop - link
July Workshop - Oxford
September Workshop - Boston
BlueDot Impact
Blog Building Intensive Program - link
Through this program, you will zero in on a topic area to go deep on, improve your writing, increase your productivity, more fully understand and apply progress ideas, get plugged into the progress movement, and grow your audience.
16 August – 20 October, 2024
Application deadline: June 7, 2024
Foresight Fellowship - link
The Foresight Fellowship is a one-year program committed to giving change-makers the support to accelerate their bold ideas into the future. Our mission is to catalyze collaboration among leading young scientists, engineers, and innovators who work to advance technologies for the benefit of life.
This fellowship will be taking place in 2025
Application deadline: July 31, 2024
Jobs, internships, and volunteering
Open Philanthropy
Ambitious Impact (AIM)
Talent and Recruitment Manager - link
Forecasting Research Institute - link
Part-Time Research Assistant
Part-Time Content Editor
Data Analyst
Research Analyst
Part-Time Operations Assistant
CEA University Group Mentor - link
List of Challenges and Prizes Related to Top Problems - link
List of Internship and Residency Programs, Machine Learning / Software Engineering - link
List of Alternative Proteins Opportunities - link
Funding Opportunities - link
📖 Further Reading
Global EA-related news
Open Philanthropy shares updates on its Global Health and Wellbeing (GHW) portfolio which now spans eight different programs working to improve health, raise incomes, and reduce suffering around the world.
Some interesting reads
“Nuclear security seems like an interesting funding gap” by Benjamin Todd - link
“AI stocks could crash. And that could have implications for AI safety” by Benjamin Todd - link
“Clean Water - the incredible 30% mortality reducer we can’t explain” by Nick Laing - link