For those great men and women who champion noble causes, it is not unusual to hear stories of that one defining moment in their lives of how they got involved in their advocacy in the first place. Some claim that their epiphany came in form of a man or a woman who enlightened them and showed them to their path, some claim that it came after a long meditation while some claim it came in form of a dream, a song, a TV show or a film. For social worker and teacher by profession Efren Peñaflorida, his epiphany came in form of rocks.
Growing up in a poverty-stricken part of Cavite City, Efren’s life was full of struggles even at an early age. He lived near the city dump site, his parents (his dad a tricycle driver and his mom a vendor) worked hard to make ends meet. The young Efren knew back then that it was education which will be instrumental to alleviate their destitute status. Thus, he made sure to always do his best at school. However, Efren often encountered neighborhood kids who would hang out outside his school who either bullied him or enticed him to join gangs, some even resorting to the violent actof beating him up. When Efren was in fourth year high school at the Cavite National High School, the bullying reached a new low: the bullies started to throw rocks at them.
This experience eventually drove Efren and three of his high school classmates to form Dynamic Teen Company in 1997, which aims to divert kids from joining gangs and notorious fraternities and involving themselves in petty crimes. Through Dynamic Teen Company, the group came across Club 8586, Inc., a non-profit, non-sectarian and non-denominational organization helping the less fortunate in Cavite City. Club 8586 already had a good reputation at that time.
"It was here where I met my mentor who changed my perspective," Efren says, pointing out that the mentor prefers to remain nameless. "We joined in their volunteer work and jail outreach programs. Our eyes were opened to reality, how kids who aren’t properly guided grow up to be criminals rotting in jail cells or ending up at the cemetery."
Dynamic Teen Company started as a friendship club of around 20 members and their major platform at the time was to provide youth awareness projects, talent and self-development activities and community services. Now, the group, which now has 125 volunteers in Cavite City alone, holds different activities to address these issues.
In 1999, Dynamic Teen Company led by Efren began to reach out to slum kids by conducting outreach classes, bringing them plastic bags with food and goodies to lure them. Four years later, Club 8586’s office burned down and the group got the idea of utilizing the unused push carts from Club 8586. A volunteer, Michael Advincula, took charge of conceptualizing the design of the carts. Michael was a former Akyat Bahay gang member and Spaghetti gang member, stealing cable wires and selling them, before being taken in as a volunteer by Dynamic Teen Company.
