Alvin Cloyd Dakis, BSc, RN

Nurse Alvin started his advocacy in popularizing public health issues using the social media including blogging in 2011 especially when he was campaigning for reproductive & sexual health and rights for young people in the Reproductive Health Bill debates. He is a nurse by profession focusing on Sexual & Reproductive Health, an advocate on health for more than a decade now, a blogger & columnist, and a youth influencer. His blog site, Alvin Dakis Blogs, became a platform for young people to discuss the controversial legislative measure openly in the social media sphere, even to the point that people are debating in his articles and features. He writes extensively on young people's sexual and reproductive health issues, HIV & STI among young people, issues on the welfare of nurses and other health professionals, universal health care, and some personal commentaries on social issues and events. He also incorporates his advocacy to his social media activities especially in Facebook and Twitter. He was one of two bloggers being awarded by the Department of Health as those who have written outstanding health stories in 2013. He was also awarded as the Most Outstanding Youth Leader of Quezon City due to his service to young people and health. Because he has been actively writing and engaging young people in social media to discuss about health, he was invited by FAME Publishing (a publishing company of health-related newspaper and magazines distributed to hospitals, private clinics, and the general public) to be their first columnist who is a nurse. His column named Nurse's Notes became a mainstay column of the publication which publishes his works twice a month. One of his articles became a featured Editorial when he responded point-by-point to the derogatory remarks on nurses by one of the 2013 senatorial candidates. This article, which was also published in his blog trended and was shared by thousands of nurses nation-wide, which eventually caught the attention of the candidate. The candidate and the incumbent senator spouse met with Nurse Alvin to explain their side. In turn, Nurse Alvin wrote another article explaining to the nurses and the general public what transpired in their meeting. Another feat of Nurse Alvin aside from being one of the known young health policy advocates, is his initiative to organize the Philippine Health Bloggers Society or PHBS, a loose network of health professionals and advocates who are blogging about health. His initiative landed as one of the developments in the blogging community. Nurse Alvin was invited to speak in blogging conferences to explain what "health blogging" is about (iBlog Philippine Blogging Summit, Laguna Blogging Summit to name a few). The PHBS engages health enthusiasts, advocates, and bloggers alike in their Philippine Health Bloggers Meet. PHBS is the first and still is the organized health blogging community in the Philippines. Nurse Alvin also started venturing in using Youtube as an avenue to inform young people about policies and issues relating to their health when he initiated the Health Tube Series. He engages with national leaders, legislators, and influencers and interview them. He publishes these interviews in Youtube for public viewing. He once had an online radio program, aired via the internet, called Pod.RN (nurses' podcasts). This initiative won an international award Care Challenge of the International Council of Nurses and Sanofi. Nurse Alvin continues to inspire more nurses and health professionals to blog and discuss public health issues in the social media. Currently he serves as one of the 25 youth leaders appointed by the President of the Philippines to be Council Members of the National Anti-Poverty Commission Youth & Students Sectoral Council. He chairs the Sectoral Council's Health Committee and the Focal Person for Youth of the GAD Committee. He also briefly served as the National Capital Region Chairperson of the EDSA People Power Commission, also under the Office of the President. Internationally, he serves as the Philippine Country Director of the International Youth Council and the Country Coordinator for the Philippines of the International Youth Alliance on Family Planning. Locally he serves as the Chairperson on Youth Committee of the Reproductive Health Advocacy Network and was a member of the Senate Technical Working Group for the finalization of the Reproductive Health Act. He served as the Youth Representative to the Drafting Committee of the Reproductive Health Law's Implementing Rules & Regulations. He also served as the youngest Executive Director in Philippine Foundations at the Foundation for Adolescent Development and Member of the Board of the Philippine NGO Council for Population, Health, and Development. His initiatives and his continuous engagement with the young people in social media is commendable. And because of these, we nominate him.