Aimed at fulfilling the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) led by Chairman Vilma Labrador, Executive Director Cecile Guidote Alvarez, and Deputy Executive Director Malou Jacob in cooperation with the International Theater Institute (ITI) is set to open the Creativity Summit on Kalahi Cultural Caregiving and a Short + Sweet Festival on March 10 to 14.

Featuring harvests from Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao in dance, music, drama and film, the summit will bring together the marginalized sector of the society—the physically challenged, the frail and the elderly, the street children, prisoners, abused women, refugees of armed conflict and victims of climate change disasters among others, with special highlights on their creations in the Short + Sweet Festival.

Performing at the summit are Marilac Hills Center for Abused Women, Tahanang Walang Hagdan, the Elsie Gaches, and the Ortho-Pedagogical Institute for Dance. For Music, Angklung Ensemble of Golden Acres, Nayong Kabataan, Ambassadors of Light (Blind Chorale Group with the Earthsavers Dream Ensemble) and the National Bilibid Prisons will delight the audience with a musical ensemble. The Government Internship Program, consist of unemployed youth who are under the care of the Manila City Hall Youth Development Program will perform Sa Dalampasigan, a 10-minute play about mature people who have lost hope and reason to continue living.

Two short films presented by Pili at Pino, a visual arts and film enthusiast group of marginalized youth from Manila, will also be included in the creativity summit. Bobong, a 30-minute musical film will tackle a group of friends and their affections to doves, and Putok, a highly sensitive film that features a young boy forced to commit suicide as a birthday gift to another boy. In line with this, there will also be an Animation workshop to be conducted through Tuldok with the pilot testing results demonstrated and discussed.

The summit will also have an open forum and group discussion focused on setting up goals and paradigms based on the performances. There will be a leveling of goals, perspectives, and directions.

Conducted nationwide, the Kalahi Cultural Caregiving Program is in line with poverty alleviation program of President Gloria Arroyo aimed at achieving the eight MDGs. This program utilizes the Earthsavers \t “undefined” Dreams Methodology, which involves human resource development, eco-social rehabilitation, and values education through the arts and media and sports and sciences. Its holistic approach underscores the therapeutic and participatory values derived from meaningful and relevant arts training that culminates in a showcase of talents in the field of visual arts, music, dance, theater arts, creative crafts, media and animation and broadcast modules.

The Short + Sweet Festival, on the other hand, will feature performances also from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. From Luzon, there will be performances from the Tagbanuas and Palawenos. The Lihok Visayan Contingent as well as Tagum (Mindanao), Tampaken Lum-Alay Cultural Dance Ensemble and the Bukidnon State University will be joining Luzon Short and Sweet Harvest.