Message during the OLFS Alumni Homecoming Alumni Night 

Ms. Florence F. Pasos

Batch 1986 -Class Valedictorian

December 26, 2015

Going directly to the point, I am here in front of you tonight to “share my blessings”, too.  And my blessings come in the form of fulfillment in my work that can be summarized into “relevant service to the nation”. So I am here, a social worker, who has been working with a non-government organization for the past 25 years and as a person, who performs various other roles in society:  as a mother, a wife, a daughter, a citizen of this country, a friend, and a lot more. 

My slogan is:  I love my work and the people I work with.  And my theme is:  Don’t chase success, let success chase you.

My work is a great source of my fulfilment.  And the reason why I have been able to contribute meaningfully to nation-building from the micro to the macro levels as a social worker, a child rights advocate, a consultant, a trainer and a member of the academe.  It is my personal belief, and this has been proven through my own experience, that when you begin your career by doing  the work that you love most and not thinking so much of the monetary rewards or perks that this job can offer at the onset or as a matter of priority, then eventually you will be able to get the pay that you want and enjoy the perks that come with your work.  I will illustrate it in a short while.

I am currently the program operations manager of the educational research and development assistance (erda) foundation, inc. working with thousands of children in sugarcane plantations, their families and communities covering 5 provinces, 12 municipalities and 43 barangays in the Philippines where child labor is rampant.  Our goal is to remove the children from hazardous work and provide them opportunities to finish their education and develop their potentials using the multiple intelligences approach and the convention on the rights of the child as framework.  This is a time bound project and since 2011 I had to handle a team of 15 for this project.  The team is composed mostly of young social workers, educators, monitoring and evaluation and livelihood specialists and an admin staff. 

For the past 12 years I have been working intensively on child labor reduction or elimination from the local to the national to the international levels.  In the Philippines, we have 5 million working children out which 2.9 million are in hazardous work like in sugarcane plantations.  Child l abor is a children’s issue that has the biggest magnitude in our country.   And for the past 25 years I have devoted my time working on the promotion of children’s rights.  Since my work is focused on changing the lives of children, we also work closely with women, families, communities and the whole society.  We`are very much into policy advocacy both at the local and national levels and provision of direct services on education, livelihood, advocacy, social protection, gender sensitivity, sustainable development and capacity building.   Kami ay tumutulong na mag-organisa ng mga Local Councils for the Protection of Children (LCPC), Barangay Children’s Association, women’s groups at iba pang sector at  nagbibigay ng social development trainings sa mga guro sa public school, nagtatatag ng child protection monitoring systems at tumutulong sa paggawa ng municipal child and youth welfare codes kasama ang mga Local Government Units, mga barangay  chairpersons, school principals and teachers, parents, children at iba pang community stakeholders  sa Manila, Batangas, Camarines Sur, Iloilo, Negros Occidental at Davao.

Before this assignment, I have worked with urban families, also trying to assist children in their education and organizing families and communities and with a group of university students who are erda scholars in a span of 13 years.

I was a practicum student when I first entered ERDA and after passing the board exams I immediately applied for work with the foundation inspired by the Saintly Fr. Pierre Tritz SJ, a French Jesuit priest who has been a naturalized Filipino.  He started ERDA when he was 60 in 1974 (retirable age).  My classmate in UP (na kapareho kong ng practicum doon) applied at the DSWD and received PhP8,000 as an initial salary then as a program analyst while I was assigned in Bagong Silang Caloocan City then (an ERDA community) as a social worker receiving a monthly salary of PhP2,600.00.  I came to love my work so much because of the family environment in the office, less competitions and conflict and because of the supportive environment.   I believe that I was able to develop fully all my potentials because of ERDA.

