Fighting for young minds

September 26, 2024

MANILA – Whenever we tell our students to keep on fighting for the poor and oppressed, they often feel dwarfed by the magnitude of the problem of poverty.

And rightly so: millions of Filipino families are hungry; a third of our children is stunted; millions of people are reliant on dole-outs because they are under-educated and therefore unqualified for employment; and so many focus on survival so that they make decisions that can put them in danger, whether it’s in the places they live or the people they vote for.

Even donated food (sardines, instant noodles) puts the poor in harm’s way, whether they are adults who need to stay healthy or children with developing brains. Their diets cannot help them grow into a population that participates in the economy and speaks up in a democracy. Their diets cannot help them improve their lives if there are no enabling mechanisms in place.

People aren’t just hungry; they’re hungry for a world where they can improve themselves to get out of poverty, but they can’t do that if their stomachs are empty. It’s something that Fr. Ben Nebres always talks about when he shares how and why he organized the Ateneo Center for Educational Development (ACED), which seeks to improve public school education. I sat with him over lunch at the Jesuit Residences, following my column a few weeks before that featured him and his work. There were updates on ACED’s programs, he said, and he wanted to discuss them with me.

Seeing Father Ben talk about helping the poor is like seeing a child excited about a project that keeps on giving. He made the ACED story more real, the same way that helping out in packing vegetables, giving food to parents, or serving poor, young students would make