‘Kariton’ school adds new learning center

MALE devotees, called “voyadores,” form a line and take the opportunity to kiss the image of Bicol patroness Our Lady of Peñafrancia on Friday, before the traditional “Traslacion” or transfer of the image from Peñafrancia Church to the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral on Friday, signaling the beginning of the weeklong fiesta in Naga City. MARK ALVIC ESPLANA

Remember Cris “Kesz” Valdez? In 2012, the 13-year-old was awarded the International Children’s Peace Prize at The Hague for starting a group called “Championing Community Children.” His group gives out slippers, toothbrushes and toys to street children in Cavite City.

Now 15, Valdez is in Grade 9 under the Kariton Open High School program of the nonprofit Dynamic Teen Co. (DTC). The open high school, started in 2012, is an extension program of the “kariton classroom” that uses an alternative approach, turning pushcarts into mobile classrooms to educate street children.

“I still want to finish college,” Valdez said.

When first interviewed by the Inquirer three years ago, Valdez, who ran away from abusive parents when he was 4, said he wanted to become an English teacher someday. Now, he said, he wants to take up a mass communication course.

Like Valdez, many teenagers from Cavite City are given a second shot at achieving their dreams. They are school dropouts, former “kalakal boys” or street children, victims of peer bullying, or those whose parents could not afford to send them to regular schools.

“The main thrust of (Kariton Open High School) is to educate (school) dropouts,” said 2009 CNN Hero awardee and one of the DTC founders, Efren Peñaflorida.

On Aug. 14, DTC formally launched a learning center, the latest of its facilities in DTC’s headquarters, in Barangay (village) Caridad in Cavite City.

The construction of the learning center, furnished with study chairs and desks, boards and book shelves, was sponsored by a food manufacturing firm, Universal Robina Corp. (URC). The company, however, declined to disclose the amount it donated.

“We are happy to realize that we are not alone and there are people willing to support us,” Peñaflorida said in a phone interview.

In a statement, URC executive vice president and managing director Nilo Mapa Jr. said a program that supports free education “is one that we are quite proud to support.”

The new learning center is on the second floor of DTC’s two-story Red-buil (short for the red building). The group also owns another two-story structure, launched in 2011 in the same vicinity, which members refer to as the “kariton building.”

The kariton building now serves as the group’s “activity center,” while classes, taught by DTC volunteer teachers, are held in the new learning center, Peñaflorida said.

So far, 57 students, all from Cavite City, have been attending the open high school program. Their ages range from 11 to 17 years.

“The 17-year-old had to drop out of school thrice (because of poverty) he is now still in Grade 8,” Peñaflorida said.

The DTC continues to look for and invite out-of-school youths to the program. “These are those who we know really want to finish their education,” Peñaflorida said.

By 2016, the DTC plans to roll out classes for Grades 11 and 12, as precollege education program. The group is currently building a classroom facility in Amadeo, Cavite.