A CNN hero started with a pushcart full of hopes

With an ocean of garbage as his playground as a child, Efren Peñaflorida Jr. was accustomed to living amid the ills of society. The slum area in Cavite province where he grew up abounded with solvent-sniffing kids and tough gangsters. People sifted through dumpsites during the day and slept in the cemetery’s empty crypts at night.

To vote for Peñaflorida as CNN Hero of the Year, click here. It was 1997. Peñaflorida, a gangling 16-year-old youngster back then, was occasionally bullied and beaten by street toughies. No one would have thought that, 12 years later, he would be short-listed by globally known Cable News Network (CNN) as a candidate for its CNN Heroes. “I grew up really poor. My father was a driver and my mother was a laundrywoman. When I went to school, I experienced being mocked, bullied, discriminated against," said Peñaflorida, the second of three children.

“I wanted to settle scores with the bullies. But I realized I could turn a bad experience into something positive." At the time, Peñaflorida was part of Club 8586, a youth group in Cavite. His mentor encouraged him to help curb the rampant gang wars and fraternity feuds in their communities, where kids as young as nine years were already involved in violent fights.

‘Pushcart classroom’ Despite having to cope with his own limited means, Peñaflorida formed the Dynamic Teen Company (DTC) with his two peers. The fledgling group ventured into work among destitute and out-of-school youth, teaching them basic literacy skills, values formation, and even personal hygiene. Armed only with plastic bags loaded with books and school supplies, Peñaflorida and his team roamed the shantytowns of Cavite, offering kids a unique chance to learn useful things in the “street classroom" setting.

Years later, the platform for their mobile classroom would evolve into pedicabs, and eventually into what it is today – a Kariton Klassrum (literally, “pushcart classroom"). The Kariton Klassrum now carries a mini-library, reading aids, blackboards, and even detachable tables and chairs. One of the mobile classrooms turns into a "relief cart" for Ondoy victims. DTC file photo Peñaflorida says that his commitment to teach basic literacy to kids is his way of “paying forward" – having been a scholar himself. His elementary and high school education was funded by World Vision Philippines, while his college education was shouldered by Club 8586. Not surprisingly, he took up a degree in Education.

Now 28, Peñaflorida earns a living as a public school teacher in Cavite. On Saturdays, he continues his pushcart classrooms –which have expanded into Manila – with other teen volunteers now reaching 2,000. Aside from teaching literacy, the group also conducts feeding programs for abandoned street kids who scavenge for food by sifting through heaps of garbage

A CNN hero started with a pushcart full of hopes - Yahoo! Philippines News