EDITORIAL - The hero within

On the heels of boxing champion Manny Pacquiao’s latest victory, here’s another reason for national rejoicing: CNN announced yesterday that a Filipino educator was chosen through online voting as the international network’s “Hero of the Year.”

Efren Peñaflorida Jr., 28, is a hero in every sense, winning recognition for years of selfless dedication to the less fortunate. The son of a driver and a laundrywoman, Peñaflorida grew up in the slums of Cavite City. He struggled to obtain formal education, winning scholarships from World Vision Philippines from grade school to high school, and then from Club 8586 for his college degree in Education.

He then found a novel way of sharing his blessings with impoverished children. Peñaflorida’s “pushcart classroom” has provided basic literacy to thousands of schoolchildren in a project that he launched under his Dynamic Teen Company with the hope of discouraging children from joining gangs.

“Each person has a hidden hero within,” Peñaflorida said as he accepted his award Saturday night in Hollywood’s Kodak Theater.

His life’s work is in an area where his kind of heroism is most needed. Though education is free from primary to high school in this country, the dropout rate is high, with only a small fraction of students who enter first grade managing to make it to Grade Six, and an even smaller number finishing high school. Millions of families are so impoverished even the cost of daily transportation and modest miscellaneous fees in the course of the school year are beyond their reach. Many children are forced to drop out of school to help their parents earn a living. Without the education needed for a better future, many children join gangs, making them vulnerable to drug abuse and criminality.

These are the children that Peñaflorida tries to reach, giving them the basic skills needed to rise out of abject poverty as he has done. There are no millions to be made in this undertaking, and until his nomination to Cable News Network’s “Heroes” project, no fame to be gained. Peñaflorida shows what one person can do, despite enormous odds, to make a difference.