The CNN Hero

Efren Penaflorida who started a ‘pushcart classroom’ in the Philippines to bring education to poor children as an alternative to gang membership, won the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year. I was stunned with the news in Yahoo yesterday, finally the voting was ended and Efren from the Philippines who got most of the votes from the worldwide.

More information here:

Some qoutes that I really like from the article:

“Serve, serve well, serve others above yourself and be happy to serve. As I always tell my co-volunteers… you are the change that you dream as I am the change that I dream and collectively we are the change that this world needs to be.”

“Efren Penaflorida has made a name for himself on the global stage not because he’s enormously successful or fabulously wealthy, but because he’s given his time to ‘helping others.’ It’s such a simple but world-changing idea, and it’s high time we Filipinos get behind it.”

“If the people vote for me, they are actually voting for the poor kids DTC is teaching and the dedicated volunteers behind this work,”

“Each person has a hidden hero within, you just have to look inside you and search it in your heart, and be the hero to the next one in need.”

“Our planet is filled with heroes, young and old, rich and poor, man, woman of different colors, shapes and sizes. We are one great tapestry,”

“So to each and every person inside in this theater and for those who are watching at home, the hero in you is waiting to be unleashed”