TDI-Magdalena Alumni: Where are They Now?

Five alumni of the CCT Training and Development Institute (CCT-TDI) in Magdalena, Laguna are now instructors at the newly opened TDI campus in Rodriguez, Rizal!  Here is the story of one of those young men, Niel Sususco.  

Niel grew up in Davao, the middle of three children of an electrician and a sari-sari store owner.  His mother was (and still is) a community partner in CCT’s microfinance program.

In 2012, an offer was made exclusively to male family members of CCT community partners to study at TDI. Niel was employed then at a banana plantation as a packer and dispatcher after having finished a two-year agriculture course.  Although due for a promotion, he resigned, thankful for a chance for further studies. He joined the campus’s second batch of students.

Niel completed the plumbing, electrical and masonry courses in a year, and was invited to join the TDI staff as an administrative officer and cashier. One of his earliest assignments was procuring basic construction industry hand tools and transporting these to Tacloban City where other TDI staff were training survivors of Typhoon Haiyan how to rebuild their houses.  Later on he worked on document requirements needed to secure government recognition for the TDI campus in Rodriguez, Rizal.

Starting January 18 2016, he will teach Electrical Installation and Maintenance at TDI Rodriguez.

Niel says he is grateful for the spiritual nurture he received at TDI. “I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ through the ministry of CCT,” he says. “Back in Davao I used to join illegal motorcycle drag races. I started to use marijuana at 17.  All that is in the past now. My perspective on life has totally changed.”     

And Niel's hopes are high: in a few years he hopes to go back to college and study to become a civil engineer.  

Former Street Kids Begin New Phase in Life

From left: Patrick Leano, Jervie Magat, a friend,
Allan Regota

No one watching Jervie Magat, Patrick Leano, and Allan Regota jubilantly tossing their graduation caps into the air would have guessed that just six years earlier, these good-looking young men wandered Manila’s streets aimless and desperately poor.

Patrick was just ten when he and his mother began living on the streets near Rizal Park. His parents had just separated. Soon, influenced by other street kids, he began to smoke, drink, and get ‘high’ by inhaling wood glue or solvent fumes. 

Allan’s parents separated due to a financial crisis. He, his mother, and a sister born after the separation soon found themselves on the streets.  The siblings had to often beg for food.   

After Jervie’s father died, his mother had to sell their house.  When the money ran out, Jervie,  his mother,  stepfather and three stepsiblings all had to live on the street. 

Patrick’s and Jervie’s paths crossed when they began attending CCT’s feeding program and Bible studies for street dwellers.  Here they heard the Gospel and were told that there still was hope for them. Later they and their families were given temporary shelter at the Kaibigan Center in Pasay, where Allan and his family were also being housed.  Here the families received counselling, were discipled, and the adults were trained for jobs.

Some time later the children were brought to study at the Visions of Hope (VOH) Christian School in Puypuy, Bay, Laguna.  Patrick, Jervie, and Allan, since they were older, were later on sent to the VOH residential school in Magdalena, Laguna. Here they attended Alternative Learning System (ALS) classes and eventually earned grade school and  high school diplomas.  

Their horizons expanded as they learned new skills and developed their talents.  They learned the habits of obedience, reverence, discipline and self-respect when they joined the Boys’ Brigade. Patrick even got to travel to Singapore to represent the VOH Boys’ Brigade in a conference there.  Above all, their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ grew firm and strong. 

In June 2013, all three boys began attending a two-year course in hotel and restaurant services at the Angelita V. del Mundo Foundation.  In April 2015 they donned graduation caps and gowns and joyfully received certificates of completion.  They are set to gain further training in this field by working part-time with the food and beverage department of the Tagaytay Retreat and Training Center and they look forward to further studies, supporting themselves through four-year degree courses. 

Shortly after the graduation ceremony, on Facebook, Patrick posted a picture of himself wearing a graduation gown, and in three short sentences expressed what must have been in the minds of his friends and all those who saw them grow and develop over the past few years: “Dati wala nang pag-asa.  Pero ngaun eto na ako.  Salamat sa Diyos. (I’d run out of hope.  But this is me now. Thank God.) ”

Former Street Kids Earn Cookery Skills

Young men from CCT's residential school proudly show their cookery course certificates. 

Twelve of the young men cared for by the Center for Community Transformation (CCT) at its residential school in Magdalena, Laguna have gained cookery skills after attending a Bayan Academy course.They also passed the related competency assessment of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), earning national certification 2.

