Mike Pouraryan
Efren Penflorida: A Reason For Hope?
Efren Penflorida is a 28 year filippino school teacher who started kariton classrooms in order to reach out to Slum Kids who have had no hope. He is a guy who endured gang harrasement while in High School. Here is a CNN Profile of him:
He was named as a CNN Hero and was also honored by the President of the Phillippines for his work as an educator. He worked his "day job" and then spent his week-ends pushing a cart to reach out to kids who otherwise had no hope.
I ran across his name and what he had done by chance. I had been visiting The President of the Philippines Website to assess the latest official thinking on the massacre that I wrote about earlier. As the Philippines had been coming to grips with this tragedy, it is people like Mr. Penflorida that gives me hope that the Phillippines can look to the future to hopefully get away from this clan-based system that supposedly has created stability. Can this be the dawn of change?
As I thought about what he had done, I wondered if what he, Dynamic Teens and Club 8586 have been able to do can be a potential model for fighting the rise of gangs in the United States. I think President Arroyo must be commended for acknowleding Mr. Penflorida's efforts. However, giving medals is one thing. Will the elite in the Philippines understand that they should be the true change or simply again pay lipservice to true reform?
He was named as a CNN Hero and was also honored by the President of the Phillippines for his work as an educator. He worked his "day job" and then spent his week-ends pushing a cart to reach out to kids who otherwise had no hope.
I ran across his name and what he had done by chance. I had been visiting The President of the Philippines Website to assess the latest official thinking on the massacre that I wrote about earlier. As the Philippines had been coming to grips with this tragedy, it is people like Mr. Penflorida that gives me hope that the Phillippines can look to the future to hopefully get away from this clan-based system that supposedly has created stability. Can this be the dawn of change?
As I thought about what he had done, I wondered if what he, Dynamic Teens and Club 8586 have been able to do can be a potential model for fighting the rise of gangs in the United States. I think President Arroyo must be commended for acknowleding Mr. Penflorida's efforts. However, giving medals is one thing. Will the elite in the Philippines understand that they should be the true change or simply again pay lipservice to true reform?
