And I thought that pushcarts are only good for moving junk. Not for Efren Penaflorida, the pushcart teacher who’s one of the finalists in this year’s CNN Heroes. While Pacman, the national prizefighter, prepares for his bid for a world record amid the glitz of the entertainment industry, Efren is quietly pushing his book-laden cart to another record.

Many of us do good because we want to give back to the world. The teenage Efren saw a need and, young though he was, he felt he just had to give, to do something, in order to help his fellow children. His is a very inspiring story; read more about it here and please vote for him here. Let’s help him win and realize his dream of building a learning center. Let’s give him as much, if not more, support as we give to Manny Pacquiao. Efren’s example should be the true embodiment of the modern Filipino hero. His effort is a heroic deed that is the best example of a genuine desire to help people, getting nothing in return except the satisfaction of seeing the change he envisioned become a reality. We can’t put a pricetag on that. Maybe in our lifetime there will only be one Manny Pacquiao, that’s okay; but there can, and should, be many Efren in our society. It is his kind that this country badly needs right now.

Filed under: In the news, November 2009 | You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.