"What a blessing this is," enthused Ruth Callanta, CCT president and founder, after the graduation ceremony. "Who would have thought that these boys, who just a few years ago lived on the street, can now prepare and cook several international dishes!Nothing is impossible if you believe in God," she added, reflecting on the transformation undergone by the young men.

The cookery course is part of Bayan Academy's Entreprenuership Education for Community Development program sponsored by J.P. Morgan and held in partnership with TESDA and CCT. The intention of this program, according to the Bayan website, is that trainees armed with both a technical vocation and business management knowledge become 'technopreneurs' fully equipped to establish their own income and employment generating enterprise.

The young men learned cold kitchen fundamentals such as the preparation and production of sandwiches and salads, and hot kitchen recipes such as soups and main dishes. Among the main dishes they can now make are risotto and paella. They also learned how to make pastries and desserts such as cream puffs, baklava, and mousse.

According to Arthur Aguinaldo of Bayan Academy, the TESDA national certificate 2 that each of the young men earned is a plus point for future employment because it is recognized by local and international employers and  is the same certificate also sought by graduates of high-end culinary schools.

Ruth Callanta, CCT president and founder, signs
certificates while two happy graduates look on. 

CCT TDI Holds Second Commencement Rites

Forty young men recently graduated from TDI’s building construction and maintenance course, and 79 others were recognized for completing study hours and requirements for some of the subjects (masonry, plumbing, electrical installation and maintenance, and carpentry) composing the two-year course.

Eleazar Palma, son of a banana vendor from Davao, gave a speech on behalf of all the graduates speaking of dreams coming true.  He received awards for leadership, diligence and responsibility.  

How to Get to the CCT TDI Magdalena Campus from Manila

From the South Luzon Expressway: 

Leave the expressway at the Calamba exit.  Drive along Real Road then turn right at the Calamba national highway. Drive along this highway  passing through the towns of  Los Banos, Bay, Victoria, Pila, Sta. Cruz, and Pagsanjan.  About 1 ½ kilometres past the Pagsanjan welcome arch you will cross a small bridge after which stands an Iglesia ni Cristo church building on the left.  Turn right across from this church and drive straight ahead for the next four kilometres.  When you get to the unpaved portion (landmark: Von Welt gate) the campus will be about 200 meters away.  After a small paved portion and more rough road, watch for the CCT TDI wooden gate on the left.   

Note: If for some reason you miss the iron welcome arch and come to the stone welcome arch, simply turn around.  The Iglesia ni Cristo church will be on your right.  Turn left on the street across from the building and follow the rest of the directions above.  

TEE Attendees Visit Magdalena Campus

Participants in Transformative Economic Empowerment (TEE), an international training session for micro finance workers, visited the Magdalena campus of the Training and Development Institute (TDI) of the Center for Community Transformation (CCT) to get an overview and feel of CCT’s ministry among out-of-school youth and unemployed or underemployed males.  TEE is a joint activity of CCT and the Ka-Partner network, a consortium of US-based organizations ministering to the poor. 

 The TDI campus in Magdalena, Laguna offers a two-year vocational / technical course called Building Construction and  Maintenance with competencies in electrical installation and maintenance, masonry, rough carpentry, and plumbing.  It is also a boarding school for a second set of students – male, former street dwellers between the ages of 10 and 19.  (The boarding school for former street dwellers is being overseen by the Visions of Hope Foundation, which, along with TDI, is a member of the CCT Group of Ministries.)

Ruth Callanta, CCT founder and president, said the training session allows the sharing of CCT’s best practices and stories,  benefiting the poor of other nations. The TEE attendees were from Sri Lanka, Peru, India, Moldova, Zambia, Kenya, Thailand, Uganda, and the US. The main theme of this gathering was leadership and vision, and spiritual integration in micro finance. Speakers included CCT Chairman Bertram Lim, Ruth Callanta, and social anthropologists Dr. Melba Maggay and Dr. Miriam Adeney.   

The founding members of the Ka Partner network are endPoverty, Five Talents, Hope International, and Peer Servants. 

After viewing a presentation about programs and services offered at the campus, listening to the testimony of one  of the students, and touring the buildings, many of the guests enjoyed some shooting practice with members of the campus soccer team. 

The main venue of the training session was the Tagaytay Retreat and Training Center in Tagaytay City.   

Quezon City Men Graduate from CTDI, Receive TESDA Certification

Twenty-six men from Bagong Silangan, Payatas, Commonwealth, and Batasan in Quezon City recently graduated from a special short-term course on carpentry and masonry  at the CCT Training and Development Institute, Magdalena, Laguna campus.  Except for two, the men  passed assessment tests given by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, have received certification from the agency, and now have a better chance for employment.

