Many of us simply sat around our basketball courts, hoping and waiting for a college education we could not afford. For a job we could not get. For a better future for ourselves, and our families that we always dreamed about. Until we realized, it would never come if we sat there alone.
In 2011, we came together after SIMAG project in partnership with the Philippine Center for Population and Development, Inc. (PCPD). We learned, studied, and trained. We used our notes and time, our skills, creativity and energy, and we worked. We laughed together and had fun. We bacame Trainers, Resource Persons, and Peer Educators. We ran, planted trees, cleaned the communities.
We had become a group of friends from various families, haciendas, and barangays. And before we knew it, our dreams started to come true. Our lives were improving and now had a meaning.
This is the story of 50 young dreamers who organized the out-of-school youth in Silay City and E. B. Magalona with an initial of 1,700 members. The Association of SIMAG Out-of-School Youth, Inc. – a coalition of OSY composed of primary groups from different haciendas and barangays.