Listen here:
Magandang hapon po.
How do you compress eight years of making every dream matter in a few words? One song by Joey Ayala entitled Kung Kaya Mong Isipin, perfectly summarizes SUGPAT’s journey from being a small arts for development program into finding its new home in ALTEC. And the chorus of the song goes “Kung kaya mong isipin, kaya mong gawin, isa isang hakbang lamang at ika’y makakarating, tulad ng puno na galing sa binhi, ang mga dakilang gawa ay nagmumula sa guni-guni.”
Today we see a bright future in education through the launching of the Ateneo Learning and Teaching Excellence Center. Ang kadakilaan ng ating ambag mula pa noong inilunsad ang SUGPAT noong 2015 ay nagbunga sa pagtatag ng ALTEC.
The road to establishing ALTEC is a narration of an eight-year-long journey of partners in education and the development sector who believed that every dream matters, especially for young people. From a small band of radical idealists trying to find their purpose in life, the SUGPAT program has grown by leaps and bounds, engaging not only people but communities, to ensure that every young person’s dreams are nurtured.
For each chapter in SUGPAT’s story, we are presented with more possibilities to innovate, create, collaborate, inspire, and touch lives. We have gone through years of sensing the state of young people and education in our region, deepening our understanding by journeying with teachers and learners in the Alternative Learning System, and innovating ways of strengthening the delivery of quality education in the region. These investments create the opportunities for expansion from an Alternative School for Peacebuilding and the Arts, to teachers training in the Educational Leadership Program and the Barangay Leadership Program, which became the impetus for the creation of a master’s in youth development work. These are just a few of the successes of SUGPAT and through the unwavering support of our partners: UNICEF Philippines, the Department of Education, AdZU’s School of Education, the Social Development Unit, and the entire AdZU community, through the leadership of Father Karel, we now enter a new chapter in SUGPAT’s story, the story of transcendence, as SUGPAT has found a new and permanent home in ALTEC.
When Rogin and I would go on coffee dates and talk about SUGPAT, we are always in awe at how the program just continuously grow and expand. We asked ourselves, “Why?”, “How have we gotten this far?” We figured out that it was because of a simple articulation of our reason for being and doing: Every Dream Matters; Dahil Bawat Pangarap Mahalaga, And this has kept our partners engaged in giving their best despite challenges and tribulations. We push forward because every dream matters.
SUGPAT’s transcendence from a program into a movement is a story worth telling. And thank you for being part of that movement, and thank you for sticking it out with SUGPAT. To Rogin and the SUGPAT—now ALTEC team—I am very proud of you. Know that you have my full support as you build new stories of hope with ALTEC. Kung kaya nating isipin, kaya nating gawin, isa-isang hakbang lamang kapatid at tayo’y makakarating. Tulad ng puno na galing sa binhi, ang lahat ng ating dakilang mga gawa ay nagmula sa guni-guni.
Maraming salamat po.
