Out of 30 high school graduates, only eight to 10 continue their education and move on to college, while the rest choose to become farmers, casual laborers, or decide to start a family at a very young age.
This is the reality faced by the youth of Sta. Ines in Tanay, Rizal. It may be only a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Manila, but it is worlds apart in opportunities. Situated in the distant mountains of Tanay, one must cross nine rivers to be able to get to Sta. Ines Elementary School.
Out of the school’s 260 pupils, 40 represent the Dumagat, an indigenous people with roots traced to the Aetas. They were sea gypsies: Semi-nomadic people who made their homes along the coast of Quezon.
Living in a remote area, the community has difficulty in getting access to education. The mountains they live in may be part of a beautiful landscape, but it has become an obstacle to Sta. Ines.
Thanks to the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997, the elementary school in Sta. Ines managed to establish satellite classrooms in the Dumagat communities, and worked closely with the Department of Education to create a customized curriculum for the tribe’s children.
Teachers of Sta. Ines also learned the Dumagat language so that it would be easier for students to understand the lessons.
“We can’t do it alone”, shares Sta. Ines Elementary School Principal Adoracion Valdez. “We need stakeholders who can help us empower the children and show them that it is possible to graduate from the school and accomplish anything they want.”
Valdez, the seventh of 10 children, said her parents had always motivated her. Despite being simple farmers, they struggled to be able to send all their children to school. “That gift is immeasurable,” she said. “My parents believed that education is the only inheritance they could give us.”
This belief is shared by 13-year-old Elizabeth Laurio, a sixth-grade student at the Sta. Ines Elementary School, who upon her mother’s untimely death last year, had to become a mother to her five younger siblings. Many times, Elizabeth had to absent herself from school to look after the children at home.
Elizabeth lets circumstances surrounding her motivate her, even more, to continue her studies and fulfill the dream of becoming a teacher, to help her family and many more children in her village break out of the cycle of poverty.
“Dreams are free,” she said in Filipino. “So, I will hold tight to my dream.”
To help children like Elizabeth fulfill their dreams, MoneyGram, a global provider of innovative money transfer services, through the MoneyGram Foundation, donated P1 million to the Black Pencil Project, a civilian volunteer organization helping to promote primary education and welfare to remote and indigenous Philippine communities to promote children’s primary education and welfare.
MoneyGram Foundation’s mission of “pencils without orders” is firmly rooted in the belief that education is the key to better economic opportunities, healthier families, individual freedom, and empowerment.
The donation will benefit at least six barrio schools and provide at least 2,500 students from kindergarten to grade six with prescribed pencils, writing pads, notebooks, and art materials.
MoneyGram will also provide supplies to the Ivatans and Ifugaos of Banawe from Cambulo Elementary School, the Dumagats of Rizal from Casili Elementary School, and the Aetas of Tarlac from Labney Elementary school in Mayantoc Tarlac.
Other communities that will benefit from this donation include the Ivatans of Batanes from Sabtang Central Elementary School, the Palawanons of Palawan from Cagayan Elementary School, and the Mangyans of Mindoro from Sablayan Elementary School.
“This is our way of reaching out to our brothers from the marginalized communities to let them know they are not alone in reaching their dreams,” said Alex Lim, MoneyGram Philippine country manager. “We firmly believe that education is the key to a better tomorrow.”
It’s a belief shared by Adoracion Valdez and Elizabeth Laurio.
“I know it’s possible. I’ve seen it happen in my life. I want to empower my students to do the same like my parents did once for me,” added Valdez.