A Once Fulfilling Job

One of my cherished memories is when I got to work in a philanthrophic project at the age of twenty (20). Looking back at it now, I feel so ancient, LOL!

The younger and thinner version of me ;-)

I was the youngest in the team of equally beautiful women, naks! Putting aside the gasbag talk, my working experience with the Catholic institution’s community extension program is worth reminiscing. Mind you, I was the only employee that’s non-Catholic.

Smiling for the cam while in the middle of the preparation of materials for Teachers

Who would believe we were able to handle Parenting Sessions in the hinterlands but none of us bore kids of our own? It may sound ironic but the project’s Trainers were more than qualified to handle the jobs effectively and efficiently with Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education to boost. With yours truly handling the documentation, narrative reports and research, the rest of the team was very competent in their field of study sans kids.

Two years after we all separated ways and the project ceased to exist, one of the Ate's got married in 2008. She bore 2 healthy sons. Hurray! :-)

The Ford Foundation based in New York, USA made all these possible. The program from the very start was conceived to better prepare the child for entry into the formal school system and to facilitate adjustments into the structured and challenging situations.

So young, sexy and innocent, hahaha!

The program was also envisioned to address problems on dropouts among the primary school children especially in Grade One, cases of which are true in the Cotabato Region. Research revealed that one of the major causes for children dropping out of school was the teacher factor. Thus, teacher’s training specifically for preschool to Grade III became the focus of the program throughout Regions XI and XII in Mindanao.

Posing for tha camera was one of the office-based activities, LOL!

When I was hired to become a member of the workforce, I felt gratification and fulfillment having worked with and for the least privileged and the marginalized up in the mountains. Our main beneficiaries this time was the Indigenous Peoples (IPs). Effecting change of attitude among indigenous peoples specifically parents is believed to be an adequate intervention for their children to obtain quality education at least in the elementary level. Reaching out to various tribes in the hinterlands of Regions XI and XII in Mindanao had been a challenge. We had to travel three (3) times a week to various tribal communities.

In the communities, we learned that IPs live very simple lives. They go farming for cheap labor just to have some food for their family. The IP elders could hardly speak or understand other dialects other than their own. They were deprived of even just the basic education; much more, they did not have the opportunity for social exposures to the mainstream of our society. Because of poverty, the IP elders were wrapped up into a living devoid of plans and bright future. I could say a lot more to how deprived these people were. I can’t help but feel for them.

The team did the best we could to hopefully alleviate their plight. We did not encourage dole out. At the heart of the effort to promote quality early childhood education program with the IP communities, a substantial investment in the education and training of those who worked with young children is a necessity.

The team did its best in empowering the parents, the rest of the stakeholders and the community at large to possibly put an end to the long sufferings of these people. It is with high hopes and great expectation that they continue to value education being their best weapon to combat poverty.

Indeed, having worked with these beautiful people is truly rewarding.

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Nostalgia | Happiness Is…