A teacher of the Handumanan National High School, Bacolod City Division, George De La Cruz, received the Global Educationist Leader Award 2021 via zoom ceremony Dec. 5 by the International Internship University, that is accredited and affiliated with the World Education Organization and International Accreditation Organization.
De La Cruz was among the more than 200 awardees from 71 countries, and belonged to the first batch of scholars of the Global Schools Program for its cohort training, an initiative of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network in support of UNESCO’s Global Action Program on Education for Sustainable Development.
He is among the 180 educators from 50 countries selected to become Global Schools Advocates and trained for five months in 2020 on localizing and integrating global citizenship, sustainability, and 21st-century skills into school communities. He was recognized as Advocate of the Month by the Global Schools Program.
He is a certified mentor for educators, who are advocates of sustainable development, and a recipient of the scholarship program on Cultural Education by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.
De La Cruz organized the Barangay Felisa Community Micro Business Enterprise, composed of 332 women whose means of livelihood is through scavenging in the city’s 10-hectare sanitary landfill. Project Basura benefited these women as recipients, with a seed fund of P200,000 that the NCCA had granted.
He is also the founder of BAHAG-Pilipinas, or the Barangay Association of Health Advocates Group. – PR
