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The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) won the “Quill Award of Merit for communication management: economic, social, and environmental development” for its Run 2 Plant 4 GREENIN Philippines.

At the same time, the “Tree of the Month”, which comes out in The Freeman twice a month, is a finalist under the writing category of the communication skills division of the Quill Awards.

RAFI Executive Committee Chair Ma. Cristina Aboitiz, RAFI Chief Operating Officer Dominica Cua, RAFI Deputy Director for Operations Amaya Aboitiz, RAFI’s Integrated Development Executive Director Rowena Bandola-Alensonorin, and RAFI Communications Officer Haidee Palapar received the two awards during the 10th Philippine Quill Awards held last Nov. 18 at Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila, Quezon City.

They were joined by Lucky Malicay, news editor of The Freeman.

“The awards are indicators that RAFI has achieved that competitive advantage in terms of pushing its programs and advocacies forward through communication, given RAFI’s appropriate skills and systems. Also, they serve as a challenge for RAFI to continuously raise the bars so that the Foundation will continue to be effective in delivering its brand promise and reach the highest mark of excellence,” Alensonorin said.

Run 2 Plant 4 GREENIN Philippines is the environmental initiative under the GREENIN Philippines (Generation REdemption and Expansion of Natural resources INitiatives in the Philippines) Program of RAFI, which engages the general public to participate in a simultaneous running and planting of native tree species throughout the province of Cebu.

Held last June 25, 2011, the event aimed to raise public awareness in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation among local government leaders and in forging local and national government commitment to action as well as encourage multiple partnerships in caring for the environment.

It was participated by 55,372 participants from across Cebu Province who collectively planted 239,580 native tree seedlings in more than 115 hectares of land. These figures are beyond RAFI’s targets that was set at 20,000 participants, 100,000 native tree seedlings, and 56 hectares.

On the other hand, Tree of the Month is a bi-monthly section that comes out in The Freeman twice a month with the aim of educating the public on the various native trees species and encouraging their propagation.

The advocacy is shared by The Freeman.