My work has given me the opportunity to be part of NGO and government networks, structures and committees like the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) spearheaded by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the NGO Coalition that is composed of 16 big NGOs in the country, the National Council for Social Development and others.  I am also part of the committee that coordinates the Child Friendly Local Governance program spearheaded by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Council for the Welfare of Children and will soon be part of the committee in charge of the search for the most child friendly cities and municipalities in the Philippines.  The Development Academy of the Philippines took my services as consultant for the design of a competency framework involving communities of practice child friendly local governance.  DAP is now offering a course on this for government officials aspiring to have their cities/municipalities win the award.  Just recently, DSWD national office got me to lead their team building program at the Policy and Planning Development Bureau and this will have a series of consultations until such time that the bureau gets united and harmonized (because of some changes in assignments and merging concerns).  The NGO Coalition got me to write a three-part training manual for the training of civil society organizations on child rights monitoring.  And there are other mini-consultancies on the side.

While doing my full-time job with ERDA and grabbing all these other work opportunities, I was invited in 2011 by the Asian Seminary for Christian Ministries (ASCM) in Makati to teach Social Work at the master’s level.  That was my debut in teaching.  Apart from giving me a break in teaching Social Work, one of my memories in that school is  that every time my supervisor sees me, she would ask “so, how are you enjoying your teaching?”, instead of asking me if I am able to come on time, or if I am following the syllabus and all those technical matters.  I also had a chance to teach at La Salle in their NSTP (community service) program.  Then UP invited me to be a lecturer at the College of Social Work and Community Development on a part time basis in 2012.  It was followed by an invitation to be a reviewer for the Social Work Licensure Examination every year.  Seeing my posts on FB, the Universidad de Santa Isabel (USI) of Naga City invited me also to review their social work students since 2014.  In 2013, I became President of the UP College of Social Work and Community Development Alumni Association although I have served as a board member years before that.  Sa alumni, medyo mahirap din dahil ang mga kasama ko ay mas nakakatanda sa akin at yung pagsingit sa schedule sa lahat na ng aking ginagawa ay hindi biro, but I am so happy to be part of the general UP Alumni Association, meeting with the UP president and other chapter presidents, getting updates, inspiration and contributing on the overall management of the UP system.  I had the chance to spearhead the nomination of our DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman for the UPAA Distinguished Alumni Award, however she has not been recognized by the body yet.  In due time I hope.

More opportunities kept coming my way although I wanted so much to really devote my time in my full-time work because it is a time-bound project with deliverables and indicators that had to be met within a 4-year period.  Plan Philippines, formerly Foster Parents Plan, where I had colleagues in social development work, through the NGO Coalition, requested me also to lead the Plan Asia Project, where we worked with eight other Asian countries on the promotion of child rights.  This made me travel to Siem Reap, Cambodia in 2012 and Bangkok, Thailand every year since 2013.  What is memorable about these trips was the last one in 2014 that gave me an opportunity to train my Asian colleagues on child rights monitoring. 

Almost all my travels abroad were on an official basis.  I went to Washington DC in 2009 for a conference on child labor; in Brisbane, Canberra and Sydney, Australia for a 3-week tour on mentoring; in Bangkok, Thailand for the Plan Asia Project; in Siem Rap, Cambodia for the Plan Asia Project.  If I did not enjoy my work and did not do my best in everything that I did, my supervisor and colleagues would not have noticed how passionate I was and would not have recommended me to be part of these out of the country official trips, where I learned so many things.

Looking back, I would ask myself, why have I been able to do all these?  Why is it that I am enjoying every work that I do and the company of every person I meet and work with along the way?  I attribute this to several factors. 

First, the support and approval of my family and relatives.

