THE Zonta Club 1 celebrates its 50th year by intensifying its program against Violence Against Women (VAW) and Teenage Pregnancy, a concern which the Zonta International is tackling. Community and school researches reveal cases of a growing number of girls, in some cases even as young as nine years old, who have been victims of early sex and pregnancy resulting from broken homes, drugs, free sex, easy access to entertainment hubs, insufficient sex education and lack of values formation, among others.

The Zontians are working with the schools, families, barangays and the multisectoral groups to expand awareness of the problem and adopt proactive activities.

The Golden November 2018 activities of Zonta Club Cebu 1 on “Teenage Pregnancy” are as follows: Oct. 29: “Straight From the Sky” at MyTV with Bobit Avila; Nov. 6: 888 Forum at Marco Polo Plaza Cebu; Nov. 8: Thanksgiving Mass, 9 a.m. at St. Therese Parish and Opening Salvo with interactive insights on teenage pregnancy at 1:30 p.m. at Ayala Center Cebu’s Activity Center; Nov. 14: Health forum with Sweet Alert; Nov. 27: Start of the 16 days of activism: Play with symposium at Cebu Normal University; and Dec. 12: Epilogue of the 16 days of activism: Talent, entertainment and livelihood display at the University of San Jose-Recoletos Mass Communication adopted barangay in Kamagayan, Cebu City.

Since June, the Education Team has been conducting seminars on values, leadership seminars to empower young women, events on enhancing reading skills and expanding membership of the Z Club at Benedicto College.

The PR Information and Linkages team also crafted a Zonta icon—Ms. Zonya, the empowered teacher, mother and young female citizen, released value-oriented comics and posters with expansive tri-media and social networking; and events with story telling and success stories which have been going on since July with the academe.

The long-term programs of Zonta 1 cover biennium 2018 to 2020.