CNN Hero of the Year Finalist РEfren PenafloridaEach year, CNN gives $100,000 to the winner (from a field of ten finalists - winnowed from 9,000 nominees from all over the world) of its "Hero of the Year" award. This year, a 28-year-old Filipino, Efren Pe̱aflorida, made it to the top ten.
Once in a while comes an excellent opportunity to showcase to the world the dignity of Filipinos able to turn tragedy into triumph, from adversity to opportunity.
Vote for Efren Peñaflorida.
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Pushcart classes help break gang chain
Story Highlights
Efren Peñaflorida was bullied by gangs in high school in the Philippines
Now his
Dynamic Teen Company offers an alternative to gangs through education
Since 1997, some 10,000 members have taught more than 1,500 children in slums
Vote now for the CNN Hero of the Year at CNN.com/HeroesCAVITE CITY, Philippines (CNN) -- At 16, Rhandolf Fajardo reflects on his former life as a gang member. My gang mates were the most influential thing in my life," says Fajardo, who joined a gang when he was in sixth grade. "We were pressured to join."
He's not alone. In the
Philippines, teenage membership in urban gangs has surged to an estimated 130,000 in the past 10 years, according to the Preda Foundation, a local human rights charity.
"I thought I'd get stuck in that situation and that my life would never improve," recalls Fajardo. "I would probably be in jail right now, most likely a drug addict -- if I hadn't met Efren."
Efren Peñaflorida, 28, also was bullied by
gangs in high school. Today, he offers Filipino youth an alternative to gang membership through education.
"Gang members are groomed in the slums as early as 9 years old," says Peñaflorida. "They are all victims of
poverty."
For the past 12 years, Peñaflorida and his team of teen volunteers have taught basic reading and writing to children living on the streets. Their main tool: A pushcart classroom.
Stocked with books, pens, tables and chairs, his
Dynamic Teen Company recreates a school setting in unconventional locations such as the cemetery and municipal trash dump.
Peñaflorida knows firsthand the adversity faced by these children. Born into a poor family, he lived in a shanty near the city dump site. But he says he refused to allow his circumstances to define his future.
"Instead of being discouraged, I promised myself that I would pursue education," he recalls. "I will strive hard; I will do my best."
In high school, Peñaflorida faced a new set of challenges. Gang activity was rampant; they terrorized the student body, vandalized the school and inducted members by forcing them to rape young girls, he says.
"I felt the social discrimination. I was afraid to walk down the street."
Peñaflorida remembers standing up to a gang leader, refusing to join his gang. That confrontation proved fateful. At 16, he and his friends "got the idea to divert teenagers like us to be productive," he says.
He created the Dynamic Teen Company to offer his classmates an outlet to lift up themselves and their community. For Peñaflorida, that meant returning to the slums of his childhood to give kids the education he felt they deserved.
"They need education to be successful in life. It's just giving them what others gave to me," he says.
Today, children ranging from ages 2 to 14 flock to the pushcart every Saturday to learn reading, writing, arithmetic and English from Peñaflorida and his trained teen volunteers.
Watch Peñaflorida and his group in action with their push cart classroom »"Our volunteers serve as an inspiration to other children," he says.
The group also runs a hygiene clinic, where children can get a bath and learn how to brush their teeth.
Since 1997, an estimated 10,000 members have helped teach more than 1,500 children living in the slums. The organization supports its efforts by making and selling crafts and collecting items to recycle.
"Before, I really didn't care for my life," says Michael Advincula, who started doing drugs when he was 7. "But then Efren patiently dug me from where I was buried. It was Efren who pushed me to get my life together."
Watch Advincula describe how he met Peñaflorida in the slums »Today, Advincula is a senior in high school and one of the group's volunteers.
Peñaflorida hopes to expand the pushcart to other areas, giving more children the chance to learn and stay out of gangs.
"I always tell my volunteers that you are the change that you dream and I am the change that I dream. And collectively we are the change that this world needs to be."
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About The Group
Dynamic Teen Company (DTC) is a group of concerned young people with a mission of making a small yet significant difference in other people’s lives, particularly the small children in slum areas who have no access to education, basic hygiene and sometimes, even love from their families. The group was founded in August 1997 by four teenagers from Cavite National High School. The initial group made up of around 20 members started as a friendship club which aimed to divert the attention of students from joining violent gangs and notorious fraternities that were thriving on the campus. Their major platform then was to cater youth awareness projects, talent and self development activities, and community services. Today, the group holds different activities to address these issues.
TOUGH BEGINNINGSIn 1999, Efren “Kuya Ef!” Penaflorida Jr. who is living near the city dump site and one of the group’s founder, began to reach out to slum kids. This marked the emergence of the “Kalingain Batang Mahirap” (Care of Impoverished Children), DTC’s feeding project for children who scavenge for left-overs and spoiled food from the dump site. The group had a hard time involving older people to the cause and so they trained themselves to be self-sufficient enough to teach the young kids themselves. The group was able to support itself and its projects by showcasing their talents in staged concerts and performances; and by selling old newspapers, bottles, and recycled products. This enabled DTC to train more potential youth leaders and eventually led to a purchase of a pedicab for its literacy and feeding projects.
TODAYWith the training and supervision of Kuya Ef who is now a professional educator, DTC has indeed come a long way. Their mission to teach unschooled, labor-exploited and neglected street children is slowly being realized today. The group also conducts weekly feeding, first aid treatment of scabies and wounds, and values formation activities through their K4 Project (Kariton Klasrum, Klinik at Kantin). Hygiene and first aid skills are supervised by registered midwives and professional nurses who are DTC Alumni.
ACCOMPLISHMENTSThe fruits of their labor are slowly being reaped as former drug users and petty thieves who were reformed through their projects are now also serving as volunteers. Former scavengers are now in school and are helping to raise funds. Some of the children who remain unschooled are now able to read and write. DTC was able to reach thousands of children through their Mind Your Rights (MY RIGHTS) campaign and through their health-literacy work.
In 2007, they launched the “WE ARE THE CHANGE” campaign to inspire people to be the catalyst for change – in what they want to see in their home, community and the world we live in. For they believe that real change happens when we begin to touch one soul and change one heart at a time.
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The Philippines needs a hero like him - not the filthy rich politicians who keep on acquiring wealth for themselves.
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Rosa Ilic
and asked the band to sing Happy Birthday! 
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