Coming from a family with young parents, or should I say, who became parents at a young age, there have been so many uncertainties then.  After high school, I could not remember if we ever planned my further studies.  Luckily, when I was in 4th year high school, Ruena Bernardez, who was then studying in UP taking up Political Science, got me an application form, sent it here and facilitated everything.  In short, I was able to take the UPCAT through the help of Ruena.  Haanak pay nga naka fiesta idin, it was October then, because I had to take the exam in UP naalala ko bumabagyo pa noon and had to come back immediately to join the CAT parade demonstration.  Luckily, too, my mother, received papers form DECS for a scholarship for me (my mother would tell me saguaro si Na Paling and nagpadala although hindi na rin naming natanong).  To make the story short, I passed the UPCAT in 1986 and before that passed a scholarship on the Selected Ethnic Groups Educational Assistance Program.  Malagip ko ni Na Paling ta isu idi ti adda day DECS, national office at the Palacio del Gobernador, now known as the DepEd.  She helped me process my requirements and would always introduce me to her colleagues as “ang scholar natin na  matalino.”  So even if UP had this socialized tuition fee scheme, I chose the DECS scholarship and finished my course BSSW (Bachelor of Science in Social Work) in 1990.  I remember my childhood days as full of supportive people surrounding me, who have always given me the label as “anak ni Tes or neria na matalino”.  Because of this positive feedback, I felt inspired to study all the time, did not struggle in any of my subjects and finished my annual schooling with flying colors without any difficulties except for occasional problems in paying my tuition fees. 

I also was inspired by my father, who has always been proud of me.  He was 4th place out of 27 students in 1965.  My mother, apart from the so many sacrifices she has made for us, her children, in her elementary days was the consistent first honors in class.  So I myself was consistent first honors from Grade I to 4th Year. I am overwhelmed by the fact that I also passed the SW board examination as number 12 in the country.  All in all I have passed seven (7) examinations in my life and have not failed any (I have yet to wait for the upcoming exams).  Up to now, this has served as my inspiration in always believing in my capacities and abilities and that of others, too.

In 1998, I again went back to school to take up master’s in social work while I was busy with my work in the provinces handling the first phase of the child labor project and in 2007 I finished my masters after nine years of studies.  Why nine years?  Because at that time I was still having a full-time work so I had to persevere in finishing all the requirements and attending my evening classes.  Right now, amidst all these, starting last semester, I am enrolled again in doctor in social development program of the UP CSWCD as a preparation for my eventual joining the academe as a full-time faculty member.  Yes, I am set to retire from ERDA Foundation next year in order for me to be full time with UP and serve in government for at least 15 years more before my final retirement.  I feel that I have already gotten the best foundation from work and am ready to share all my experiences with the young students who will later embark into professional social work practice.  It is a plan that is almost heavenly designed and I am happy that everything is falling into place without me trying so hard in the process. 

In my doctoral studies I am set to have as dissertation the assessment of the implementation of the child protection policy of the Department of Education (DepEd) in selected public schools that will hopefully pave the way to the placement of social workers at the barangay or school levels.  This is because the child comes from an interrelated system parts like the family, school and community which have an influence in his behavior and school performance and therefore has multi faceted aspects of existence.  This is to ensure that every child enjoys his rights and develops his potentials and will be able to participate actively in nation-building as opposed to being a liability in the community and society.

Second, I had the privilege to study in Our Lady of Fatima School, the only private school in Bucay, where I honed my knowledge and skills base and additional values.

I am proud to say that I got the first inspirations from my teachers and the school administrator, Ms. Fe Batoon when I began schooling.

The late Mrs. Flora Somera sort of gave me a break for my future leadership roles; she believed in my potentials and she would openly express it with her usual motherly and soothing voice. 

The good example of our long time school principal, Ms. Fe Batoon, of leadership by example and being consistent in carrying out school policies plus her disciplinary style of managing and even teaching had also an impact on my being (although I have a weakness and that is being occasionally late in my appointments.)

Ms. Barbosa would ask me to write our lessons on the board.  She was a bit of an emotional teacher but we loved her so much.

Mrs. Berroy was very good in teaching us the English language that is why I survived in UP, because of this good foundation.

