Ambit’s journey is one riddled with
obstacles and some difficulties in between and last summer’s notebook
distribution proved to be such an impossible mission, but we didn’t only gather
10,000 notebooks – we reached 13,000 and that is because of you our beloved
donors and supporters. Each bend in the road, can be surprising if not
discouraging, but as we go along, the children we get to know with are the ones
who give us the encouragement that we need. John Mark is one of these children
that we met recently. As a 14-year-old
boy, he is way too small for his age. His skin is tanned due to long hours of
hard work in their farm under the scorching sun. In the mountains, it’s cool in
the evening but mostly the sun is harsh during the day. Parts of his arms and legs
are also scarred due to accidents he experiences while working. Most of his
fingers and toe nails are horrendously dark and untrimmed; we later found out
that his family is into charcoal making.
Despite being small, one can tell how
strong he actually is, as his arms are toned compared to other kids his age.
John Mark is the fourth in the brood of nine. One of his older brothers lives
faraway to work for a family who sends him to school. Other older brothers are
away to try and fend for themselves. For John Mark, school was his least
priority, putting aside his own desires of finishing school and getting a
degree. He said he is needed in the farm and charcoal making, much more than he
is needed in school. Finishing school was some distant imagination.
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| While on our way to Sitio So-So to distribution notebooks, we passed by John Mark pulling his carabao home, from all in a day's work. Pictured here are his parents who do do all sorts of tilling, logging, and charcoal making to feed all 9 children. |
John Mark was a shy boy in front of the
volunteers, but maybe he was just not familiar with us; we were strangers to
him. We learned piece by piece that he was fun to be with after some series of random
conversations. There were times that he would blurt out some jokes out of thin
air and the rest of the highland kids would burst into innocent laughers. He had
helped us in so many ways while we were staying in one of the local’s houses in
Sitio So-So. It was surprising at first to see him carry heavy boxes without
batting an eyelash.
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| John Mark's dedication as our beneficiary and now volunteer is very encouraging. |
It is true that legends and metaphors are
not only resting behind the highland’s vast forest; they were also laid open in
shared meals and conversations with people especially children. John Mark’s
story was not an easy one to listen to. Most of us shook our heads while others
simply looked away.
John Mark's family is a product of
intergenerational cycle of poverty. His grandparents were also living in
poverty. The next generation—his mother and father, soon inherited the same
problem due to lack of education.
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| John Mark with his buddy Gabriel. John Mark is 14 and Gabriel is 11. |
The boy is dreaming that one day his family
would no longer be making charcoals so he needed to study even if studying
meant he would wake up at 5 in the morning to walk for three hours going to
school every day. It was an option he desperately chose because if not he would
be making charcoal and do farming for the rest of his life. His daily effort of
waking up at the wee hours and walking more than 30 kilometres to school paid off
as last year he got second honors in their class. His achievement was a baby
step towards his goal.
Asked about his favorite hobby, his answer
was too different from other children in the lowlands. Spare time for him and
his siblings meant they could go out in the forest and hunt for wild pigs. In
context, that sounded fun but in real life we knew it was hard. His answer was
innocent and fun as he was smiling and we did laugh too. His answer sank into
our hearts as if it had sharp teeth; even in their hobbies, highland kids still
think of their families—of bringing food to the table in order to survive. That
was reality and it really got us. Despite the smiles in our faces, the pang in
my stomach was kicking in.
We went to the highlands in hopes of
showing the kids the value of education, but as we went home it was us who were
educated. When we were about to leave the village, we promised John Mark one thing—we would help
him as much as we could for him to continue his education and maybe one day get
a degree. We don’t know how but deep inside we just believe it is possible, just
like the notebooks we had collected.
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| If we can help one child, we help the entire family. The smiles on their faces are enough encouragement for us to keep moving. |
Today, as we celebrate our Second Founding
Anniversary, we are presenting to the world our new scholar, John Mark Lozada.
He is one among the few children we have been helping to reach their dreams,
and we believe that it is through education. The intergeneration poverty cycle
is harsh but education is the only shot we got to break the chain. John Mark will now join Toto Jande, our
scholar in Sitio Maatop, Brgy Sangke, the last village in the south of Negros.
Starting from one scholar, and now we have
two, is part of our baby steps, but we hope to add more if the provision from
above permits. We cannot do this on our own. We need your help to help John
Mark. Today, our only kind of celebration is to share our children’s story with
you as a thanksgiving to the one who brought us all together for this mission.
As I end this story, I would like to share
these lines from my favorite author, Paulo Coelho taken from his book The Fifth
Mountain. “A child can always teach an adult three things: to be happy for no
reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all
his might that which he desires.”