The men are  husbands, sons, nephews, and in-laws of CCT micro finance community partners.

Graduation day, held in Bagong Silangan,  was a much-awaited and joyful event for the men and their families since many of them had never completed high school or grade school.

The course was run in partnership with the Wholistic Transformation Resource Center.  A second group of 30 men will start similar training this month.

TDI Students Have Jobs on US Embassy Grounds

TDI students wait for their turn to be interviewed by
Engr. Rafael Ian Ilagan, building construction contractor. 

Tyron Sarmiento (seated, in white shirt) marketing officer for the
 Covenant Community Service Cooperative joins the pre-service
interviews. 

The students try on new safety shoes and reflective vest
a few days before they start work. 

Twelve students at the CCT Training and Development Institute-Magdalena Campus have been blessed with a contract that will have them working  at the US embassy from November 2012 to March 2013.  Five electrical maintenance students and seven plumbing students – who simply needed a place where they could get on-the-job training – got full paying jobs when they were hired by a building contractor who has a construction project on the US embassy grounds in Manila. 

After March they will go back to TDI to complete the rest of their one-year building maintenance course
which includes masonry and carpentry. 

The TDI curriculum provides its students  with the basic knowledge, practices, techniques, and skills they need to succeed in a career in building maintenance and combines this with several months of on-the-job training. 

The young men are sons of micro entrepreneurs  receiving micro finance assistance from CCT's Savings and Credit Cooperative. Many of them could have spent years being unskilled and jobless but with God’s intervention in their lives they have fresh hope not just for themselves but for their families too.

Rey Mark Pangilan: On the Path Out of Poverty?

Rey Mark Pangilan draws plumbing equipment in one of his classes at the Center for
Community Transformation Training and Development Institute.  

Farmer's Son. "I'd like to help my family," says Rey Mark Pangilan, 20, a new vocational-technical student at the Center for Community Transformation (CCT)  Technical and Development Institute (TDI)  in Magdalena, Laguna. This is the answer one would expect to hear from any of the 31 new students  studying rough carpentry, plumbing, electrical maintenance, and masonry when asked what they hope to do when they finish their one-year course.

A full-blooded B'laan, Rey Mark is the fifth of seven children of a farmer who plants corn, and only the second person in his family to study beyond high school.

Even  finishing high school  was not easy, he says. "I had to hike one hour from my house  every school day to get  to the nearest high school."

The B'laans are an  indigenous group who live in  Davao del Sur, South Cotabato, and Sarangani.  They are known for their colorful native costumes and intricate beadwork but at the same time are economically disadvantaged.

Rey Mark is enrolled at TDI as a scholar of the Visions of Hope Foundation, a member of the CCT Group of Ministries which has been working among the B'laans of Sarangani since 2003.  His classmates come  from other poor communities in the Visayas and Mindanao.  

Master Key. Technical and vocational education is seen by international experts as ‘the master key that can alleviate poverty.’  While many Filipinos look down on jobs that require manual labor TDI believes numerous opportunities are out there for those willing to work with their hands and sufficiently trained to do so. For instance, while machines are fast replacing jobs in factories and on farms, houses and other buildings still have to be built by human hands.  In fact according to the latest labor market study of the Department of Labor and Employment jobs as masons and carpenters are hard-to-fill occupations in the Philippines, while positions as plumbers are in demand abroad.  

Alongside  technical training and on-the-job learning,  TDI  provides classes, programs and activities meant to help the students grow deeper in their relationship with God.  Students  attend daily morning devotions,  Saturday worship services  with members or beneficiaries of other CCT programs in the area, and regular Sunday worship services.

So is Rey Mark on the pathway out of poverty?    If he keeps believing things can change for the better, if, by God's grace, he puts in the huge effort needed to pursue learning,  then his desire to help his family -- improve the quality of their lives, send younger siblings to school, and provide for his parents as they grow old --  can surely come true.

Former Street Kids, Future Soccer Champs?

Is CCT raising some future soccer champions? With God nothing is impossible!   Boys who used to live on the streets but who are now part of the boarding school program of Visions of Hope Christian School are getting trained in the world's most popular sport. Of course joining the national team and playing in high-level matches also requires daily practice, healthy habits, focus, dedication, and years of hard work.  

But who knows? One of the boys in these pictures could some day play for the Philippines.  Right now they compete against other teams in the town of Magdalena in Laguna.  Here they are warming up, stretching, doing drills, and playing practice games at the Magdalena campus of the Center for Community Transformation Training and Development Institute. 

