My Journey Against Ignorance
Have you ever seen children selling Sampaguitas around the church, children begging on the street while you’re stuck on traffic or simply seeing children play bare feet under the heat of the sun? Well they are part of the youth that will hopefully make a difference for the better.
Well, let’s start with this quote by our country’s national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, from his poem “A la juventud Filipina” written in 1879.
“The youth is the hope of our Fatherland.” - Jose Rizal
He died fighting and believing that there is still hope for our county. For him the children are the one that we are supposed to focus on, the children of our tomorrow. But unfortunately a lot of children right now are having a great difficulty against poverty. According to United Nation Children’s Fund or known as UNICEF, an influential organization that promotes a better world for every child in this planet, that 44% of children ranging from 0-15 on 2006 in the Philippines are living in poverty. They are deprived from food, sanitation, water, shelter, education and information, the education that every child should have and the information to let them be aware of what is happening to the world that is revolving around them.
I emphasized on education and information because both of them are linked up to what bothers me the most, which is ignorance. Since children is the hope of our future, we and my fellow advocates found an NGO named Tuloy Foundation, an organization that provides residential care and service to the homeless and disadvantage children, they also have some education program and recreational program where we can help. We also found a person suggested by our professor, a willing citizen to educate a rightful student by paying for his education where we recommended this NGO.
I also found and joined another organization within the grounds of De La Salle University, Manila named Lasallian Youth Religious Educators or known as LYRE. They educate children around manila, a group that negotiates with other public schools and encourage them to have a catechises session with their youthful educators from La Salle. But before the catechesis starts the Chatechist must be trained well and have first a demo on what they will do. They also thought us some tips on being an efficient educator, especially for children since the usually have a short attention span.
Thru that I have satisfied my worries and helped the youth. I might not make a big difference right now but at least I have done something to help others and influenced them.
Live Jesus in Our |Hearts, Forever!
