MEET THE PRINCIPAL OF KARITON SCHOOL

Everyone knows about the thousands of illiterate children living in the slums.

Everyone who knows this mostly shake their fists angrily in protest of this crime to society, usually from comfy arm chairs.

One, knew that he had to take action himself if these kids were to have any hope of a humane future.

Meet Efren Penaflorida Jr. He’s that Kuya F person you’ve probably seen on TV. By the time you read this, Kuya F has helped to educate thousands of slum children, sparing them from illiteracy, gangs and even diseases.

Now if you're the kind of person who thinks you need a lot of money and concrete to achieve what Kuya F has done, check out these facts:

Kuya F grew up by the garbage slums and polluted canals of Cavite. His dad, a tricycle driver.

Kuya F grew up being assaulted by gangs and solvent kids in the area.

He was even featured in a documentary about kids living in the worst conditions.

He had nothing. So how did he become a renowned giver of hope to thousands? Well, someone simply cared enough to offer him free schooling. Coupled with hard work and personal intellect, he earned a college scholarship and eventually a degree.

As a kid he realized, it was benevolence that gave him hope of leaving the slums.
A benevolence he too was eager to show. Thus, Efren pledged to give free education to slum children.
And to do this, he and a couple of like-minded friends started the Dynamic Teen Company. Efren was only 16, and the DTC was really just a company of friends.
No money, no volunteer force. And in their minds, no reason to stop them from pursuing their mission themselves. Even if it meant teaching one child at a time. Of course, it went beyond teaching.

They gave what clean food they could to kids who would otherwise have eaten rotting leftovers from trash.

They handed over what money they could spare from their own pockets.

Rehabilitated gang members and solvent sniffing kids.

And many of those kids have gotten into college themselves.


Today, Kuya F’s crusade has evolved to teaching significantly larger groups. But since slum children still couldn’t go to schools, Kuya F and the DTC now brought the schools to them…with the Kariton Classrooms, officially known as K4 ( Kariton Klasrum Klinik at Kantin).

This simple yet brilliant idea that’s making waves across the world came from one of Kuya F’s volunteers, a 12 year old boy.
No need for a school building here, since these pushcarts contain the basic elements of a classroom. Flags, tables and chairs, even an improvised clinic. And of course a mini canteen—with free snacks!
But the best part, are the young volunteers behind this pushcart who are willing to give of themselves to make a difference in the lives of other poor children. Spreading much needed hope, like the kind Kuya F was given when he was a slum child, and the hope he has paid forward.

He hopes that the concept of the pushcart classroom will be replicated because this will bring change for the better.
Change that he says begins with ourselves.

In his owns words he asks…
“…Let our hearts be willing to accommodate the needy, the desperate and the hopeless simply by extending our hand to them, and there you will unfold the hero that is in you."

K4 is now a ten thousand-strong volunteer force that has tutored over one thousand 500 children from the slums.

And all because of one slum child who was, and still is full of hope.