Today, a group of young people in Cavite is creating their own sort of Katipunan, fighting for children’s rights, arming themselves with compassion and determination to push for change.

The Dynamic Teen Company (DTC) is making their own history with their project Kariton, Klasrum, at Klinik (K3). This project also helped them grab a spot in the 2008 Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations (TAYO), in recognition of the youths’ contribution to community service and nation-building.

The K3 project, which started as a pedicab outreach in 2004 is now a full-blown mission, reaching hundreds of unfortunate kids in Cavite. The kariton (pushcart) that the group designed converts into a classroom with a library, chairs, tables and chalkboards, packed with school supplies and educational toys to be used in teaching.

This kariton also houses the klinik (clinic) that conducts annual hygiene orientation project, gives supplies like soaps, towels, toothbrushes, combs, shampoo, among others.

Just last month DTC upgraded the K3 project and is now called K4 to represent Kariton, Klasrum, Klinik at Kantin. And after winning the TAYO, DTC has been getting attention from local and international media, with no less than CNN International making a documentary about the group.

For more than a decade now, DTC has been helping the underprivileged children, pulling them away from the bad influences of today’s harsh environment. The group works in the depressed areas of Cavite city particularly in the Cavite City Public Market, Himlayang Caviteño Cemetery, a former city dumpsite, and an area where the Badjao tribes congregate.

“Since Kuya F (Efren G. Peñaflorida Jr.), our founder, lives near the slums and the cemetery and dumpsite, he saw that most of today’s young delinquents and gang members are in those areas. He thought of instead putting them in jail for the crimes they commit, why not prevent that from happening by nurturing these kids early on in life and introducing them to the love of learning,” relates 16-year-old Emmanuel Bagual, DTC chief executive officer.

Away from the Dumps

DTC was formed by four high school teens from Cavite National High School in August 1997. Efren “Kuya F” Peñaflorida Jr. founded the group of around 20 members from their campus to divert the attention of the students from joining gangs and notorious frats that were thriving on campus.

Eventually, it became a friendship club that catered to youth awareness projects, talent development and self development activities. In 1999, Peñaflorida, who lived and was raised in a shanty near the city dumpsite, started to reach out to kids who were scavenging in the dumps by giving them clean food instead of the dirty leftover food they scrounged from trash. More young people started to join its feeding project, the “Kalingain Batang Mahirap.”

In 2003, DTC started the literacy work when the founder took up Education in college. At that time the group, particularly Peñaflorida, was noticed by ABS-CBN and recognized him as one of the Gawad Geny Lopez Jr. Bayaning Kabataang Pilipino awardees in 2004.

About 75 percent of the cash award from ABS-CBN were used to fund the regular schooling of potential youth leaders and to purchase a pedicab for the literacy and feeding work of DTC.

“Since 2003 up to the present, we are teaching mostly unschooled, labor-exploited and neglected kids in the streets. We trained to teach under the supervision of Kuya F who is a professional educator. Hygiene and first aid skills are being supervised by registered midwives and professional nurses who are DTC alumni. We conduct weekly feeding, first aid treatment of scabies and wounds and values formation activities,” Bagual explains.

Bagual also shares that the children are slowly reaping the benefits of the projects. “The beneficiaries are progressing, health wise, and are having total development. Former drug users and petty thieves have turned around helping as volunteers. Former scavengers are now in school and help in raising funds through performances and recycling drives and other projects. Some of the children who remain unschooled now know how to read and write.”

The youth organization is also starting a food bank drive and on its early stages in their campus tours, promoting the group’s advocacy on human rights awareness. Last year, DTC also launched a fund- raising concert and songwriting competition entitled LAKBAYAN (Likhang Awit Kabataan para sa BAYAN). This June, the group is planning to launch DTC in the Metro Manila area.

Changing Lives

Most of DTC’s former beneficiaries are now returning the favor in great gratitude.

One of these “changed” individuals is 16-year old Michael Rageree “Myk” Advincula. A senior high school student, Myk  was a former solvent addict, a self-confessed thief, a juvenile delinquent, a garbage scavenger at age six. But he is now giving back to DTC, working as its business manager in charge of raising funds through recycling and operating a mini store. He is also one of the volunteer teachers.

One of the younger volunteers, on the other hand,  is 10-year old Kesz Valdez, a former street urchin who suffered from unhealthy conditions almost all his life. He too was exploited and worked as a scavenger in the trash dump and even worse, at one point, was stealing to survive.

With DTC’s help, Kesz is now enrolled in a formal school as a third grader who is showing great progress. Young as he is, he also volunteers as a hygiene demonstrator model to other kids, teaching them how to wash hands, brush their teeth and take a bath properly.

“Kesz also attends Kariton Klasrum at Klinik to assist other kids in reading and to play with them. He also saves up all year round to buy slippers and clothes to give to child beggars on his birthday. In 2007, he was able to give around 20 gifts. Last year, he bought 54 new pairs of slippers as his gift to the homeless kids in the streets who are his classmates in our Kariton Klasrum at Klinik,” Bagual shares.

DTC members all agree that the fruit of their labor far outweighs all the sacrifices and the hardships that they encounter in carrying on their mission. They of course know that at the end of the day, it is still the government that has the responsibility to carry out much-needed social services. But the spirit of helping just became so contagious that these young people can’t help it but do their share.

“Never be afraid to take risks especially in doing the right thing. We know we can make a difference, dream of a better world and act towards it. We are the change, so let us fulfill this dream by changing one heart at a time,” Bagual admonishes.