By Edson C. Tandoc Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:16:00 03/23/2009

MANILA, Philippines—His expression of gratitude comes in the form of a wooden pushcart loaded with crayons, books, pens, clothes, jugs of water, a blackboard and a Philippine flag.

Every Saturday, the pushcart goes to the public cemetery, market and dump in Cavite City where 28-year-old Efren Peñaflorida has been leading teenagers, for more than a decade now, in teaching street children basic literacy skills and values to save them from illegal drugs and prevent them from joining gangs.

Peñaflorida’s pushcart has earned him recognition, the most recent being a citation from international news agency CNN as a modern-day hero. CNN gets nominees around the world to be featured as a hero—an ordinary individual with an extraordinary impact—each week.

Himself a victim of gangs when he was in high school, Peñaflorida knows by heart what poverty can do: Snatch children out of school and lead them to violence.

Born to a father who worked as a tricycle driver and to a mother who was a laundrywoman, he managed to finish college through the help of other people.

Giving back

Through the pushcart, Peñaflorida is giving back. “I realized why I was created and I want to fulfill this mission,” he said.

Peñaflorida is referring to Dynamic Teen Company (DTC), which he and his classmates at Cavite National High School formed in August 1997.

The company began as a simple gathering of some 30 schoolmates as an alternative to the numerous teenager gangs which got involved in riots at that time.

But Peñaflorida himself is surprised how DTC grew into a group that now has 2,000 active teenager members all over Cavite province.

“We asked ourselves what causes the creation of gangs and we found that most of their members are teenagers who live in the slums,” he said.

In its early years, DTC visited children in the community where Peñaflorida himself grew: The town’s dump.

More than empty stomachs

The group initially brought food for the children, getting funds from selling junks they collect, but the problem was more than just empty stomachs.

DTC started to grow and soon, members decided to start literacy classes every Saturday. To carry books and a blackboard, the group bought a bike with a sidecar.

But once in a while, the tires would run flat and the chains fall off, so high school senior Emanuel Bagual, the current president of DTC, proposed that the group use a pushcart instead.

Peñaflorida almost had to drop out of grade school. His parents had told him, being the middle child among three siblings, that he had to give way to his elder brother who was finishing high school.

But a community volunteer helped Peñaflorida get a scholarship from the World Vision, a group which matches sponsors to needy children, when he was in Grade 5.

Thanks to his good grades, his sponsor from Australia agreed to finance his education until he finished a two-year diploma course on computer technology.

Club 8586, a volunteer group based in the city, also helped Peñaflorida in his studies and in setting up the DTC when he got into high school.

Calling

Being with street children most of the time, Peñaflorida felt that his calling was to be a teacher. He went back to school and completed a degree in education in 2006.

He knows that he could earn more if he tried his luck working abroad. He now works as a high school teacher in a private school in nearby Bacoor town.

Although Peñaflorida received his greatest gift when CNN aired its feature on him on his birthday on March 5, his parents were not able to watch the live broadcast and his live interview with journalist Larry King. They did not have cable TV at home.

Peñaflorida also knows he could give more if he earned more. To buy food and school supplies for the street children, DTC just depends on the commitment of its high school members for their fund-raising activities and donations.

But he said: “I have faith that the Lord will provide.”

He may not have much money, but he and the teenagers joining the DTC have their time and commitment to share.

At first, Peñaflorida’s family was not excited about his project. “You are just wasting your time,” he recalled what his parents had told him.

He could have spent time studying or finding part-time jobs to help the family instead of serving other people.

But now, even his youngest sister Glenis May is a proud volunteer of DTC.

Lives touched

Peñaflorida measures the success of the project not only by the enthusiasm of DTC members, who have pledged to spend their Saturdays teaching street children, but also by the young lives that the wooden pushcart has touched.

One of the children who attended the weekly sessions at the dump was Michael, who sniffed rugby and stole power wires when he was 7. Now 16, Michael is now a volunteer of DTC.

He knows better and regrets the way he spent his childhood. He wants to make sure other children will not make the same mistakes again.

“I found my goal in life,” Michael said.

Michael and the other members hold three sessions every Saturday. One group goes to the public market and another goes to the dump in the morning. In the afternoon, a group goes to the cemetery.

About a hundred kids join each session and they are grouped according to age.

The volunteers not only teach street children how to read, write and count, but also proper hygiene. They would bathe some of the children and give them clothes. They also instill faith among them.

Change

“You are the change that you dream,” Peñaflorida would tell the teenagers who join DTC.

In a country where many things go wrong, he said: “We are the change that we seek.”

The pushcart and the teenagers behind them have been reaping recognition, too. In 2008, DTC was cited as among the 10 accomplished youth organizations in the Philippines.

If the attention he and DTC have been getting makes Peñaflorida happy, it is because of the opportunity to inspire others.

“I hope other youth organizations will have their own pushcarts in other parts of the country,” he said.

Many children still need guidance and help, Peñaflorida said. This was the reason the DTC had just built its second wooden pushcart.