Korea.net has launched a new collaborative project with its honorary reporters around the world. Each honorary reporter will write a story on the same topic, but from each of their own home cities. The stories will then be shared with our community of Korea.net readers.

For the first subject in the series, Korea.net asked our honorary reporters to send in a touching story from their home communities. Here's our third story on this subject, from the Philippines.

Filipino Efren Peñaflorida is not your average teacher. He doesn't not teach inside schools, but rather he brings schools to children all over the nation. It's no surprise that Efren Peñaflorida became a sensation when his "pushcart classrooms" became viral, which earned him the Hero Of The Year award from CNN in 2009.

The Kariton Klasrum project, or in English the Pushcart Classroom, was a collaboration between the youth group Dynamic Teen Company and the community service organization Club 8586. The project consisted of pushcarts that were stocked with school materials, such as various books, pens, tables and chairs. The volunteers then bring their mobile schools and create school settings in unconventional locations, such as at cemeteries, parks or on the corner of a street: wherever the children were. This initiative diverted poor children from joining gangs and instead motivated and supported them to immerse themselves in education. They tried to make a difference in the lives of the younger generation, to give them hope that there is a chance for a brighter future.



Efren Penaflorida was up against more than 9,000 nominees from over 100 countries. After weeks of online voting, CNN honored him as Hero Of The Year on Nov. 22, 2009. I personally loved and was moved by the speech he gave when he accepted the award.

"Our planet is filled with heroes, young and old, rich and poor, man and woman, of different colors, shapes and sizes. We are one great tapestry. Each person has a hidden hero within. You just have to look inside and search for it in your heart. Be the hero to the next person in need. So, to each and every person inside this theater, and for those who are watching at home, the hero in you is waiting to be unleashed.

"Serve. Serve well. Serve others above yourself and be happy to serve. As I always tell to my co-volunteers, you are the change that you dream, as I am the change that I dream, and collectively we are the change that this world needs to be."

He became a household name in the Philippines after he received his award, which in my opinion was well deserved. Peñaflorida humbly said that the award and the title was significant because it gave him and his fellow volunteers the affirmation that what they were doing was a worthy cause.

Interest in helping, volunteering and donating to his mobile classroom project poured in from all over the world. His pushcart classroom project prompted other organizations to do the same in other parts of the nation.

"Filipinos have become more aware of the need for these children to be educated, fed and taken care of. Before, they saw a pushcart as a symbol of poverty. Now, they see a pushcart as a symbol of hope and education."



According to Peñaflorida, as of 2015 there are already a total of 84 ongoing Kariton Klasrum sites. He explains that the goal of the program is not to really replace traditional schools, but more to entice the out-of-school youth to study again, to point them in the right direction instead of letting them get lost in bad influences, and eventually to go back to school and to finish their education.

By Nadine Postigo
Korea.net Honorary Reporter
Photo·Source: CNN (https://www.choprafoundation.org/speakers/efren-g-penaflorida-jr)

http://koreanetblog.blogspot.kr/2017/02/efren-penaflorida-of-pushcart-classroom.html