A wooden pushcart that is stocked with school materials such as books, pens, tables and chairs and then moved into unconventional locations including the cemetery or trash dump on Saturdays to hold classes and recreate school settings for impoverished children can in the long run be a tool for changing lives for the better. This is the thrust of the pushcart classroom pioneered by Dynamic Teen Company that was founded by Efren Penaflorida, who has been recognized for his efforts to provide education where it is most needed. CNN has named him as its Hero of the Year for 2009, which includes an award of $100,000 cash for him to continue his work with the group.[1]
Efren Penaflorida was born in 1981 and grew up poor in an urban slum area near an open dump site in Cavite City where his family ran a small noodle business to make a living. He played amongst garbage, swam in polluted waters, often fell victim to bullying, but became one of World Vision’s sponsored children in early childhood.
Penaflorida was scholar and an honor graduate in elementary and high school and completed a computer technology degree in college, where he also received the highest honors, and a Second Education degree, where he graduated cum laude.[2]
Penaflorida formed a youth group named Dynamic Teen Company in his high school in 1997 which aimed at moving students away from street gangs and towards community action and personal development. The group of 20 members sought to develop youth and talent awareness projects and community services, and eventually hatched the idea of a pushcart classroom that would provide education to poor children.[3]
Dynamic Teen Company started the Care of Impoverished Children program which reached out to slum children between the ages of 2 and 14 every weekend by way of a pushcart filled with school supplies. Children flock to the cart every Saturday to learn the value of education from Penaflorida and his volunteers and are taught reading, writing, arithmetic and English. The group also started a basic hygiene clinic for children. It funded its efforts by creating and selling crafts made from recycled old bottles and newspapers and saw potential in their cause. Dynamic Teen Company eventually grew to have more than 10,000 members by 2009 and has helped more than 1,500 children living in slum areas. It has successfully reformed former gang members, addicts and dropouts who are now serving as volunteer mentors to other children and as fund-raisers, and also hopes to expand its four pushcart classrooms to reach more children.[4]
Dynamic Teen Company received exposure when it filmed its pushcart classroom activities and was featured in a TV program, and when it later uploaded the video in youtube.com. The video in the Internet soon caught worldwide attention and got featured in the Oprah’s Angel Network website. CNN later learned of the efforts of Penaflorida and Dynamic Teen Company and got in touch with him and suggested that his story be submitted for the CNN Hero of the Year recognition for 2009, which Penaflorida eventually won.[5]
It is commendable that Penaflorida has acknowledged that many groups around the Philippines are doing things similar to what their group is doing and does not like to claim that the pushcart classroom idea is entirely theirs.[6]
He views the CNN award as a recognition not only for him and his group, but also for everyone else engaged in the same efforts, and for the entire country as well. Penaflorida believes in the hidden hero within each person and has demonstrated that an ordinary person like him is capable of doing something extraordinary and also be a hero in his/her own way. He believes that people can release the heroes within them by opening their minds and hearts to the needs of the less fortunate, and by contributing whatever they can for the good of the community.[7]
[1] “Efren Penaflorida”, Wikipedia, 14 March 2011, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efren_Pe%C3%B1aflorida>
[accessed 1 June 2011]
[2] ibid
[3] ibid
[4] Amanda Molinaro from Irvine, “Community Hero: Efren Penaflorida”, 2010,
<http://www.myhero.com/go/hero.asp?hero=Efren_Penaflorida_2009> [accessed 2 June 2011]
[5] Rochelle Pangilinan, “Efren Penaflorida: An Ordinary Man Doing Extraordianary Things”, AsianJournal, 24 September 2009, <http://www.asianjournal.com/aj-magazine/something-filipino/3027-efren-penaflorida-an-ordinary-man-doing-extraordinary-things.html?start=1> [accessed 2 June 2011]
[6] ibid
[7] ibid
No comments:
Post a Comment