It doesn’t take a heartbreaking work of staggering genius to do something exceptional. For brother-and-sister team Jaton Zulueta and Aina Zulueta-Valencia, all it took was a particularly inspiring TED talk by writer Dave Eggers. “I guess after hearing about 826 Valencia, a free after-school tutorial center in San Francisco, a light bulb went off,” Aina says. “We just looked at each other, and just started working on this immediately.”
“This” is A-HA Learning Center, a non-profit center that provides free tutoring and mentoring to a community of street children living in Makati.
“We have a team of volunteer nanays and student volunteers from Monday to Saturday that tutor kids from grades one to six in English, math and science,” she explains. “Our nursery classes are part of the Learning Lion program, an independent initiative dedicated to helping the Filipino public school child read and write before the age of seven.”
Setting up the center took equal parts providence and perseverance. The Zuluetas’ mom and aunt had been holding catechism classes in a community for the last eight years. When the idea presented itself, it was only a matter of using available resources and forging it into their own little 826 Makati.
Today, with almost a hundred students, A-HA has shifted its focus from the classroom towards the formation of every child. Value-formation seminars, exposure trips, and creative workshops have been given more weight in the last year. Most recently, YouTube stars Fliptop Battle League held a rap workshop for the teenagers aimed to help them use rap as a way to express themselves creatively.
What A-HA imparts really does go beyond the classroom. “Yes, we want them to go to college, but we would also like to create an environment where they can grow up to be the best people they can be,” Jaton says, “Hopefully A-HA is a place where they can be kids, a place where people love them and believe in them and their dreams.
“To be clear, their parents and their families are there for them, but because of poverty, it’s such a struggle,” Jaton continues. “They really do need all the help they can get, so more than anything, we need people that are willing to be positive influences in the children’s lives.”
Because they are undermanned, A-HA still needs a lot of tutors. “Our needs are diverse: we’re looking for everyone from catechists, to guidance counselors, and algebra tutors. The work is hard, you’ll never get paid, but teaching kids teaches you how much your willing to give, and most importantly, what kind of lessons you’re capable of teaching, so you’ll probably never find a job that’s this fulfilling.”
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A-HA Learning Center is a project of the Commodore Jose Francisco Foundation — a foundation named after the Zulueta siblings’ grandfather. For more information on how to help A-HA Learning Center and the Learning Lion initiative, please e-mail ahalearningcenter@gmail.com, or visit its Facebook page.