My Favorite Good Deed

I love giving back. It’s a chance for me to make others happy and it brings joy to my heart. That may sound cheezy but it’s true :).

I normally do not write about my good deeds but this time, plenty of people are involved and I would like to give them all the credit for being so generous and philanthropic. Every year, my batch-mates from the Philippines solicit for a good deed we can all do together. I thank them because I get to participate and do something that means something.

This year, one of my personal goals is to help the less fortunate students finish school especially those who have high potential. Coincidentally our batch mates from the Philippines gave us an option to support “Anak Foundation Negros” – a non-profit that supports Children in Negros, where I came from. I immediately jumped on board because I get to check off my bucket list.

Here are the bios of the two scholars that we get to help:

MIGUEL
I was born on a warm, sunny day in June 23, 1994 in Calatrava, Negros Occidental. I still live in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental and I go to school at Technological University of the Philippines. I live with my father, step mom; my brothers, Michael and Marneil; and my sisters Melcanie and Mia.
My name is Miguelito Doble Jr. my parents are Miguelito Doble Sr. and Carmencita Doble, my mother died when I was in grade 2. I started school when I was six-years-old. I went to kindergarten and I won an award for honor roll. While I spent my elementary at Luis Puentebella Elem School. Then I attended my secondary at Bacolod City National High School, and there I also won a couple of awards: one for 1st honor in my 1st year and two for winning the MATHira ang MATHibay math challenge – one is in my 2nd and the other is on my 3rd year. I am now a 2nd year student at TUP-V, taking Mechatronics Engineering Technology for free and that’s very much thanks to my scholarship, Stichting ANAK Negros. They not just help me financially but also helping me to develop myself as an individual who strive for my dreams for it to come true.
Without scholarships, college wouldn’t be as easy for me to attend as well as pay for and I’m forever thankful to Anak because they help me and my family towards my college expenses.
Life to me means friends and family who you can trust and who trusts you. I am pretty much on the happy side of life. That means I do have some sad days or depressed days. I have a few friends here that sort of look out for me and when I am having a bad day, I have someone here at school to talk to. I make my school days go by thinking of either the next hour or what I will do when I get home or on the weekend and when I’m home, I always play basketball with my friends.
As a person I always dream that someday after I have permanent job so I could help my family now and in the future. Since I was a child I dream of being a civil engineer but as I grow older, goals changed and I didn’t pursue that path. I have many dreams in life to accomplish but I know it’s possible because my father doesn’t have a stable job to continue supporting me in my daily needs and expensive projects. Sometimes I ask money to my aunt just to go to school. Sometimes when there’s no class I work together with my father to keep extra money for my projects. But this sacrifice is not a hindrance to succeed it was just a start of my journeys.
As I said in the beginning, I was born here in Negros and I’ve lived here my whole life. I hope I would like to see more of the Philippines but unfortunately, I don’t have any money to explore more of these Islands. you have enjoyed reading my life story as much as I have enjoyed writing it for you. Here’s a tip for you to live or try to live by: If you think it, it can be done.

JUDY
I am Judy Mayano I am 16 years old. I was born on October 7, 1996 at Bayani Naujan, Oriental Mindoro. I am the youngest son of Rogelio and Arceli Mayano. I have 7 siblings. I came from a poor family because I don’t really experience the comfortable way of life that others have. My four brothers and sisters have their own family.
I don’t have parents already. At my early age, they were died. Since then, I and my sister are living together with my eldest sister. Even though they`re gone, I`m still hoping for the happiness of my family. I continue dreaming because I know that my parents want us to be happy. With the help of my eldest sister, I pursue my studies and became best pupil of my batch, and with God’s grace I graduated my elementary level. In life, it is very normal to have problems in our way but with strong personality and togetherness of my family, we overcome that problem especially the financial support. Sometime I feel hopeless but with the help of other people, I can still survive.

The dilemma is that these kids lack transportation allowances. They do well in school but cannot get to school because they do not have money to catch the jeepney.

Below is the breakdown of Miguel and Judy’s transportation allowance per month.

P70 a day for Miguel’s transportation allowance x 6 days (Mon-Sat) = P420 x 4 weeks (1 month) = P 1,680
P12 a day for Judy’s transportation allowance x 5 days (Mon-Fri) = P60 x 4 weeks (1month) = P 240

P1,680 + P240 = P 1,920 a month. So we will be giving our monthly donation to this amount until March 2014.

Depending on the dollar value, P1,920 is anywhere from $42 – $50. Which is not much for us here in America. Immediately, we started gathering donations from our batch-mates. We were able to gather enough donations to fund their transportation for the rest of the school year. When they received our donation, they immediately sent us thank you notes and that made me feel very proud of all of us who spared some money to help.