Social media reactions to Maria Ressa at NY Social Good Summit

MANILA, Philippines – On Sept. 21, Rappler organized the PH+SocialGood Summit in Manila, where experts, government officials, and volunteers met to exchange ideas on disaster risk reduction and preparedness. 

The event helped kick off the global Social Good Summit held in New York – a three-day conference featuring major personalities in technology and activism as they discussed the power of new media to change the world. The speakers included former US Vice President and environmental activist Al Gore, philanthropist Melinda Gates, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, education champion Malala Yousafzai, as well as Rappler’s Maria Ressa.

Melinda Gates used her considerable clout to introduce +SocialGood, a global organization attempting to harness technology for social good.  On her panel were two of the five inaugural +SocialGood global advisors: Ressa, who relayed lessons from the Manila summit and Esther Agbarakwe, founder of the Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition.

The panel spotlighted PH+SocialGood’s thrust to move beyond words to action.  Ressa spoke about combining top down government response with bottom up civic engagement to tackle one of the Philippines’ most pressing problems: climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.