Mariechu Peralta, 24 yo, Star from Bloom Program,
Project Manager Stars Club Events & Youth Employability
Life Project Center Tondo, Manila, Philippines
I am Mariechu Peralta, former Youth of the program Bloom here in LPC Tondo. I am currently working for LP4Y as a coach for the Entrepreneurs, I became myself a Catalyst. I am helping them to find a decent job, and also trying to motivate them to fulfill all their dreams.
I am leading the Stars Club, which is a group of Youth who finished the PTE (the Professional Training for Entrepreneurs in LP4Y) and now have to face the real world, outside Life Project Centers ! I am here to accompany them because I know that we can suddenly feel stress when we don't find a job.This is never easy but the key is to never give up.
Last April 18th, actually it was around 7am in the morning, 50% of the people in Happyland were still sleeping when they woke-up in panic because a fire started to grow… We were all shocked… The damages of the fire affected around 500 houses and families. I was also sleeping in my house in Happyland when the fire started. Fortunately, even though I was affected, the fire didn’t hit my house totally, I am lucky. But I was so afraid for the other Stars and Youth of LP4Y who were in the middle of the fire… They are already facing the Covi-19 pandemic, which is a really hard time for us.
I immediately tried to think of how I could help, so I started to reach some Stars and it was wonderful to see that all of them participated to give food packs and clothes for those who were the most impacted. Expats in Manila organized some raisings as well.
I am also thankful for my colleagues who helped me, especially Anariza Cajodo (Tondo) and Axelle (Payatas?) - nurses of the Little Angels Academy in Tondo - they are the one who collected the relief goods from the community.
I saw that even if we are facing a crisis, these people around me still wanted to help the most in need. Even the Youth affected by the fire contributed to distribute the donations collected by LP4Y, expats and community. At this moment I felt what really means the motto of LP4Y “Together We Can”. LP4Y created a special fire crisis fund, it helped a lot of Stars and Youth to re-build their houses. So thank you to all the donors for giving donations to LP4Y. This is helping a lot our community to stay strong facing this new crisis. We will for sure continue to mobilize and help the community in this time of Covid-19.
And finally I am so thankful to all the volunteers who are still motivated to help the Youth even during this pandemic.
