BACOLOD City – The Yu couple was blessed with four children. Due to their poor status in life, the household represented by grantee Lorlyn of Barangay Alijis here was qualified to be a beneficiary of the 4Ps in 2012.

During that time, Lorlyn’s husband is a typical employee working as a crew in an amusement corporation earning a minimum wage. However, her husband’s salary is not enough to provide for the family’s daily needs. To help him with family finances, Lorlyn cooks and sells snacks and sometimes works as a launderer in a private household.

Lorlyn is grateful for the opportunity that the program gave to them. The cash grant she received is a great help for the school expenses of their children. Lorlyn is active in their barangay that’s why she was chosen to be the Parent Leader of their village. She availed of several training and livelihood grants from DSWD’s Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP). As PL, she put into action and shared with others the learnings she acquired during their regular Family Development Session (FDS).

Fast forward, her eldest graduated Bachelor of Elementary Education majoring in General Education with an Academic Excellence Award at Bacolod City College last 2016. The same year she took the Teachers Board Examination and luckily passed. As the first monitored child to graduate in the family, she is now teaching at Sum-ag Elementary School in Bacolod City and keeps on inspiring and motivating children and her fellow 4Ps beneficiaries to dream big and study hard.

Meanwhile, her second daughter graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration Major in Financial Management at Carlos Hilado Memorial State University last 2019. She is now working at Negros Consolidated Farmers Association (COFA).

Her third child recently graduated from Electro-Mechanical Engineering Technology at the Technological University of the Philippines Visayas and proceeded with his study in Mechanical Engineering at Colegio San Agustin here.

Though the youngest is still in college taking a Bachelor of Science in Criminology, Lorlyn considered herself blessed and far enough compared to before when they were not beneficiaries of the program. It plays a significant part in the life of the family and she is happy to see her children working and enjoying their salary, inspiring others, and able to help their parents and siblings.

As Lorlyn says “Life is a journey filled with ups and downs, joy and pain, success and failure, laughter and tears, goodness and wickedness. Regardless, be grateful for the opportunities that come your way. These will sharpen you as a person or family in facing challenges in life.”

The Yu family is living proof that no matter how challenging life could be as long as there is hard work and perseverance nothing is impossible. Last year, the household graduated already from the program due to Level 3 or self-sufficiency level of well-being. (Prepared by CHARLYN P. GARBO, Social Welfare Assistant (SWA) Bacolod City, Negros POO1)