Ms. Badilla, now Mrs. has been an excellent Math teacher, although I did not enjoy Math that much then but I knew that she was very passionate about the lessons at maning mani lang sa kanya ang Math (algebra, physics).  Kaya nung nasa UP ako, kung hindi ginawa ni Jopy and project ko, baka hindi aka pumasa sa Math.  :)

Mr. Balubar was a good social studies teacher, lagi kaming napagsasabihan noon kapag magkakatabi kami nina Glo at Medy dahil laging gumagalaw ang aming mga shoulders sa katatawa.

Mr. Zosimo Arias was also a very passionate teacher and was very influential in my artistic inclinations.  We would go to his house to have our shirts printed or any other artwork for our school decorations. 

Ms. Gening Alcaide was our adviser in Grade II and we also loved her.

Mrs. Gandeza, Maestra Sayyang is an epitome of a good teacher; the way she handled herself and presented herself in class was very professional.

Other opportunities in school were:

Our training on Christian faith and mission Sunday collections and involvement in Parish activities undoubtedly inspired us to be generous and ready to assist those who are in need.

Citizens Army Training - sense of nationalism and volunteerism and even leadership

Art projects - to be patient on things that take sometime to be completed; to do your best and not just “pwede na”.  To appreciate art itself.  (Later on I also trained in painting with professional artist Mr. Fernando Sena in Manila)

Gardening – we learned the value of cleanliness, orderliness and the value of plants and flowers and trees

Church activities – we had the chance to serve in Sunday masses as SNAPS choir members and lectors

Of course, how can I and all of us forget our classmates, in my case, my batch, batch ’86, which has always bagged  the award for the most number of attendees.  I hope this time we have another chance for the award. (;-)).  Being with them through the years have made me a more inspired person with all their influences and learning from our collective mistakes and also from their individual examples.  We` have been bonding together like no other.  May I also particularly recognize all of them tonight as a big part of my being.  I am very proud of my classmates, particularly Joey, who is now the DepEd supervisor for Bucay and Manabo districts, Anton who is a school principal, Medy who works as accountant with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and many others ( I cannot mention all of them, but they know I appreciate all of them).

The values that I hold until this day because of my being a Fatimite complemented by my family values are the following:

Excellence - Doing your best in everything that you do; continuously enriching your knowledge and developing your skills and attitude and avoiding mediocrity.

Creativity and innovation – go beyond the ordinary or usual; make things more interesting so that people will be more inspired to participate

Leadership - Building the capacities of members and leading them towards the accomplishment of tasks

Integrity - Being honest in transactions and dealings’ upholding the truth all the time; if truth is not upheld as we are only humans, being accountable for all your mistakes and learning from them

Humility - Being low profile at the right time

Teamwork - Being able to work with others recognizing that each has his/her own strengths and capacities that can be used to accomplish certain tasks

Lessons Learned:

1.  Let us try to make mentoring a normal activity.  Inter level mentoring and teacher-student mentoring even outside the academic              hours

2.  Focus on the different intelligences of a person/student, not only on academics

3.  Always try to see the good in every person

4.  If you want to advocate for some changes, make sure that you have designed already an alternative and that alternative must be                better than the current system that you want to change

5.  Be the change that you want to see in this world (Mahatma Gandhi).  If you do not approve of any person’s doing or wrongdoing,           try to change your attitude towards that person and you will discover that he/she will also change in the long run.

6.  Develop your spirituality and be positively inspired

7.  Make time for your loved ones and friends no matter how busy you are

8.  Keep learning

I convey my sincerest gratitude to all the administrators, teachers and staff of OLFS and of course to the OLFS Alumni Association Officers and members led by our very dynamic and competent President, Mr. Cosme V. Taberdo.  Thank you, Manong Cosme for the opportunity to share my experience with all of you tonight.  I would also like to thank my parents, siblings, my husband and children and classmates for the support and inspiration.  I share everything that I am joyfully doing for our country with all of you.

I hope that with this sharing most if not all of you my fellow alumni will be inspired to continue doing something for children, women, families, communities, the nation and the whole world.

Thank you and good evening.

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