The Binhi Junior Soccer team with German coaches David Kananizadeh and
Maximilian Alex Haubensak (wearing glasses) and Pastor Jun Tolentino (right). 

Photos by Michelle Taway

CCT TDI Holds First Commencement Exercise

Thirty-three young men from different provinces of the Philippines received certificates for completing a one-year program at the Center for Community Transformation Training and Development Institute -Magdalena, during the campus’s first commencement exercise. The young men graduated with competencies learned in electrical installation and maintenance, masonry, rough carpentry, and plumbing.  Eighty-three others were recognized for completing three, six, or nine months of training in those same areas. 

Losande Labrador Jr., academic
excellence awardee

In a well-delivered speech, academic excellence awardee Losande Labrador Jr. of Bacolod City spoke of his dreams and of  being the first person in his family to finish an educational course beyond high school. 

CCT President and Founder Ruth Callanta explained how the partnership between CCT-TDI and AMG Skilled Hands Technological College came about, and told of how the campus fulfills a long-held dream of Eliezer del Mundo Sr. to help out-of-school  youth receive an education. The 3.3 hectare campus is under a usufruct agreement between CCT and Mr. del Mundo. She also explained that TDI’s construction industry-related courses  were offered based on a survey done in Laguna that indicated that the construction industry offers the most number of employment opportunities to families.

Elmer Talavera, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) regional director IV-A, guest speaker, admonished the graduates not to "immediately look toward the airport or start applying for a passport" but to gain local work experience first. “Opportunities for employment are here, now,”  he said, referring to Laguna which he said is known for tourism and is the “dormitory of Metro Manila” or the place that workers in Metro Manila come home to after a day at the office and other establishments.

Darlito Agacite of Pangasinan recalled the challenges of his one year on campus and thanked God for the opportunity “Not just to learn new skills but to also learn God’s Word.”  

The graduates and members of the boards of AMG-SHTC and CCT-TDI.

The processional: graduates, staff, and guests. 

TESDA Region IV-A Director Elmer Talavera:
"Opportunities for employment are here,
now!"

Members of the Brigada Bata-Magdalena
Chapter salute the Philippine flag at the
beginning of the ceremony. 

The Visions of Hope-Alternative Learning System Drum
and Bugle Corps provide music for the occasion. 

The Philippine flag and the CCT colors
wave proudly over the TDI campus grounds. 

ALS Boys Shine in Swim Meet

Freestyle division winners - 1st place, John Paulo Caparas; 2nd place Edwin Jones; 3rd place, Allan Vincent Ramos 

Three boys enrolled in the Alternative Learning System at the TDI-Magdalena Campus won first, second, and third place in the freestyle division of the 2011 Diliman Preparatory School - Philippine Swimming League Class C and Novice Swim Meet yesterday. The boys, John Paulo Caparas, Edwin Jones, and Allan Vincent Ramos said they felt like David going against Goliath when they saw their opponents -- taller, bigger bodied, and wearing expensive swimming trunks. They lost early  backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and relay events. But just before the last event, the freestyle method, after a pep talk with VOH's  Nurse Elmer who reminded them of instructions from Coach Susan Papa, the boys decided that they would win first, second, and third place.  

And they did!  John Paulo came in first, Edwin Jones came in second, and and Allan Vincent took third place.

"Inaalay po namin ang pagkapanalo naming ito sa Panginoon," (We dedicate our win to the Lord,) Edwin said.  

Left to right: Arnold dela Cruz, Allan Vincent Ramos, John Paulo Caparas,
Edwin Jones, and Michael Clavel.

With Coach Susan Papa

Warm-up exercises

http://www.philstar.com/SportsArticle.aspx?articleId=699951&publicationSubCategoryId=69 


Photos and reportage: Allan Pardico

ALS Boys Raise Bonsai Plants, Veggies

Boys enrolled in the Alternative Learning System program at the CCT-Training and Development Institute campus in Magdalena, Laguna are learning how to raise and care for bonsai plants and vegetables. These are two on-campus income-generating projects they are currently involved with.

In the next eight pictures some of the boys proudly display the bonsai plants they raise.

 Patrick Leano holding his papua bonsai

Arnold dela Cruz with his balite bonsai

Adrian Balanay with his melendres bonsai

John Domingo Caparas with his balite bonsai

Mherd Masa with his papua bonsai

John Paulo Caparas with his papua bonsai

Allan Vincent Ramos with his baliti bonsai

Michael Clavel with his melendres bonsai

All of the bonsai plants are for sale to help the boys earn some money for themselves.


The next few pictures show the boys harvesting eggplants and sweet potato tops (talbos ng kamote).

John Conrad Caparas