CNN hero takes ‘pushcart classroom’ to Indonesia Wednesday, 01 February 2012 23:45

MANILA: The 2009 CNN Hero of the Year and educator Efren Peñaflorida is expanding his kariton (pushcart) classroom project to a slum area in Indonesia.

Peñaflorida gained recognition for starting a pushcart classroom program to educate poor children, especially those who live on the streets.

He will expand the program in March to a depressed area in Jakarta, Indonesia.

“There is a need (to expand) the project to Indonesia. We have a tool and the clientele, so why not take the opportunity,” Peñaflorida said during the recent launching of the A+ campaign of technology firm Hewlett-Packard to encourage reading and writing competence in schools.

Peñaflorida is also rolling out four more units of his pushcart classroom project in Metro Manila and other provinces.

He said he was collaborating with the Department of Education (DepEd) and local government officials of Pasig, Caloocan, and Quezon City for the implementation of the project.

Peñaflorida said the pushcart classrooms are not meant to serve as substitutes of traditional classroom-based learning but as a means of encouraging street children to appreciate learning.

“The target is to encourage street children to love learning and eventually put them back to mainstream education,” he said. Peñaflorida Jr. is the founder and head of the Dynamic Teen Company, which offers Filipino youth an alternative to street gangs through education, recreating school settings in unconventional locations such as cemeteries and trash dumps.

On November 22, 2009, he was named CNN Hero of the Year for 2009.

The  Philippine Star

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