Our Story

How it all started

It all started with our Founder Rahel when she visited her family in Bohol, Philippines in early 2019. Since she was working on a doctoral research project in the field of social media behaviour at the time, she received many queries from family and friends of all ages, particularly concerned parents, regarding dangers of the Internet. When an opportunity arose for her to speak at her nephews’ school, the government run Tagbilaran City Science Highschool in Bohol, she was happy to give a talk on Online safety, privacy and how to spot fake news & disinformation. 

It was a huge challenge to pack all the information of such a broad topic into a 1-hour presentation. There was so much to talk about! Rahel’s presentation was received with a lot of interest by the audience of more than 600, which in addition to students also included teachers and some parents. What was particularly striking was the level of engagement during the presentation, as well as the questions asked by the students in the Q&A at the end. Some teachers were taking notes, while parents listened attentively. It was evident: there was a huge demand for more information on staying safe online and understanding more about the ways of the Internet. Although the presentation was a success, Rahel came away from it wishing she had more time and better resources to teach and share the knowledge she had acquired throughout her university education where she specialised in digital political communication. Observing the content being shared on Facebook from her Filipino contacts, confirmed the demand for such general education on online safety and Internet literacy. Perhaps she could make this a project sometime in the future.

Rahel with her nephews who organise her presentation at theTagbilaran City Science High School in Bohol, Philippines..

Well, that time came sooner than expected. Rahel decided to leave academia and by December 2019 started to transform her thoughts into action. Since then she has developed the concept of BANTAYnet and together with an enthusiastic and passionate team that form the Board of Trustees, we have tirelessly been building BANTAYnet so it can become the platform for Internet related learning in English and Filipino languages that is no longer just Rahel’s vision, but has become OUR vision. We hope to make it YOUR vision too!

During the very engaging Q&A with the high school students.

How you can help

Social Media

One of the easiest and least time consuming ways to help us out is by simply liking and sharing our content on Social Media. Your simple act of sharing our content will certainly go a long way!!!

Translation

Know a Filipino language and are comfortable with translating from English? If so you might like to be one of our Translation Volunteers.

Fundraising

If you enjoy organising entertaining events such as bake sales, fun-runs or online charity quizzes for example, perhaps you would like to be a Fundraising Volunteer?

Donate

We rely heavily on the generous donations from our supporters. The more financial help we can get, the faster we can expand our services to other Filipino languages!