Making dreamers out of deprived youths

They are not your typical teachers. 

Two of them are college dropouts and one is a French socialite who mingles every day with the children of farmers and rural workers.

Then again, the school they work for is by all means the opposite of typical. It is called the School for Experiential and Entrepreneurial Development (SEED), an experimental post-secondary certificate program with the primary objective of teaching rural poor students the skill and technical know-how of running a social business. Dylan Wilk, vice president of Human Nature, explains social businesses this way: Ordinary businesses seek to increase profit at all costs. Social businesses seek to optimize profit so that wealth is shared by all. 

Such goal, however, is quite an impossible dream for the children of landless farmers. Yet, the three teachers I’m about to introduce are steadfast in their vocation of making dreamers out of deprived youths. 

To the horror of his parents (who are owners of a famous, high-class restaurant), Alvie Benitez decided to stop schooling in a prestigious university to run a business raising ducks.  After some time, he proved his worth and showed off his entrepreneurial genes while helping a community at the same time. Alvie learned business management from simple poultry farmers and came up with innovative products like duck burgers and pato puto (duck egg rice cake). Like many social entrepreneurs, he tirelessly thinks of ways to add value to his produce so that these may become more marketable. For instance, Alvie came up with a special mixture to add a golden color to the lowly itlog na maalat. These soon became very famous in select stores in Metro Manila and now, his social business is producing 6,000 eggs per month just to meet consumer demand. The running joke in the school: Alvie is famous for his golden eggs.

Another extraordinary story is that of Fabien Courteille. Like Alvie, Fabien dropped his entrepreneurship degree in France and chose to spend the best years of his life with several mothers who were former garment factory workers. Aware of what they are capable of, he thought of starting a plush toy business using the skills of his many nanay-nanayans on the farm. 

At present, Fabien’s Plush and Play provides sustainable income to 10 families in the community. Fabien’s dream is to expand his business so he could help another 500. 

Fabien and Alvie are definitely successful social entrepreneurs, but do dropouts make good teachers despite their successful businesses? 

Fabien proudly shares, “The most ironic part is Alvie and I both dropped out of school, but I think it simply says that schools are not designed to fit the needs of aspiring social entrepreneurs. That’s why we came up with the SEED program. It’s a privilege for me to learn from them, to work with them.”

Another fascinating story is that of Laurence Defontaines who gave up a luxurious Parisian lifestyle in her quest for something more. That something more she found in Angat, Bulacan where she now teaches French to rural poor students. 

Oui, you read that right. Somewhere out there, in the vast farmlands of Bulacan, is a bunch of children who know how to speak French. Ask them what they want to be when they grow up and they will answer entrepreneurs sociaux in perfect French accent.

But why teach poor children the French language? Laurence replies, “French is a language one learns only in elite schools. It’s a language they’re not supposed to have access to. By practicing French, we actually want them to identify themselves as first class. It’s kind of one of our ways to make them deeply feel as valuable as they are.”

All teachers are lucky to play a significant part in the fulfillment of their students’ dreams, but Alvie, Laurence, and Fabien are more fortunate to become part of a grander dream: that of empowering the poorest of the poor to become responsible business owners who will spread wealth in the countryside. 

No other school in the Philippines has 31 hectares, which serve as laboratories where social entrepreneurial ideas are incubated. No other school teaches the value of agriculture and the importance of coming up with fresh and original marketable products. No other school emphasizes the dignity of each person, most especially the poor, by showing the students daily examples of what social justice and solidarity look like. This can only be found in a school situated inside a Gawad Kalinga community.

When asked if she was thinking of going back to France anytime soon, Laurence replied in the negative and explained: “I have found this faith, this hope, this courage that all my students represent and I am not letting this go.”