BUGSAY

Their goal is conserving and improving the environment of Camotes
Island and the life of its people.

Bugsay wishes to come up with steady and consistent long term projects which will make the Camoteños prefer non destructive and highly sustainable economic activities.

Bugsay, like the native boat paddle it is named after, believes in slow,
smooth but decisive strokes that will bring the people and the place to a balanced ecology a sustainable environment and a socially responsible economy.

Bugsay feels that before any form socio-economic activity is endorsed the people should be made aware of the following:

1. The ill effects of existing destructive means of making a living.
2. Similar destructive methods which should be kept out of the place.
3) The environment-friendly non destructive alternative to these methods.
4) The long term benefits of these non destructive methods towards attaining a sustainable environment.
5) The inter-connectedness between the life of their environment and their personal lives.
6) The inter-connectedness between their immediate environment and the whole of nature.
7) That there are other healthier and more prosperous lifestyles other than what they are
currently practicing and that they can, should they choose, live them.

Bugsay plans to introduce these awareness via art, music, literature, physical excercises, health lectures and livelihood seminars.

Bugsay, in relation to the awareness drive it espouses, endorses the following activities:
1) To get statistics on the people’s health and diet habits;
2) To encourage a balance diet and excercise-inclusive daily routine.
3) To conduct pro-recycling creativity workshops.
4) To introduce environmental-friendly handicrafts;
5) To promote eco-tourism.
6) To set up a marine sanctuary.
7) To set up a cooperative.

Bugsay particularly targets women and children for most of its activities because it feels they are the marginalized sectors of the Camotes community.
Bugsay includes the following topics under lecture forum activities:

1) Music
2) Dance
3) Drama
4) Film showing (by CCP sineklab, Cebu chapter)
5) Story telling (local myths)
6) Balak/sugilanon sessions

Bugsay will be coming up with longer, more concrete and more extensive programs that will stay on course with this existing program’s objectives.

Bugsay states its goals and rationale on/of art as: the awareness of the inter-relation of art and environment; the awareness that recycling can be a source of new exciting ways of making art; that new ways of looking at often discarded objects can improve the environment as it minimizes waste while giving birth to new art forms. This in turn, Bugsay hopes, will give rise to an alternative art view and foster local aesthetics.

Bugsay envisions a holistic approach to a dynamic life that will not separate mind and body, soul and flesh, man and environment, which it will plan to achieve thru proper diet, exercise and meditation.