WILA Partners with RAFI to promote Cebuano literature

Do you know that that very first written Cebuano literature is Maming?  It is written by Vicente Sotto, the father of Cebuano literature.

(L-R) Dr. Hope Sabanpan-Yu, chair of the Women in Literary Arts, and Dr. Jocelyn B. Gerra, executive director of the Culture & Heritage unit of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. signed last Sept. 6 a memorandum of agreement that will promote Cebuano literature.

The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) and Women in Literary Arts (WILA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a collaboration that seeks to “involve WILA in RAFI’s cultural program.”

The MOU was signed by Dr. Hope Sabanpan-Yu, WILA chair, and Dr. Jocelyn B. Gerra, executive director of RAFI Culture & Heritage unit, last Sept. 6 during the 19th anniversary of WILA held at the Casa Gorordo Museum.

WILA, the only women creative writers group in the Philippines, has committed to participate in literary readings organized by RAFI. It also pledged to conduct story-telling sessions and literary workshops for children and youth.

For its part, RAFI will provide the venue for WILA-initiated literary readings and creative writing workshops for WILA members.

This new partnership under the Culture & Heritage focus area of RAFI manifests the collaborative attribute of the Foundation.

Culture & Heritage is one of the five focus areas of RAFI’s comprehensive approach to elevating lives and communities, believing that a confident community begins with a strong sense of identity. Its other focus areas are Integrated Development, Micro-finance & Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Citizenship, and Education.

Yu considers the new partnership a “sharing of talents.” She added that WILA’s involvement in the Culture & Heritage programs of RAFI aims to “stimulate interest in the spoken or written art.”

The collaboration with WILA “enhances the literature part of our advocacy especially to children,” Gerra said.

“We want children to appreciate early on literature and the arts, and the museum is a good background for this,” she added.

About Empress

Empress is a tech enthusiast who loves to read and write. She founded Empress Content Writing & Digital Marketing Services to help small entrepreneurs grow their business.

2 thoughts on “WILA Partners with RAFI to promote Cebuano literature

  1. Greetings! We are students of the University of the Philippines and are currently working on a thesis about exploring the levels of Western cultural adaptation of Cebuanas today. We are hoping to collaborate with you and we look forward to your positive response. Thank you.

Leave a Reply to Lareina/Camille Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.