It’s been 3 months now since we got here in Iloilo. Our task is to monitor and help establish the Pathways youth groups in the Visayas. Yes, it is hard getting updates from everyone and sometimes it is frustrating when nobody replies (since they are students and teachers whose concern is not just Pathways). It is challenging to get support from the DepEd and the LGU. With all the technicalities involved – paperwork, updates, calls, texts…it is easy to get immersed and forget all about the people to whom and for whom we are doing all these things. What prevents us from falling into this trap is the habit of looking around.

What is important in looking around is seeing something. Allow us to tell you what we saw and found.

We saw the faces of our volunteers and moderators here in the Visayas.

In West Visayas State University (WVSU) where we are based, they give us the sweetest smiles and the most energetic wave whenever we pass by. During our training sessions last July together with volunteers from Western Visayas College of Science and Technology (WVCST), we give and take as much energy from each other. They are so easy to handle even though they are almost 70! After the 8 sessions that we’ve had, there was no mistaking the bond that we’ve formed. Constant text messages of sweet nothings and hi and hellos flood our cellphones.

In Pototan where we attended their Pathways launch, we saw how eager the volunteers were to start teaching their brothers and sisters in the public high schools. We saw their moderator, Ma’m Dichosa, having that gleam in her eye characteristic of people who have a vision of a brighter future.

In NIPSC, Ajuy, we saw the courageous spirit and determination of Ma’m Jo who is being challenged by circumstances but is still willing to fight to make Pathways work in her school. Also in this university, we saw the faces of scholars who are struggling to finish college but are still willing to help Pathways by being a volunteer.

There are those universities which we cannot visit as often we would like to but looking beyond the geographic barrier, we see their wonderful texts and emails - “Institutionalized na ang Pathways dito sa Filamer!”, “Ate, I was able to meet na with the volunteers and we’re starting to plan our fundraising!”, “Kakatapos lang ng leadership training namin and we’re preparing now for the Ed Summit on October!”. Just reading those messages, their excited faces come into our minds.

The youth groups here have not yet started doing tutorials but we’re slowly getting there. But even without the inspiration of seeing their students, just the IDEA that they could help, that they could do something, lights up their eyes. There is no mistaking the eagerness and the hope that you see in their faces.

What more do we see from these?

Father Ben Nebres often tells us that the opportunity is always there but it is just a matter of being ready to grab the opportunity. Well, we see these youth groups preparing themselves to fully use the opportunity given to them to help public high school students. We see a cause for believing in a bright future, a cause for hope because we see the smiling faces of the youth eager to help and bring change. We see Pathways.

But then again, Pathways is not just a system, not a mere venue for helping kids go to college. Pathways is people. Our task therefore is not just to monitor and establish the youth groups but to build pathways from province to province here in the Visayas, a bridge made from trust (to each other that we will make things work), from hope which is its foundation, from faith that assures us that the bridge is strong enough and is able to sustain itself and from love which gives us the reason to cross the bridge and seal the gap between our divided country and our broken dreams.

Sabrina Ongkiko and Tin Sumagaysay
Program Officers for the Visayas