Pushcart education pioneer
is CNN Hero for 2009
EFREN Peñaflorida, who pioneered "pushcart education" in the Philippines to bring education to poor children as an alternative to gang membership, is Cable News Network’s (CNN) 2009 Hero of the Year.
Peñaflorida, 28, topped the seven-week online poll conducted by the international news network. CNN said more than 2.75 million votes were cast based on the figures on their website. No breakdown of votes was available.
Peñaflorida said he would pledge the $100,000 cash prize to his group, the Dynamic Teen Company (DTC).
CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper said the selection of the Cavite native came at the conclusion of the third-annual "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute" at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood Saturday night (Sunday Manila time).
The gala event will be aired on Nov. 26 at 9 p.m. (ET) on the global networks of CNN.
Peñaflorida was the third individual and the first male to win the prestigious award.
The two previous winners were Liz McCartney (2008) and Viola Vaughn (2007).
In his acceptance speech, Peñaflorida said:
"Each person has a hidden hero within, you just have to look inside you and search it in your heart, and be the hero to the next one in need."
"The hero in you is waiting to be unleashed. Serve, serve well, serve others above yourself and be happy to serve. As I always tell to my co-volunteers... you are the change that you dream as I am the change that I dream and collectively we are the change that this world needs to be," he said.
The other contenders were Brad Blauser of Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids, Roy Foster of Stand Down House of Florida, Doc Hendley of Wine to Water, breast cancer survivor Andrea Ivory, Betty Makoni of Girl Child Network, Jorge Muñoz of Mobile Soup Kitchen, Budi Soehardi of Roslin Orphanage, Derrick Tabb of The Roots of Music, and Jordan Thomas of the Jordan Thomas Foundation.
They each received $25,000 aside from the documentary tribute and introduction by a celebrity presenter.
While the Hero of the Year award was chosen through online voting, the top 10 heroes were chosen by a blue-ribbon panel from an initial pool of more than 9,000 viewer nominations, according to CNN.
The CNN opened the online voting last October.
Peñaflorida has said he was humbled by being included in the top 10.
"If the people vote for me, they are actually voting for the poor kids DTC is teaching and the dedicated volunteers behind this work," he said.
In 1997, at the age of 16, Peñaflorida and his classmates started DTC using a roaming pushcart filled with books, pens, tables and chairs to teach basic reading, writing, Arithmetic and English every Saturday to marginalized children in the slums of Cavite city.
He said DTC has blossomed into a 10,000-member organization.
According to the DTC website, the group has reached lives of some 1,500 children transforming places such as cemeteries and municipal dump sites into classrooms.
Through his group, Peñaflorida has successfully mentored former gang members, addicts and dropouts, saying they are seeing potential where others see problems.
Peñaflorida has said his inspiration in doing what he does is simply looking back into what he experienced from his childhood.
He said he and his family and lived in a shanty near the Cavite City dump site, making him prone to bullying by gang leaders.
This, Peñaflorida said, inspired him to believe that there is a need to divert teenagers to be productive through education instead of just bullying around.
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