Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
The greatest adventure of our life so far (or the story of how we won an international award in Europe and the mad and crazy struggle of it all)
by Raia Jennifer Dela Pena-Landicho
Part 1:
Who would have thought that in a matter of months, our life would change so drastically and go upside down like some roller coaster ride? That is exactly how I feel about us winning the Natasa Prize in the World Young Reader Prize given by the WAN-IFRA (World Organization of Newspapers and Publishers).
Last June, we received an email from Ms. Aralynn Mcmane. She introduced herself as an executive director of a department in the World Organization of Newspapers and Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and invited us to join an annual competition given by their organization. This year, she said, there is a special category called the Natasa Prize to be given to newspaper printing plants that advocate teaching journalism to the youth.
Of course, Sinag printing has become well known for its social responsibility program, the Sinag Journalism Training Seminars, and our Sinag JTS was a perfect fit for the Natasa Prize category. And yet, who’d have thought there was a competition for such an endeavor?My husband, the perennial skeptic, thought it was another email phishing scam. Keeping that warning in mind, we did our research first before answering Ms. Mcmane’s email. Of course, all our research told us that this was, in fact, a big and prestigious international organization we were dealing with and we immediately went to work creating the power point presentation that was to be our entry for the Natasa Prize.
We submitted our program entry a few days before June 30, WAN-IFRA’s deadline for the competition. We then got an acknowledgement from Mcmane and her staff and were told that we’d find out the result of the competition by late August. That was that. I wrote a short blog about joining the contest, I felt then that it was already such a privilege to have been invited to join the competitions but never thought about winning it. I remember daydreaming about winning and imagining going to Vienna but these were daydreams and I soon forgot about the Natasa Prize as we did work on various things, including the 3rd Sinag JTS last July.
Around the third week of August we started waiting for any kind of email announcement from WAN-IFRA and when no emails came, we assumed that somebody else won and forgot about it since it was a busy month for us at the press.
Then one morning, I was still upstairs when I heard the girls (our assistants that is) screaming downstairs. My first thought was perhaps an ax murderer got into the office but since the screams sounded happy enough, I thought maybe something else. As if on cue, of course, they burst into our room and showed me a paper – apparently Aralynn Mcmane’s personal congratulatory email. WE WON TOP PRIZE for the Natasa Award!!!
Oh! that day was such a dream. Probably the happiest day of my life – barring the day I gave birth to my son, my wedding day, and the day I found out about passing the UPCAT, that is. J It didn’t really sink in at first. I read the words but I didn’t really feel it was real when we first found out. I remember taking a shower that morning and looking at my reflection in the mirror, I was wearing a silly and slightly stupid looking smile, it’s the kind of smile dumbfounded people must wear all the time. :) TO BE CONTINUED...
Monday, October 17, 2011
Sinag in the News: Pinoy entrepreneur couple receives international publisher’s award in Vienna
Sinag Printing owners Ruel Landicho and Raia Dela Pena-Landicho with Dr. Aralynn McMane, Director of Young Readership Development, and Jacob Mathew, WAN-IFRA President.
Ruel Landicho and wife Raia Jennifer dela Peña-Landicho, proprietors of Sinag Publishing and Printing Services, received the Nataza Prize from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) in ceremonies held at the Reed Exhibitions Wien in Vienna.
The occasion was the 63rd World Newspaper Congress and the 18th World Editors Forum.
Speaking for her husband before editors and publishers from around the world, dela Peña-Landicho said, “The joy of being recognized in a big way for connecting with and giving back to the community in a small way is simply amazing. It goes without saying that this award will inspire us to do more and do better.”
Sinag Publishing and Printing Services won the award for the Sinag Journalism Training Seminar, a free seminar that has catered to more than a thousand students from both public and private schools in Laguna.
“I was away from my hometown for so long because I was studying in Metro Manila and doing some NGO work. When I came back, my father wanted me to take on his publishing business, but my problem was how to re-connect with Laguna, which was supposed to be my market,” dela Peña-Landicho said.
“That’s how we thought of this idea, from the need to re-connect with Laguna,” she added.
“So I dedicate this award to the memory of my father, Victorino dela Peña, who passed away recently. It was him who instilled in me the need to be of service to others even as we do business,” she said.
The Nataza Prize is named after Nataza Vuckovic Lesendric (1966-2011), a Serbian who owned a distribution system and set up a printing plant for the alternative press under the government of Slobodan Milosevic.
Lesendric modernized the management of the distribution system and the printing plant while supporting and promoting freedom of the press.
Dela Peña’s father set up a small printing company which publishes two free community newspapers, Tambuling Batangas and Ang Caviteño News Weekly. He died last January 2010.
“When we received the invitation via e-mail to apply for the award, I thought, like many people receiving such invitations in this age of e-mail, that it was all a scam. We still submitted our papers but without expectations,” dela Peña-Landicho said.
“We are very happy. What we thought was a scam turned out to be real, and a generous way of recognizing our small efforts. We are very grateful to WAN-IFRA” she added.
“I hope this award will make other companies, even small ones like ours, to value their Corporate Social Responsibility programs. My father always told me that ‘No one is too small when it comes to giving back to the community and helping others’,” she said.
Sinag owners while giving their speech.
Sinag owners, Raia Dela Pena-Landicho and Ruel Landicho, while receiving their Natasa Prize trophy from WAN-IFRA President, Jacob Mathew.
World Young Reader Prize Awardee
Other news feature on Sinag Printing winning the Natasa Prize for Printing Plants:
