Youth Speaks by Joannie Malaras

A Life Transformed

by Joannie Malaras

I was born in 1991 in Payatas. When I was 5 years old, I started studying in a non-formal school called Paaralang Pantao (School for Humanity) till I was 14. My father was unable to work because of arthritis and my mother was a scavenger. When I was young, my life was simple but happy. My parents were a loving couple and they loved me so much that I never felt I was poor. My parents had picnics with us in our small backyard behind our house. My dad told me many stories about his childhood and stories of God. I had a friend who could eat anything she liked. She had toys and even a bicycle. Sometimes I felt envious but still I thought my life was perfect, like a fairytale.

When I turned 12, my mum asked me to stop schooling. She wanted me to work as a scavenger to help earn money. Suddenly, I had to think hard and choose what I really wanted. I could choose the hard life and that’s to be a scavenger or I could choose the more challenging life and that’s to study. I really wanted to study so I ignored my mum and continued to study. I never went to a formal school because we had no money and I had no birth certificate. It’s very hard to get a birth certificate. At the same time, I really wanted to help my family. In the end, I decided to work half-day in the dumpsite and to study at Paaralang Pantao (School for Humanity) in the afternoon.

The first time I went to the dumpsite, I saw how my mum worked and I thought it was easy. Before this, my parents never allowed me to go to there. On my first day, I realised how hard it was for my mum to be working all alone in the hot sun and flies were everywhere. We collected plastic, plastic cups, bottles and paper.  I worked from 5am to 9am from Monday to Sunday. I had many wounds from the sickle. I suffered from backache. I had many cuts on my feet from broken glass even though I wore boots. Every week we earned about P200 (SGD7).  It was not enough to buy food. So we looked for leftover food (pag-pag) and raw vegetables from the dumpsite. Pag-Pag is left over food like fried chicken from restaurants like KFC or Jollibee. I realised that this was what life was really about. But I was happy because I was working with my mother and sharing the hard work with her.

When I was 14, my father had a heart attack and we took him to the hospital. After a few days he came home without the permission of his doctor. He wanted to see us and spend time with us, especially my brother as he was too young to go to the hospital. My father hugged my brother but I did not want to hug my father because I was afraid. He was so weak. The next day he passed away at home.  I was so sad when he died. I felt I wanted to die too. I was afraid to live without my father. I doubted God and asked Him, “Why me?” I felt God had abandoned me. After my father died, I stopped schooling and started working full-time in the dumpsite. At that time, I stopped hoping. I thought I would never be able to pursue my dream to go to a formal school.

I worked full day 5am - 9am and 1pm- 5pm. I had no watch but I knew when it was time to end the day on the dumpsite – when the sun began to set. The most beautiful thing in Payatas is the sunset. I can sit atop of the mountain of garbage and watch the sunset beyond the horizon. Every time I saw the sunset, I felt that I too could go somewhere one day. I wished I could go some place outside of Payatas. I was still full of hope.

Sometimes I wondered what it’s like outside Payatas. When I was in Paaralang Pantao the thing that was most important to me was the yearly field trip. That was the only time I went out of Payatas. I got sick every time I got on the bus. I would throw up all the way to the place and all the way back to Payatas. One year, the principal asked me not to go because I would get sick. I cried so much until she let me go. 

All this time, my mother too was sickly and weak. I think she had TB. I was 16 years old when my mother got very sick. We took her to the hospital. She died at the hospital from lung cancer. I was very sad. Again I asked God, “Why me?”  I was lost and very confused because we could not pay the funeral expenses of my mother. So we took her body home with us. I felt all alone but I had to be strong for my brother and sister. After more than one week, an acts29 staff came and helped us. Acts29 helped me for the funeral of my mother. After the funeral of my mother, the acts29 staff asked me if I liked to study. I said, “Yes.” So with the help of acts29, I got my birth certificate processed.

