Education | Finding hope in “Iskolar Ni Juan” project

I am Kimberly, 19 years old, and the eldest sister of six siblings. I am blessed and happy that I graduated college through World Vision and Gokongwei Brothers Foundation’s “Iskolar Ni Juan” project.

But life didn’t start well for me.

At age 11, my father was brought home dead, leaving my mother, who used to be a plain housewife, to look after and feed her six young children. Once, I heard her crying and asking how she could possibly raise and provide for her little children. She even questioned God why things happened to us.

As the eldest sister, I was usually left home to look after my siblings whenever my mother would look for work. She didn’t even know which one she should do first: to find work or to borrow money. At that time, I wanted to go to school, finish, and then find a decent job so I could help my mother. But with our life situation, I felt that my dream would simply become just that — a dream. I started losing hope. I couldn’t find the true meaning of hope anymore and felt no one cared us, not even God.

But things changed one day. My mother decided that it was time to go home to Isabela and live with the relatives of my father. That was when I became part of World Vision. World Vision assisted my family in so many ways, one of which was when I became a student of Iskolar ni Juan, a project of Gokongwei Brothers Foundation, one of World Vision’s partners. I studied Mechatronics Servicing for 1 year and was hired afterward in Universal Robina Corporation, one of the famous food corporations in the country.

Our brokenness was gradually made whole with the hands of God who brought many people to help us experience the positive and bright side of life. Through them, my faith in God was restored. I praise the Lord and I keep on declaring His goodness to us. He is very true in His promise that He will never leave us and that He makes ways and uses people to help us. God truly is our PROVIDER. We thank a lot of people who came to the saddest and hardest part of our life. I am humbled by our family’s life journey. God planted in our family the seed of faith, perseverance, and assurance.

The Iskolar ni Juan project of Gokongwei Brothers Foundation is a technical-vocational scholarship program with employment opportunity. Last September 2018, 10 scholars graduated from World Vision-assisted communities: Kimberly, Sherwin, Christian, Mark, Jayson, Reymart, Clyde, John Carl, Rexon, and Rey Albert. Currently, GBF is supporting another batch of 11 scholars from World Vision.

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