Black is beautiful.

These are always the encouraging words of Mary Joy Baylon to herself every time she faces discrimination from her schoolmates because of her curly hair and black skin.

Obviously, her native (Ati) looks is the rich beauty she inherited from her parents being members of the Indigenous People (IP) who are peacefully living along IP community in Sitio Igtuba, Brgy Camangahan in Guimbal, Iloilo.

Just like some ordinary girls, Mary Joy also dreamed to finish studies and to have a stable job of her own. She doesn’t want to settle herself from their old practice of charcoal making (kaingin) and to stop tagging themselves as no permanent address.

“I want to graduate from poverty because I don’t want to be a poor forever”, she said.

However, her determination in life was tested when she fell in love to her fellow IP. That time she is graduating from high school when she gets pregnant but her situation doesn’t hamper her to stop from schooling.

“I sacrificed all the back fights against me and chose to bear the baby on my womb”, she said.

Mary Joy was pushed to sell vegetables and other native delicacies from neighboring towns just to have savings for her pregnancy. After giving birth to a baby girl, she decided to live separately with her boyfriend and later decided to get marry after graduated from high school.

The latter’s family has been a beneficiary of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) for six years. Three of her siblings are covered and being monitored by the program.

The opportunity came when her mother attended the Family Development Session (FDS) where one of their Local Government Unit (LGU) facilitators approached her and asked if she have children who already graduated from high school. During that time the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) is set to conduct training for security guards.

Upon confirming that one of her children was a high school graduate, Mary Joy has been included as one of the beneficiaries for such training. Mary Joy underwent trainings for 15 days and later employed in one of the biggest companies in Guimbal, Iloilo.

Mary Joy is considered as the first lady guard in their tribe as well as her sister Anita who is also the first college graduate who took education course.

The two sisters served as models and inspiration to their fellow IPs. They are the living testimonies that indeed the government through the different programs and services has all the means to provide them regardless of their ethnicity, traditions and beliefs.//MGC