Efren Peñaflorida Jr: 1st Filipino CNN hero?

Philippines
November 3, 2009 11:14pm CST
In case you have not yet heard about Efren Peñaflorida Jr., he is a native of Cavite who thought of establishing a group of fellow youth to teach children using a what he calls a pushcart classroom. He has been doing this since he was 16 years old, and his story inspired CNN wherein he is now among the top 10 finalist for CNN hero. If he will win which is through voting online, he will receive a $100,000 cash prize that will surely help his advocacy. Not to mention that he will be the first Filipino CNN hero ever. To read the whole story and to vote for him, you can check out this link - http://angelcuala.blogspot.com/2009/10/vote-efren-penaflorida-jr-for-1st.html
4 people like this
9 responses
@rsa101 (37952)
• Philippines
4 Nov 09
Wow that is great news! I have voted for him online and I think he deserves to receive that award since he was consistently doing his passion despite the limited resources he has in him. I hope he would continue on doing this good deed to his community and it would inspire him to expand his operation.
• Philippines
11 Nov 09
Yes, I think he truly deserves to win since the prize money can help a lot for his advocacy. I am also glad that local TV networks help spread the news. By the way, we can vote as many times as we can so I hope we continue voting for him everyday. Voting will be until Nov 19 so we still have a lot of time. Thanks!
• United States
8 Nov 09
Wow! Portable schools are an interesting solution to a nasty little problem there. I voted, although I don't know if it registered as my computer refused to cooperate. I've got Linux, and sometimes, it doesn't get along with widgets.
@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
4 Nov 09
How very cool sure hope he does win!
@cdparazo (5765)
• Philippines
5 Nov 09
My sister keeps on voting of him. I also put him in my facebook and asked all my friends to vote for him. He is very laudable. I hope he wins because i am sure he would put his winning into helping more people. He is empowering children to change their lives through education. As they say knowledge is power.
@stephon8 (300)
• Philippines
7 Nov 09
We should all vote for him he deserves that title. Kudos to CNN for putting this all up. What a great way to give credit to people who make good deeds big or small. Im sure anyone will be inspired reading all the finalists stories. All of them are already winners. Ordinary people but making a big difference. I post a link on my twitter account so my followers can vote for Efren.
• Philippines
4 Nov 09
hello, his story is really inspiring. this man start out as nothing, and non other than that he was also been beat up by some bullies way back his child hood. but despite of that he transformed that into something positive and has been helping a lot of street children. knowing what he did others i think have join his crusade and now they're other push carts out there. i don't understand, why can't business or other investors or even deped see this an opportunity to further help more on our fellow Filipinos who couldn't afford to go school. .but anyways, thanks a lot for sharing this, surely i would vote for him
@GardenGerty (157551)
• United States
4 Nov 09
He sounds like a compassionate and innovative person. This is good thinking.
• Philippines
4 Nov 09
I'm proud to be a Filipino because of this kind of people that are selflessly serving our fellow Filipinos who are in need, especially our children. It is now proven that one doesn't need to have lots of money to offer yourself for service. But what bothers me is that this hero is not recognized well enough in the Philippines before CNN did, and it only shows we are less supportive of genuine modern day heroes and the international scene recognized it first. We should change this culture and start within ourselves and ask ourselves what can we do to our community for free, without anything in return.
@ybong007 (6643)
• Philippines
4 Nov 09
Well another Filipino, that's great. I'll vote for him surely. Although his story is inspiring it also shows the sad state of education in the Philippines. I hope the government will not just ride with the glory of Efren if he wins but do something to improve it so our youth will no longer depend on pushcarts to learn but instead go to a decent school.