a telltale of selfless love: Efren in our midst!

Today, I am taking a break from my usual update because I am featuring, what i think is a very significant one. This is something about how good triumphs over evil. In my Ethics course with my professor, WE have been discussing lots and lots about the human acts and conscience, human soul and its virtuous acts morality and virtues, evil and good. I guess this featured article will somehow give you a concrete example of any of the mentioned discussions I had in my Ethics class.

Perhaps, one great example that I can tell you about human acts toward something good at the end is the content of an email from my blogger-friend Ronnie .

This is all about a human soul, whose act is indeed very remarkable and very praiseworthy. I must say, Efren is one of a kind and one in a million.

My friends, take time to read and watch his story and let me know what you feel about it afterwards.

from the CNN: Pushcart classes help break gang chain

Efren Peñaflorida's Dynamic Teen Company offers Filipino youth an alternative to gangs through education.

photo owned by CNN

QUOTE from CNN: CAVITE CITY, Philippines-- At 16, Rhandolf Fajardo reflects on his former life as a gang member.
"My gang mates were the most influential thing in my life," says Fajardo, who joined a gang when he was in sixth grade. "We were pressured to join."

He's not alone. In the Philippines, teenage membership in urban gangs has surged to an estimated 130,000 in the past 10 years, according to the Preda Foundation, a local human rights charity.

"I thought I'd get stuck in that situation and that my life would never improve," recalls Fajardo. "I would probably be in jail right now, most likely a drug addict -- if I hadn't met Efren."

Efren Peñaflorida, 28, also was bullied by gangs in high school. Today, he offers Filipino youth an alternative to gang membership through education.

"Gang members are groomed in the slums as early as 9 years old," says Peñaflorida. "They are all victims of poverty."

For the past 12 years, Peñaflorida and his team of teen volunteers have taught basic reading and writing to children living on the streets. Their main tool: A pushcart classroom. Do you know someone who should be a CNN Hero? Nominations are open at CNN.com/Heroes

Stocked with books, pens, tables and chairs, his Dynamic Teen Company recreates a school setting in unconventional locations such as the cemetery and municipal trash dump.

Peñaflorida knows firsthand the adversity faced by these children. Born into a poor family, he lived in a shanty near the city dump site. But he says he refused to allow his circumstances to define his future.

"Instead of being discouraged, I promised myself that I would pursue education," he recalls. "I will strive hard; I will do my best."

In high school, Peñaflorida faced a new set of challenges. Gang activity was rampant; they terrorized the student body, vandalized the school and inducted members by forcing them to rape young girls, he says.

"I felt the social discrimination. I was afraid to walk down the street."

Peñaflorida remembers standing up to a gang leader, refusing to join his gang. That confrontation proved fateful. At 16, he and his friends "got the idea to divert teenagers like us to be productive," he says.

He created the Dynamic Teen Company to offer his classmates an outlet to lift up themselves and their community. For Peñaflorida, that meant returning to the slums of his childhood to give kids the education he felt they deserved.

"They need education to be successful in life. It's just giving them what others gave to me," he says.

Today, children ranging from ages 2 to 14 flock to the pushcart every Saturday to learn reading, writing, arithmetic and English from Peñaflorida and his trained teen volunteers. Watch Peñaflorida and his group in action with their push cart classroom »

"Our volunteers serve as an inspiration to other children," he says.

The group also runs a hygiene clinic, where children can get a bath and learn how to brush their teeth.

Since 1997, an estimated 10,000 members have helped teach more than 1,500 children living in the slums. The organization supports its efforts by making and selling crafts and collecting items to recycle. Take a look at the slums where Peñaflorida and his group spend their Saturdays »

Through his group, Peñaflorida has successfully mentored former gang members, addicts and dropouts, seeing potential where others see problems.

"Before, I really didn't care for my life," says Michael Advincula, who started doing drugs when he was 7. "But then Efren patiently dug me from where I was buried. It was Efren who pushed me to get my life together." Watch Advincula describe how he met Peñaflorida in the slums »

Today, Advincula is a senior in high school and one of the group's volunteers.

Peñaflorida hopes to expand the pushcart to other areas, giving more children the chance to learn and stay out of gangs.

"I always tell my volunteers that you are the change that you dream and I am the change that I dream. And collectively we are the change that this world needs to be."
Want to get involved? Check out the Dynamic Teen Company and see how to help. -CNN

Well, I learned further that for the past 12 years now, Efren Peñaflorida and DTC, his team of teen volunteers have been taching basic reading and writing to children living on the streets. Their main tool is a pushcart-turned-into-a-"classroom" named Kari and Toni perhaps taken from the rootword KARITON which means pushcart. The Kariton Klasrum, Klinik & Kantin (K4) project recreates a school setting in unconventional locations such as the cemetery, city trash dump, slum corners and alleys.

I invite you to write your COMMENT in the "SOUND OFF" section under his full story here:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/03/05/heroes.efren.penaflorida/index.html

Watch Efren's profile video in CNN HEROES: http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/