When she got her first pay, Aileen Fernandez-Desamparado bought a bucket of Jollibee chicken joy to celebrate. She is now a public school teacher handling grade 5 and 6 students. She still can’t believe that her dream is now a reality.

Of the 11 siblings, Aileen is the only one who finished college. She is supporting her parents despite having a family of her own.

It took Aileen 15 years to complete her college degree, not because she was a lazy nor a troubled student but because her family at that time did not have enough resources to send her in a tertiary school.

Understanding of her family’s situation, Aileen went to work instead and eventually met her husband Abner whom she has two children Airen and Ann Jela. After she got married Aileen dedicated her time to her children and their small farm to help augment his husband’s meager income.

Due to her responsibilities at home and with their family’s financial status, enrolling in college is nothing but just a dream. In her mind, college is only good for those who are single and not for mothers like her.

In 2011, Aileen became a grantee of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, the conditional cash transfer of the Philippine government that invests in the education and health of poor children age 0-18.

Her daughter Airen and Ann Jela are monitored children of Pantawid Pamilya.

“If not because of the help we get from Pantawid Pamilya I wouldn’t be where I am today,” shared Aileen, 32, a former parent leader of Barangay Baod, Bantayan, Cebu who recently passed the Licensure Examination for Teachers and is now handling elementary classes.

She started teaching two months ago at Tarong Elementary School, which is 30 minutes away from her residence.

Aileen graduated as Magna Cum Laude at Madridejos Community College (MCC) last March 2015. She took review classes before taking the exam, which divided her time as a mother, a wife and a student.

Aileen disclosed that the financial grant she received from the program has helped her family in meeting their day to day need, which allowed her and Abner to save some extra money that she later used to enroll in a community college.

The mother of two narrated that her enrollment in college was not planned although she had always dreamed of going back to school.

“I was accompanying my younger sister Maeziel to enroll at MCC when I happened to ask Ms. Rowena Batasin, teacher/cashier if married women like me are allowed to enroll, when she answered yes, I informed my husband about it,” Aileen shared with a big smile.

Abner, who works at St. Peters as a sales agent did not hesitate to support her wife’s dream.

“Her dream is also my dream and I support her because finishing her studies will also bring pride to our family and hopefully a better future for our children,” said Abner.

When Aileen had exams, the couple agreed that Abner will do all the house chores so that Aileen can focus on her studies. In return of his husband’s sacrifices Aileen studied hard, and graduated with flying colors.

Aileen, also shared that her experience as a Parent Leader of Pantawid Pamilya has helped build her confidence.

“During Family Development Session (one of the three Pantawid Pamilya conditionalities), different topics are being taught like How to become a good leader, Responsible Parenting, Family Planning and Disaster Preparedness, these topics have greatly helped me and my family as we were also survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013,” she added.

The Desamparado’s house was among the thousands of damaged properties in Bantayan Island, where the said typhoon made its second landfall.

“When the typhoon hit, most of us lost our farms that shattered our source of income but because we are beneficiaries of the program we were able to somehow survived and continued sending our kids to school,” she recalled.

Meanwhile, Aileen continues to dream as she hopes that her siblings would also finished college and land a good job.

Part of her goal is also to send her husband to school, should he finds interest in finishing his studies.

Aileen is set to waive her grants from Pantawid Pamilya next month, believing that another family in need will benefit from the program that once helped her achieve her dreams.

During her free time, Aileen plans to facilitate FDS and share her story to other families, specially to the mothers.

“I would also like to offer free tutorial sessions to those low performing student beneficiaries of the program as my way of giving back to what the program has given me,” she said.

There are about 190,000 active partner-beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program in Central Visayas. ###

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