Before my father died, I had already taken the exam to enter into formal school. I passed and was accepted into Year 1 High School. So when I got my birth certificate, I enrolled into high school. Through the scholarship program of acts29, I had a sponsor for my education. 

Ever since my mother died, I have been living in the acts29 Formation House. I feel so comfortable and safe in this house. In Payatas, it was not safe because there were many drug addicts, drunkards and rioting.

Now that I look back on the struggles I faced, I realise I have become stronger. To me, God is my protector and my refuge. Also knowing God is more important than education. In knowing God as my loving father, I learn to love myself and others. I learn that if I continue to put my trust in God, everything falls into place. For me, it was to have an education. Being a student is my vocation now.

My song to God is:

“Walk by me, walk by me across the lonely road of everyday.

Take my arm and let your love show me the way.

Show the way to live inside your heart,

Lead me lord. Lead me all my life”

(Lead Me Lord)

In the next five years, I want to finish my high school and get into a good university. I’m not confident that I can but I am willing to work hard and try my best.

My message to the kids in Payatas is “Be strong, study hard and believe in God. Don’t lose hope and don’t lose your way.”

There are many kids in places like Payatas who face the same struggles as me. You can help these kids with a feeding program or sponsor their education so they can go to a formal school.

To all those who believed in me, who gave me this chance to study and to my sponsor Kuya Eric, “Thank You! Salamat po!”

                                                           Joannie at 7 with her brother

                                                              Joannie at 10 years old

                                                              Joannie with her siblings

                                              Joannie sharing with teens in Singapore

Dear friends,
We would like to make an appeal to you.
Give children and their families the opportunity to break free from the vicious cycle of poverty. Through our Scholarship Program, kids go to school and are given a chance at beaing poverty.
On top of that, we also teach their parents to read and write.

Visit our sponsor-a-child page http://www.acts29mission.com/?page_id=122
or look the the children's profiles http://www.acts29mission.com/?page_id=219

We have 30 kids in need of sponsorship. All their profiles will be put up over the week.
As their enrolment for schooll begins this May, pls

It costs USD330 or SGD420 or PHP9,000 to sponsor a child for one year.

Please email us at sponsor@acts29mission.com

All proceeds from this event will go towards the operations of our mission in the Philippines.

“Dear brothers and sisters! If Jesus is risen, then – and only then – has something truly new happened, something that changes the state of humanity and the world. Then he, Jesus, is someone in whom we can put absolute trust; we can put our trust not only in his message but in Jesus himself, for the Risen One does not belong to the past, but is present today, alive.”- His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

I'm posting this up because I'm sick of the biasness and unprofessional standards of the Philippines Immigration Officers.

This evening 21 year old Joannie was supposed to board a Cebu Pacific flight and head to Singapore for 3 weeks. She was supposed to share about her life with CHIJ students, youths from Church of St Ignatius and also to thank all our sponsors at our Easter Thank You Tea this Sunday.  She also brought along her books because she wanted to get the help she needed in English and Maths so that when she started Year 4 High School, she would be ready.

However, she was not allowed on board the flight as the Philippines immigration officers refused to allow her on. She had a return ticket, money for the trip, address where she would stay, Singaporean contacts. This is not the first time we've hosted guests from the Philippines.

She was accused of having alternative motives, to want to run off to Singapore and not return.
Someone on scholarship, an excellent student in Year 3 high school. Someone who wants to help her community and has dreams of going to college and getting her degree.

Yup, the officers were biased. They looked at her, judged her and sent her home.

So this is just a shout out about how bias people can be, especially immigration officers from the Philippines. We've come in and out of the country so often that we've met officers that just are not up to par. Never mind when they helped themselves to one of our cell phones. Never mind they are rude to their own OFWs returning. Never mind, they play catching and pull each other's hair and joke around while on duty. Yes, there are people who would want to stay on in Singapore illegally or to seek work. But not all Filipinos are like that.

So because they were not quite impressed with her background, the immigration officers felt she was not good enough to board the flight. Sad. very sad.