Boto Mo, Bukas Ko (Your Vote is our Future) offers a unique proposition for the youth to prepare them for active citizen participation through Voter’s Education. BMBK is a Voter’s Education Program for youth ages 11-17. Many voter’s education programs are focused on first-time voters (ages 17-20) or young professionals voting for the first time. This program believes that providing early intervention on the tenets of leadership, governance and democracy will create a better-informed, more civic minded generation of voters and citizens. Beginning at middle school, young people will be able to observe and witness election cycles and be provided with tools to understand and advocate issues; participate in meaningful debate and conversation; understand the importance of policy, laws and how governments work; and how to assess and elect capable and efficient leaders at the local and national levels.
Exercising the right to vote is one aspect of citizenship, but the impact of that one vote can change and influence policies, systems, laws that can change lives.
Boto Mo Bukas Ko will be using the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a tool to assess candidates and for determining each child’s personal development agenda. The SDGs will serve as (1) a guide for understanding relevant issues in the world (2) assess how candidates/politicians and lawmakers perform according to the goals and (3) allow each child to think of how they can make a contribution to the goal in their own way, whether at home, in school or the community they live in.
BMBK will implement online and offline activities for Voter’s Education in the Philippines through public schools, private schools and the Youth Vote Philippines network. It will also form part of a larger civic education program that will be spearheaded by the Nord Anglia Manila Student Parliament. The BMBK program is intended to be developed in a template that can be translated and used by children in other countries.
