71 dreams that refuse to die

Life for Analene Modelz used to be one long, dark tunnel after the Wowowee stampede in ULTRA took her 62-year-old mom away forever. Her father passed away a few months earlier, and she couldn’t stop blaming herself for not telling her mom how much she loved her before the accident snatched her away from the family.

Jonjon Nebres, 19, didn’t know whether he and his four other siblings can continue their studies after his mom died also in the stampede. His dad Vicente’s efforts to knock on the door of construction sites to find work proved futile.

But today, two years after the accident snuffed out 71 lives, and their dreams along with them, Analene and Jonjon are singing a different tune.

Analene can easily be the poster girl for 71 Dreams Foundation, which ABS-CBN put up in Feb. 2006, right after the ULTRA tragedy. After seeking counseling from Foundation head, Fr. Tito Caluag, she brushed away the cobwebs that clouded her mind and kept her from moving on.

“I was able to release my anger right on the first day of the recollection,” she recalls. “I learned to forgive myself.”

Then, she buckled down to business. Analene took seminars and attended lectures on cooking. She sold Avon and Natasha products through a referral from the foundation.

Her husband also didn’t sit there doing nothing. He looked for work every day until he found a job as seaman for a US shipping firm.

Today, Analene is looking forward to opening a beauty parlor. Her daughter is taking up BS Computer and is a volunteer for ABS-CBN’s Sagip Kapamilya charity project.

“Everything is possible if you work hard, if you help yourself,” she says.

Jonjon knows this only too well. After his mom perished in the stampede, one of the big questions that caused him sleepless nights was his studies. Will he and his younger siblings ever get back to school?

71 Dreams made sure they did. Jonjon not only returned to school, he also joined a Musical Theater Workshop as a foundation scholar. He also attended livelihood training workshops under the foundation and joined yearly family recollections with dad Vicente.

To say that Jonjon is a changed man is an understatement. As volunteer of the Supervoice Theater Foundation, he has learned to play various roles that boosted his self-confidence. After getting reflexology training, he now earns extra money through home service massage for neighbors. The added income comes in handy for himself and his family.

Today, he’s looking forward to starting anew in the province once the school year ends. Vicente hopes to start planting vegetables to feed his children and meet their needs.

These success stories don’t mean members of the foundation can sit back and relax. They may have restored self-esteem, provided jobs, taught technical skills and shared tips on health care and nutrition. The worst may be over. But a lot has yet to be done.

Next month, 71 Dreams will launch the “individual formation” program called ERPAT, or Enhancement and Reaffirmation of Paternal Abilities. In partnership with KBCF-Operation Paglingap, it will help widowers improve their parental skills so they can give their children better emotional support.

In April, the foundation will also choose the first batch of the next group of 71 communities it will help. These communities will get the same perks its predecessor enjoys: Livelihood projects, counseling, scholarships, medical help, health care and nutrition programs, seminar-workshops on hog raising and meat processing, enterprise development, candle and soap making, beauty and wellness, etc.

“In the next year or so, we are looking to partner with community structures like public schools, barangays, health centers or people’s organizations,” Fr. Caluag adds.

Wowowee, the game show not a single one of the victims’ families will ever forget, has not been shoved aside. Painful memories aside, the families are willing to guest on Wowowee and even try their luck in Willie Revillame’s show.

Two years after the tragedy, the game show fever is at an all-time high once more. The public seems to have forgotten that tragic afternoon that shocked the nation — and the world — two years ago.

Or perhaps, they choose to forget because the problem that hounded the victims back then — poverty — has never gone away.

And so, 71 Dreams’ work goes on and on, touching other families, other lives.