Binibining Pilipinas Katrina Anne Johnson continues to help Filipino communities get closer to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) adopted by the United Nations.
The pharmacist from Davao, the Philippines’ delegate to the 2026 Miss International pageant in Japan later this year, took part in a recent livelihood session with the women of Barangay Karuhatan in Valenzuela City.
‘Inclusion means making sure opportunities are within reach,’ Johnson said of the learning session conducted by Tesda (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority), the government’s primary agency for technical-vocational education and training.
The agency facilitated a pet shampoo making livelihood session with PWDs (persons with disabilities) and single parents of Karuhatan, in hopes of encouraging the residents to pursue entrepreneurship.
‘The intention behind this initiative was more than just teaching participants how to make a single product. It was to introduce a skill that could be practiced, developed, replicated and potentially turned into an additional stream of income,’ Johnson said.’For people who encounter greater barriers to conventional employment, having another avenue to earn can mean greater independence, greater agency and, most of all, greater security,’ she continued.
Johnson said the intiative demonstrated how SDGs 1, 8, 10 and 17 ‘can intersect in practice, showing how different global goals can reinforce one another to widen access to sustainable livelihoods.’
The Miss International pageant has been promoting the 17 SDGs, requiring the delegates to spearhead campaigns in their respective countries to help achive the goals before the target in 2030.
Johnson celebrated SDG Flag Day on Sept. 25 with a series of photographs assembled in collages that showed her participating in various initiatives in schools, hospitals, villages and remote islands across the Philippines.
‘After nearly a decade of seeing our communities up close, the SDGs have come to represent the kind of future I want to help create: one where opportunity is not limited by circumstance, where inclusion is built into progress, and where people can thrive without compromising the world that sustains them,’ she said.
Johnson is on a mission to post the Philippines’ seventh Miss International win. The ‘Final Gala’ will be held at Kanadevia Hall (formerly Tokyo Dome City Hall) in Tokyo, Japan, on Nov. 25.