For a mother, nothing breaks a heart more than seeing all children not attending school. Thirty-four-year-old Flor Edem knows what future lies ahead to children who are not given a chance to develop their potentials in school.

Ate Flor and her husband, both are not provided with the chance to finish their education, struggle to manage their family. With five children, food on the table is mostly a challenge. There are times when they have to ask for food such as bananas and yams from their neighbors just so they can feed their hungry stomachs.

With their financial difficulties, most of the needs of their children are neglected. For Ate Flor, if they are already struggling with what to eat, they no longer are capable of supporting their children to get an education.

Ate Flor knows well that they are not getting any nearer to her dreams of a better future for her children, but she is helpless. Until such time that they became beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, a lot of opportunities opened for their family. Now, she is able to dream bigger for her family and start on chasing them little by little.

Bringing the children back to school

Ate Flor’s three elder children used to go to school prior to being beneficiaries of the program. However, poverty, she said, pushed her and the children to stay at home.

“Masyado pong malayo yung school ng mga bata kaya tinatamad na silang pumasok. Hindi po sapat ang kanilang pagkain, at hindi po namin kayang bigyan sila ng pamasahe araw-araw kaya naglalakad po sila. Kapag umuulan, nababasa po sila at minsan pa, nagkakasakit,” Ate Flor shared.

Ate Flor, however, did not stop dreaming for her children. She continuously encourages them to be educated. She would often tell them that if they don’t go to school, nothing will change in their lives.

“Kaya po noong dumating yung Pantawid Pamilya, nakabalik na po sila sa pag-aaral. Pursigido ang mga anak ko na pumasok, gusto nilang matuto para mapaunlad ang buhay nila,” said Ate Flor.

As beneficiary of Pantawid Pamilya, Ate Flor’s family receives Php2,800.00 every two months to support the needs on education, health and nutrition of her children. Now, Ate Flor is grateful that besides being able to provide enough food for her children, they are able to afford the fare of her children going to school.

“Nakatulong po na hindi na napapagod sa paglalakad ang mga bata papuntang school. Masisipag po silang mag-aral ngayon,” she happily shared.

Ate Flor can never be happier that she now sees light when speaking of the future of her children. For her, being educated is her children’s key towards a better life, far from the life they are providing them today. Also, keeping them in school teaches them how to deal with other people.

Today, her two eldest children (age 13 and 11) are both in Grade 3, her 9-year-old is in Grade 2 and her five-year-old is in pre-school. Her youngest is two and she is more than determined to send her to school when she reaches the right age.

Though most of her children are older than their classmates, Ate Flor convinces them to be in school. If they are teased in school, she tells them not to mind them.

Taking the right track

Ate Flor’s family is more than thankful for the Pantawid Pamilya program especially for the opportunity it provided her children to be back in school. But she is more thankful on how the program is shaping her family towards the good future they all are envisioning.

As a beneficiary of the program, Ate Flor’s husband was hired as a worker under the Trabahong Lansangan project of the Department of Public Works and Highways. For a year now, he is regularly earning money for his family doing road maintenance works.

Further, the grants they are receiving have opened ways for them to save money. Since they no longer have to get most of the needs of their children from what they earn, they are able to save money, which they use for other purposes such as improving their home and planning for the future. Before, their home was made of salvaged material but today, it is made of sturdy wood bringing more security to their family of seven.

In their desire to move forward, Ate Flor has plans for the future. Even when the program is over, she and her husband are making ways to save today so that they’ll have a capital to start planting crops and earn money to support their children all the way.

Keeping her family on the right track, Ate Flor is committed to keep her children in school. For her, her children’s education is not anymore for a more convenient life for their family. It is more for the better life their children can provide to their respective families when they start having one. Only through education, she believes, that this cycle of poverty she and her husband experienced all their life can be ended. If that happens, which she is very much positive about, Ate Flor would be the happiest and proudest mother ever.#