One rainy day, I was walking along the busy street of downtown metro Zamboanga. The rain was pouring so hard and so was my emotion. I couldn’t contain my emotion as I was looking at the children lying on the ground, sleeping on the corner of the street. Their small, frail bodies, enveloped by the cold weather were balancing between trying to get a decent sleep and trying to avoid the wet floor. My heart broke seeing the situation. And then I knew what I wanted in life—to be an instrument that would spark change and bring alleviation to the lives of the marginalized. I am Reema L. Agkah, and this is my story as a 4Ps beneficiary, now a DSWD worker.

The Cycle of Poverty

I am the eldest child of my parents who were natives of Sulu and whose ancestors were mostly if not all, farmers. In 1998, a month after I was born, my parents decided that we start a new life here in Zamboanga City. We moved to Tigtabon Island, Zamboanga City, and life there was hard. My parents were not used to our new source of living which was fishing, so they strived hard to provide my basic needs even if it meant setting aside theirs—as expected. They had a lot of debts from many people until the year 2000 when my parents decided to move to Talon-Talon, Zamboanga City as my father started working as a laborer.

A year after, came my little sister, Jaida. 2 years after her, our brother, Nedzfar, followed. And just a year after him, my parents had another baby—she was named Arniza. My parents haven’t considered family planning, and I wonder if they even knew about it back then, maybe not. Lack of family planning was one contributory factor to the impoverished situation that we were in. I feared that we could not escape this cycle of poverty, and this would be the life that I was meant to live.

Nonetheless, my parents did everything they can to provide for our necessities. My father worked hard until we had enough money to buy our own house. In 2005, we moved to our new home located at Sta. Catalina, Zamboanga City where my then-youngest brother was born. It was also during this period that I started attending school.

But just when I thought that this is a start of a better tomorrow, fate took a turn. We hit rock bottom once again. My mom and my siblings were brought back to Jolo, Sulu so my grandparents could also look after them while I was left here in Zamboanga City to continue my elementary education and my father to work as a laborer.

I remember back then, my father would leave me at his cousin’s house before he goes to work early in the dawn. Every morning, I would go to my aunt’s house to eat breakfast and get the allowance that my father has left me. I would then go back home to prepare myself before going to school. And every weekend, my father would take me with him because my aunt was too busy during the weekend. He was working at the pier, so I was told to sit beside his bike while he was working inside the ship to carry its cargoes out. There were also days when I would go inside the ship and pretend like I was a passenger, but it wouldn’t usually last long as I experience motion sickness and had no choice but to wait outside again.

I moved to Sulu in my second grade while my father returned to Zamboanga City to continue working. I then became so lazy to go to school. The transfer affected my interest in education. Modesty aside, I was a little bit advanced compared to my classmates. I was the only one who knew how to read among my classmates, so my teacher would always ask me to act like a little teacher while she was doing paperwork and I never liked that.

Additionally, life was even harder in the province. I always end up hungry in school because I didn’t have enough allowance to buy nutritious food. And that’s not even the worst part. I also experienced running for my dear life as armed conflicts were prevalent in that part of Mindanao. My two siblings and I were separated from my parents because they had to pack our things, so they made us go with other relatives first to an evacuation center.

Realizing that we can never achieve our goals in an environment like that, we moved back to Zamboanga City.

 

Escape from the Cycle

In 2012, I attended Zamboanga City High School and had fun because my classmates were all fun to be with and we also worked together. It was also during my high school years that my family was chosen as one of the beneficiaries of the 4Ps or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

During high school, all I knew was that the program helped us buy our basic school needs as my siblings were also already studying by then. However, I was out of the list when I reached 18 and graduated from high school. Fortunately, my other siblings remained supported by its conditional cash grants and other benefits. For instance, when my father got hospitalized due to acute appendicitis, we spent nothing on hospital bills the same as when my mother gave birth in the hospital, and this is because 4Ps beneficiaries are automatically Philhealth members.

In 2016, I attended STI College Zamboanga and took the ABM strand. In the same year, my father resigned from his job as a laborer and became a tricycle driver until the present time. In late 2017, I had my On-the-Job Training at Filinvest, Zamboanga. My training days were about making audits, financial accounts, photocopying, scanning documents, cleaning, and most of the time, just sitting there waiting for a client. I felt horrible. I knew that was probably my future as a future accountant and that scared me. I knew I would never survive that kind of life in the future. I then realized that my heart was not in accountancy. I want something hopeful. I want to explore. I want to be with people. I want to help—while providing for the needs of my family. But I don’t know what to take back then.

One day, on an early rainy day, I passed by the midtown Zamboanga and saw street children sleeping on the floor without shirts on. My heart broke and I just wanted to take all of them home and feed them. I knew at that moment that I wanted to take social work. I was still unaware of its essence but I know they help poor people. “Help poor people” were the keywords for me to say yes.

 

Chasing my found Passion

In 2018, I applied to my then dream university—the Western Mindanao State University. I took the entrance examination for incoming freshmen and was confident that I will pass. But it took a month for the results to come out. And I was so nervous, that I even had a mental breakdown a day before my scheduled interview. It’s a good thing that my father was there to assure me that I would be okay. That whether or not I pass the interview, I will still be okay. He said that if it is in God’s plan, whether I am ready or not for the interview, I will still pass. And if ever I won’t, he assured me that there are a lot of other schools out there for me. And there, I came back to my senses and I think I did pretty well during the interview because I am now a degree holder of my dream profession. In my first year in college, I realized that I should do something to help my parents pay for my basic needs or just start saving for my board exam expenses, so I applied for several known scholarships available but unfortunately, I was not qualified for any of those. And then one day, I heard a group of classmates talking about Student Assistance and again, I joined their application. To cut the long process short: I passed the interview and became a student assistant for 3 semesters where I learned how to manage my time wisely to study while working. It was hard but, at the same time, fulfilling. I also got to be with people from other courses, so I learned a lot from there, too. However, I had to stop working when I got another scholarship from UniFAST. I somehow had to let other students have the chance to to work as well. But then again, I cannot just skip the COVID-19 phase which affected every person in the world not just financially and physically but also psychologically. My father had to stop working due to lockdowns and other restrictions, so we hit the bottom line again. Our savings were all gone as we had to spend them on our basic needs while the government imposed lockdowns.

Glancing back to my experiences, it took so much effort to be here. Social Work is my first choice yet I’ve already had a lot of mental breakdowns during my years in college and I know a lot more would come. I also had several moments when my choice of passion was tested. I started questioning what I’m doing here when I don’t even know when, where, and how to start. And until now, I’m still learning and answering the questions I always had in mind. And each day of learning makes me fall in love more with this profession.

Before I end this “success story” turned into an autobiography, I just wanted to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone behind the country’s poverty alleviation program or the 4Ps law and the people who are supporting its implementation.

Endless thank you also to UniFAST for its unending support to its beneficiaries. Super thanks also to a few individuals who gave me the opportunity to practice my profession while reviewing for my board exam. And of course, the words “thank you” will not be enough to express how grateful I am to all my significant others who were there for me until the end. The questions and doubts are still there, yes. But I realized it is part of the process. “Ad Astra per Aspera” is my favorite quote which means “through hardships to the stars.” And it is one of the things that helps me keep going because I know, after all the hardships and hard work, I will be the social worker that I have always wanted to be, especially for the vulnerable and marginalized sectors in our society. Again, this is my story and I am proud of it.

 

REEMA L. AGKAH

Western Mindanao State University

Bachelor of Science in Social Work

Class of 2022

CUM LAUDE