Sinag joins the World Young Reader Prize 2011!

Almost a month ago, we got an email from a certain Aralyn Mcmane, who told us that our social responsibility program, the Sinag Journalism Training Seminars (a.k.a. Sinag JTS) was qualified to join a competition sponsored by their organization. We were skeptical at first since we were not familiar with the contest or their organization but a quick google search told us that Aralyn Mcmane, a reporter and editor from the US, is actually one of the executive directors of a prestigious international organization, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.

According to their website (www.wan-ifra.org/worldyoungreaderprize), the Natasa Prize is a competition for “projects by newspaper printing plants that effectively teach the young about newspapers and journalism” and that it was named after “Natasa Vuckovic Lesendric (1966-2011) who founded and ran a distribution system and then a printing plant for the independent press of Serbia under the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. She introduced modern practice to the management in both operations while encouraging actions that supported press freedom and introducing the young to this concept.“

We do not know much about Ms. Natasa, only that she died so young but left a big impact in this world and we feel happy to have gotten to know about her thru this contest which honors her memory.

To be honest, we were all shocked and amazed that a small company like Sinag would have gotten the attention of a Europe-based International organization like the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. It took us a few days to decide to really go for it and join the contest.

I mean who would have thought there was actually a competition for what we did thru the Sinag JTS? Needless to say, we were all giddy with this contest for the past two weeks and today we submitted our entry. Hooray!

The fact that we got to join this contest for the Sinag JTS was already a cause for celebration with the Sinag staff. We got recognition from a big organization and we would get a chance to introduce our company’s social responsibility program to an international audience. This opportunity is a privilege and a gift. It’s a chance to show other small entrepreneurs like us that it doesn’t take a big company to create a social responsibility program that works.

Thanks once again for the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers for contacting us for this contest. We are not really hoping to win, after all, its an international contest and bigger companies with better programs have joined it as well, but the experience of joining and being recognized as a qualified entry is a big win for Sinag already. Cheers to the Sinag Journalism Training Seminars!

For more information on the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers and the World Young Reader Prize, please visit their site: www.wan-ifra.org/worldyoungreaderprize

NOTE: This coming July 30, Saturday, Sinag Publishing & Printing Services will launch its 3rd Sinag Journalism Training Seminar at Sta Rosa City, Laguna. Our venue will be the 4th Floor Conference Hall at the Sta Rosa City Hall. Program is from 8:00am to 5:00pm. Interested students and schools in the Sta Rosa, Binan and Silang areas, please contact Ms. Shara Jane Falceso at 049-8346261 (digitel) and 049-5763112 (pldt) or email us at sinagprinting@gmail.com. See you all there!