Hi EA PH Community Member,

We in EA Philippines hope you are doing alright amidst the typhoons that have battered our country. This has already been a difficult year, and the last few weeks with these typhoons have been especially difficult. Nevertheless, we hope you can build up your ability to make a difference to others through some of the resources below. We hope you'd also like to learn more about what EA Philippines has been up to, and what our thoughts are on the recent typhoons.

- Brian, Kate, and Tanya from EA Philippines

P.S. You are receiving this newsletter because you either signed up for a previous event of EA Philippines or EA Blue, or are a member of EA Blue.

Apply to join the EAGxAsia-Pacific conference

The EAGxAPAC conference is happening this November 21-22 from 9am-7pm, and we highly recommend you to apply to attend. It will be two days that will showcase the amazing projects of organizations and people in the EA Asia community, mainly around the causes of health and development, farm animal welfare, and mitigating existential risks. There will also be talks from leaders of the EA community. Here are some of the speakers to excite you:

• Peter Singer, moral philosopher (dubbed “the world's most influential living philosopher” by the New Yorker)

• William MacAskill, co-founder of the EA movement and author of Doing Good Better

• Dr. Michael Kremer, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics

• Karolina Sarek, Director of Research of Charity Entrepreneurship

• Jaan Tallinn, co-founder of Skype, Center for the Study of Existential Risk, and the Future of Life Institute

• Our very own Tanya Quijano, EA Philippines’ co-founder and an independent monitoring & evaluation consultant.

For a full list of confirmed speakers and the topics, click here.

There is also a networking platform and some networking sessions for you to meet other people in the effective altruism community in Asia, Oceania, and other countries. EA PH’s co-founders Brian and Kate will also be involved in the event. Kate will be hosting an icebreaker on animal welfare, while Brian will be hosting a few of the sessions.

Applications close November 18, so there’s still time to apply! The recommended payment for attending is 40 USD, but the minimum cost is 5 USD (~PHP 240). If you have any issues when it comes to payment (they require a credit card), you can email team@effectivealtruism.ph for help on how to pay without a credit card. Apply now at eaglobal.org/events/asia-pacific. It would be great to see you there!
 

Fill up EA Philippines’ 2020 Community and Impact Survey

Have you benefited from any of EA Philippines’ events or activities? Or would you like to give us feedback on what activities to run for the next 3-6 months? We would like to get your feedback on what our impact was on you, how engaged you are in EA, and what activities/projects you'd like to see from us. If you fill up the survey, you have a chance to win a P2,000 donation to the charity of your choice. We'll be selecting one survey response at random by the end of December, and you can let us know where to donate it.

The survey takes between 15-40 minutes to fill up, depending on how much we have made an impact on you and how much feedback you'd like to give. Fill up the form now at bit.ly/EAPHCommunitySurvey2020!
 

Updates from EA Philippines and our sub-groups

Other announcements and resources

New to effective altruism? Learn about it through this TED talk.  

William MacAskill, the co-founder of the EA movement, gives a great introduction to effective altruism in this TED talk, entitled “What are the most important moral problems of our time?” Watch it here if you haven’t yet! You can also read an introduction to effective altruism here.
 

Our Thoughts on the Recent Typhoons

Recently, our country has been battered by successive typhoons, and we see many pleas for help. We in EA Philippines have been thinking about how we may best approach the persistent problem of suffering brought about by disasters, especially against other ongoing and pressing problems that Filipinos and other populations are suffering from.

Based on our observations, many organizations, both large and small, have been giving attention to the immediate needs of those affected. While these efforts helped ease the suffering for some, more can be done if these organizations synergize efforts and if the national and local governments can further intensify their response. To ensure that these remain effective and efficient, people should carefully think how they can be of best help on the margin with their time and money. If you plan on donating to or helping disaster relief operations and making a difference today, you can read this article written by GiveWell or this article on “Effective Altruism after disasters”.

As much as relief operations can do a great deal of good for our communities today, there is still a lot of room for improving and enhancing our capabilities to prevent disasters or prepare ourselves better for them. 

These typhoons should also remind us how grave the problem of climate change is, which is getting worse and worse, and we are getting more and more affected. There is an organization called Founders Pledge that is inspired by the philosophy of effective altruism, and they have research on pressing problems and which giving opportunities are most effective in helping solve these problems, including climate change. Founders Pledge has done great research on which non-profits are likely going to be most effective in helping mitigate climate change, and you can read more about that in this report. Johannes Ackva, one of the two researchers behind this report, will be presenting about it in the upcoming EAGxAPAC conference.

We in EA Philippines are in solidarity with everyone who has been affected by the recent onslaught of typhoons, and encourage everyone to consider actions that they can take to improve lives not only during disasters, but making sure that this amount of suffering won’t happen again.