Poverty to Possibilities
Published Jun 2, 2018 04:05 pm
By John Paul M. Jose
My name is John Paul M. Jose. I’m 22 years old and I come from the province of Nueva Vizcaya. I am proud to belong to a tribal community called Isinay. The Isinay is basically one of the first tribal groups who inhabited the province of Nueva Vizcaya and is popularly known for their remarkable talent in traditional weaving. I was conditioned that since I was poor and a tribal resident, I was worthless, less capable, and had nothing good to contribute in the world. I come from a family that has never owned a house and had to move from one place to another because my father had no permanent job.
POOR AND TRIBAL? That wasn't a problem for John Paul, who succesfully struggled through life’s challenges.
There was a time in my life where people saw us, the tribal residents as lesser Filipinos, just because we have poor competencies in life and our source of living is farming. When I was growing up, I saw how people belittled the tribal communities because they see us too slow in adapting with the modern world of changes, and for the longest time many tribal communities accepted these discriminations as a fact of life.
From my experience, when you come from a poor family, people think that you also have a small brain, that even if we try harder and work smarter, in the real world, there will be requirements and standards we will never be qualified for.
Yet despite all of those misconceptions, I had overflowing enthusiasm to study, I even passed the entrance examination at a prestigious university in my province, but all I got was disappointment. My family was not capable of supporting me. I was not able to enter that school because I could not afford the first requirement—the admission fee. After that misfortune, I deeply asked myself and started to think, am I becoming too ambitious in life to finish my studies? Is there a line drawn for the poor about what we can only acquire in life? Is there really a barrier on identity, in which becoming a poor native Filipino doesn’t deserve better life? Who sets that the only measurement of success in life was all about money? I pitied myself, and thought I would not achieve anything better, or build a decent future because I had nothing to do but to go back home from the cashier. I thought it was the end of a great opportunity, but I was wrong.
Soon enough, my breakthrough came. I found Gawad Kalinga (GK). I am grateful for the greatest privilege I have ever had in my life. GK treated me like a family member.I was a passionate GK Youth Leader SIGA (Serving in God’s Army), leading the youth in my GK community. GK did not just allow me to cross the line, drawn for the poor, it allowed me to define my own line, from poverty to reaching possibilities. Painting a brighter future is now just ahead of me. After almost five years of being out of school, I was recommended by our GK Kapitbahayan president to become a GK Scholar. I prayed to God that if ever I pass this interview, I will give my 100 percent determination to it, but if not I will still be grateful for I know that He has better plans for me. Fortunately, I passed and started my journey at SEED, the world’s first Farm Village University, taking up Social Entrepreneurship.
My journey as a student in SEED is a challenging one. It has one-of-a-kind training where my core was shaken and my values was transformed into something real. Here, I was able to add life in my days. Unlike the typical school setting, we highly practice here the culture of applied intelligence which means that all the standards and competencies that we learned inside the classroom must be applied on ground at the end of the day. We were being trained to become social entrepreneurs who will open opportunities to help communities prosper together. But as much as creating an inclusive wealth, we were also being trained to solve problems of the society and to inspire greatness in everyone.
The biggest learning that I learned from SEED is to liberate myself from the poverty mentality, the mentality that when you belong to a poor background you don’t deserve to have a decent future for yourself or for your family. With this, it helped me change all the perceptions I had when I was still young. It gave me the audacity to believe in my capabilities and bring out the best in me. I became more courageous in trying things that will help me become better, and even if I fail in doing it, it will always be okay, because we don’t learn if we don’t fail. Now, as a SEED student who comes from a poor family and a tribal community, I realized my rights to win and my rights to succeed in the battle of ending poverty.
Currently, I am part of a social enterprise called Oasis Chips, promoting root crops of the Philippines as world class products. It is a Filipino social enterprise born out of passion and determination of the young social entrepreneurs who are establishing healthy “relationchips” so that we can rise and lift others from poverty. Our team is composed of a very diverse group who came different provinces who were all passionate about food (Juber Awa from Davao, Dwight Mendigorin from Zambales, and Richard Rebollos from Zamboanga). The idea was to at least provide guilt-free snacking because the biggest battleground of our industry was with the first notion that it was a junk food. We are promoting neglected resources of the Filipinos such as humble root crops (sweet potato, taro, and purple yam), and turn them into products of value. We are offering thinly-sliced chips that are perfected to highlight the natural flavor of its raw ingredients and complemented with our contemporary recipe of dips. Our vision is to showcase the talents of Filipinos as producers and value makers of root crops that will make the Philippines as one of the main suppliers of world class root crop products.
Now, who would have thought that a person like me who belongs to a tribal community would have a chance to walk in one of the high-end malls in the country, marketing and promoting my enterprise, to open a bank account, and now to speak English and French which before I thought were only for the rich. And in this realm of challenging the impossible, I have realized my right as a Filipino in the world of possibilities, the right to dream and the right to be rich. Because if poor people like us would be given a chance or an opportunity we will not only shine, but we will shine brightly. These I may say, are the gifts I have embraced in SEED, the gifts of quality, beauty, excellence, and class. That they are not lowering the standards with regards of our poor backgrounds because that only promotes mediocracy, but helping us aspire for greater heights and cross that line with our highest potentials. And now I am here, soon to graduate, showing the hopes and becoming the voice of those who were deprived from opportunities, because I believe that I am now an extraordinary disruption from poverty to possibilities.
