Inspiration

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In this time of crisis, I have seen and heard so many heartbreaking scenes. But there also emerged much to be inspired and happy about.

There’s the overwhelming response for calls for donations and volunteers in the wake of typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng (Ketsana and Parma). I am humbled, because being a victim ourselves, I wasn’t too keen on helping out. So many others were hit harder than my family, surely I could have helped them out too. I didn’t, and that makes me feel bad. Yet, I can somehow live with it. Later today, the boyfriend and I will be heading out to the mall, I’ll be sure to drop by the National Bookstore.  I heard that they have school supplies packed specifically to donate to schools/students hit by the typhoon. You only need to purchase them for 20 pesos a pack, and they take care of it for you. I will definitely check it out and purchase a few.

Efren Peñaflorida – CNN Hero – Pilipino!

If you’ve been around Pinoy blogs, you have definitely already read about one of our own being a finalist in this year’s CNN Heroes.  Efren Peñaflorida leads a group of young people in making sure that even the impoverished children of his hometown receive basic education. They load their karitons with books, notebooks and other teaching instruments and push them on to various locations where the children can be found. It’s a wonderful idea – if the children can’t go to school, take the learning to them.

This reminds me of a project we had at ECPAT and the YP-ACSEC in 2000 – still what I consider my glory days.

In 2000, with support from UNICEF Manila, we identified five barangays and ran basic education classes for kids whose families could not afford to send them to school. This was pre-school style for kids who were old enough to be in grade school, 2 to 3 times a week. We worked with barangay officials to identify the families and to secure a venue. We prepared our own curriculum (we had two Education majors in our organization then) to make sure we tackled the 4Rs: Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic, and children’s Rights.

Once upon a time my friends in the YP and I had a dream of continuing projects like this, and moving on to other communities. It is sad that we didn’t continue. I can’t say if we still have it in us do something similar or not.

I think that one of the reasons why I no longer do what I used to do is that as an adult, I worked in an NGO that mainly worked on advocacy that was far removed from the children it wanted to make a difference for. You know what I mean? With the YP, we worked directly with child-survivors of commercial sexual exploitation, or with urban poor communities. With Asia ACTs, we worked with other NGOs, and then with LGUs. If I could go back to doing NGO work, I’d seek one that will allow me to do something similar to what we used to do at the YP, kahit thunders na kami ngayon. 🙂

Gone too soon…

There are also recent deaths that have left me sad, but also inspired in the marks they’ve both left behind.

The morning after the great flood, Diane (my kuya’s girlfriend) came out from their room to tell us about a message that came in from Kelly (another friend) – Paul had a heart attack and had died. The news has yet to be confirmed, he said. I shivered with a sudden cold and immediately counted on the fact that it was yet to be confirmed. When my brother came out from the shower – I told him the news, but left out the part where his good friend might already be dead. He read the message himself, and he cursed in disbelief – a normal reaction. The news spread across our compound and everyone was abuzz. We all knew Paul very well, and he knew all of us.

When the news was finally confirmed – no one was still accepting it.

We were fortunate to have so much cleaning to do that our minds were occupied by rebuilding, rather than the great loss he was to his family, friends and community.

A few days later, we were all at the memorial put together by YAM – the community organization that Paul belonged to. I cried. I brought my camera with me, fully intending to be paparazzi but I just couldn’t stand up and stop the tears from flowing at the same time. So I sat there at the back row, biting back tears.

Paul is a funny guy. He always was. When I was in highschool, he spent so much time in our house. He would sleep over, and when he wakes up he’d go home to his mom just a few houses away from ours. I remember asking him to draw a lot for my homework, and such. Sometimes he would cook too.

He also volunteered in the organization my mom used to work in. Then years later, when my moved to work somewhere else he worked there too. When he got married, they asked mom to be ninang. So Paul was definitely a part of the family in many ways. It seemed natural that she was asked to deliver a eulogy during the funeral.

A lot of people talked about how Paul touched their lives. And always, it was his positive outlook and jolly personality that everyone remembers.

I posted photos we had of Paul over on Facebook, I also uploaded two short videos of him playing Blackbird using kuya’s guitar in one of their drinking sessions, exactly a year ago today. That’s the Paul we will always remember – the life of the party, a loyal friend and brother, and loving father, husband, and son.

Tagay Paul, and hug Lola and Auntie Leesah super tight for all of us.

Just last week, I was blog hopping and saw a familiar name mentioned – a certain Alecks Pabico had died from liver cancer. I knew his sister, Ate Tracy from the ECPAT years. We had met Kuya Alecks a few times too. He was also the webmaster behind the IPS Alert! website I linked to above when I mentioned our alternative basic education program. I don’t know if he knew me in particular, distinct from the YP he sure would have heard of. I seriously doubt it. And I didn’t really know him. But I was reading what others were saying about him, and I was again inspired by his passion.

It struck a chord in me, so despite having a falling out with his sister many years ago, I sought her out to send her my condolences. Maybe it’s time the YP thunders meet with her again, and be friends.

So there four different ways that I’ve been inspired lately. I hope that whatever was sparked within me, won’t die down so quickly. God knows I need something meaningful in my life again.