For me, giving up was not an option. Never ever give up on your dreams and on improving and loving yourself. Never allow the hardships of life stop you from pursuing your dreams and your happiness. Keep on growing, define yourself, become a medium of goodness, and break the poverty code. And now, we can shock the norm and inspire the standards to do better. Let us define this world before it defines us.
POOR AND TRIBAL? That wasn't a problem for John Paul, who succesfully struggled through life’s challenges.
There was a time in my life where people saw us, the tribal residents as lesser Filipinos, just because we have poor competencies in life and our source of living is farming. When I was growing up, I saw how people belittled the tribal communities because they see us too slow in adapting with the modern world of changes, and for the longest time many tribal communities accepted these discriminations as a fact of life.
From my experience, when you come from a poor family, people think that you also have a small brain, that even if we try harder and work smarter, in the real world, there will be requirements and standards we will never be qualified for.
Yet despite all of those misconceptions, I had overflowing enthusiasm to study, I even passed the entrance examination at a prestigious university in my province, but all I got was disappointment. My family was not capable of supporting me. I was not able to enter that school because I could not afford the first requirement—the admission fee. After that misfortune, I deeply asked myself and started to think, am I becoming too ambitious in life to finish my studies? Is there a line drawn for the poor about what we can only acquire in life? Is there really a barrier on identity, in which becoming a poor native Filipino doesn’t deserve better life? Who sets that the only measurement of success in life was all about money? I pitied myself, and thought I would not achieve anything better, or build a decent future because I had nothing to do but to go back home from the cashier. I thought it was the end of a great opportunity, but I was wrong.
Soon enough, my breakthrough came. I found Gawad Kalinga (GK). I am grateful for the greatest privilege I have ever had in my life. GK treated me like a family member.I was a passionate GK Youth Leader SIGA (Serving in God’s Army), leading the youth in my GK community. GK did not just allow me to cross the line, drawn for the poor, it allowed me to define my own line, from poverty to reaching possibilities. Painting a brighter future is now just ahead of me. After almost five years of being out of school, I was recommended by our GK Kapitbahayan president to become a GK Scholar. I prayed to God that if ever I pass this interview, I will give my 100 percent determination to it, but if not I will still be grateful for I know that He has better plans for me. Fortunately, I passed and started my journey at SEED, the world’s first Farm Village University, taking up Social Entrepreneurship.
My journey as a student in SEED is a challenging one. It has one-of-a-kind training where my core was shaken and my values was transformed into something real. Here, I was able to add life in my days. Unlike the typical school setting, we highly practice here the culture of applied intelligence which means that all the standards and competencies that we learned inside the classroom must be applied on ground at the end of the day. We were being trained to become social entrepreneurs who will open opportunities to help communities prosper together. But as much as creating an inclusive wealth, we were also being trained to solve problems of the society and to inspire greatness in everyone.
The biggest learning that I learned from SEED is to liberate myself from the poverty mentality, the mentality that when you belong to a poor background you don’t deserve to have a decent future for yourself or for your family. With this, it helped me change all the perceptions I had when I was still young. It gave me the audacity to believe in my capabilities and bring out the best in me. I became more courageous in trying things that will help me become better, and even if I fail in doing it, it will always be okay, because we don’t learn if we don’t fail. Now, as a SEED student who comes from a poor family and a tribal community, I realized my rights to win and my rights to succeed in the battle of ending poverty.
Currently, I am part of a social enterprise called Oasis Chips, promoting root crops of the Philippines as world class products. It is a Filipino social enterprise born out of passion and determination of the young social entrepreneurs who are establishing healthy “relationchips” so that we can rise and lift others from poverty. Our team is composed of a very diverse group who came different provinces who were all passionate about food (Juber Awa from Davao, Dwight Mendigorin from Zambales, and Richard Rebollos from Zamboanga). The idea was to at least provide guilt-free snacking because the biggest battleground of our industry was with the first notion that it was a junk food. We are promoting neglected resources of the Filipinos such as humble root crops (sweet potato, taro, and purple yam), and turn them into products of value. We are offering thinly-sliced chips that are perfected to highlight the natural flavor of its raw ingredients and complemented with our contemporary recipe of dips. Our vision is to showcase the talents of Filipinos as producers and value makers of root crops that will make the Philippines as one of the main suppliers of world class root crop products.
Now, who would have thought that a person like me who belongs to a tribal community would have a chance to walk in one of the high-end malls in the country, marketing and promoting my enterprise, to open a bank account, and now to speak English and French which before I thought were only for the rich. And in this realm of challenging the impossible, I have realized my right as a Filipino in the world of possibilities, the right to dream and the right to be rich. Because if poor people like us would be given a chance or an opportunity we will not only shine, but we will shine brightly. These I may say, are the gifts I have embraced in SEED, the gifts of quality, beauty, excellence, and class. That they are not lowering the standards with regards of our poor backgrounds because that only promotes mediocracy, but helping us aspire for greater heights and cross that line with our highest potentials. And now I am here, soon to graduate, showing the hopes and becoming the voice of those who were deprived from opportunities, because I believe that I am now an extraordinary disruption from poverty to possibilities.
For me, giving up was not an option. Never ever give up on your dreams and on improving and loving yourself. Never allow the hardships of life stop you from pursuing your dreams and your happiness. Keep on growing, define yourself, become a medium of goodness, and break the poverty code. And now, we can shock the norm and inspire the standards to do better. Let us define this world before it defines us.