"Ana"

If you saw her, you’d have thought that she was just another carefree girl enjoying her youth. That’s what I first thought when I met Ana. But first impressions can be deceiving and barely scratch the surface of a young life that has already experienced unimaginable horror and hardship.

For it wasn’t long ago that Ana was walking home from work at a sardine factory. Still aching after 11 gruelling hours filling cans with ingredients to help support her family, Ana was accosted, dragged to a secluded area and raped at knifepoint. She was just 14 years old.

Although physically and emotionally traumatized by the experience, Ana had no choice but to continue working. Since the death of her father two years prior, Ana was the sole breadwinner of the family and she shouldered the responsibility of sending her twin brothers to school. Despite the incident and her emotional burden, she continued to rise every morning to walk the four kilometres to the factory, buoyed only by the hope of building a better future for her family. Then she found out that she was pregnant.

In order to keep the pregnancy from the community, Ana was forced to drop out of school. Sitting alone in her house, cradling her growing belly and fighting feelings of anger, shame and guilt over that helpless horrific afternoon, Ana’s hopes for a better life for herself and her family began to fade.

Then, thanks to you, a second chance came.

In 2004, Ana was among 500 children and youth screened for the Alternative Learning System (ALS) program being offered by the Laura Vicuña Foundation (LFV) through the Community Mobilization for Education (COME) program. While grateful for the opportunity, doubts still plagued Ana. “I’ve been out of school for two years. Can I still make a better future?” she asked herself.

But with extraordinary perseverance, Ana overcame the obstacles to become one of the most promising students in her class. Despite having returned to the factory, Ana would still visit the LFV Centre to borrow modules and other reading materials in her free time. When the centre closed, she would pore over the books at home teaching herself high school level math, science, English and other subjects while her young daughter slept soundly nearby. In 2007, Ana took the ALS Accreditation and Equivalency Test for Secondary Level and passed.

Ana’s hard work had paid off but more doors were still waiting. Doors that have been opened by donors like yourself.

By completing her ALS, Ana had qualified for the Youth Career Development Program (YCDP) implemented by LVF and UNICEF Manila. With the YCDP, Ana would now have a chance to receive hotel and restaurant training at some of Manila’s premier hotels. But first she had to hurdle the interview, and she was nervous. “I’m just an ALS graduate and everybody else is college level. What chance do I have?” she thought.
Nevertheless, while the new batch of YCDP trainees were still being selected, Ana knew she could not rest. As tenacious as ever, Ana continued to work, this time at a pharmacy to continue supporting her family. And when the call came in that she had been accepted for the YCDP, Ana bid goodbye to her family and made the trip to the capital for the five month training program.

Training at one of Manila’s most prestigious hotels, Ana learned about cultivating a professional image and began to boost her self-confidence. She also learned the ins and outs of the hotel business, gaining hands on experience in housekeeping, the kitchen and even engineering.

“At first it was hard. I felt out of place. I had to get used to different kinds of people. I felt uncomfortable and I didn’t know what I was supposed to do,” Ana says. Overwhelmed by the loud, bustling concrete jungle of Manila, she also missed her family and the peace and quiet of the province. But after a few weeks, Ana began to adjust and while other batch mates lost courage and dropped out or surrendered to circumstances, she remained as tenacious as ever, refusing to let her second chance slip away. “I can do this,” Ana began to realize.

Again, Ana’s hard work paid off. Even before her February 2008 graduation from the program, she was already hired as a contractual worker for the hotel – the first among her batch. Recognized by the hotel management for her perseverance and good work, she was also entrusted to care for the hotel president’s office. Yet even with a stable job, Ana chose not to rest on her laurels. With newfound confidence and an eye on the future, she recently accepted a transfer to another rising hotel, knowing that her chances to succeed would be even greater if she broke through her comfort zones. “I wanted a new environment and I knew that I would have more opportunities if I was part of the opening team,” she says quietly but confidently.

Now, as Ana looks over the city’s skyline, I wonder what she’s thinking. Just 19 years old, she has come a long way from packing chilli and tomatoes into sardine cans. A long way from a terrible, abusive experience that unfortunately, waylays many young girls’ futures.

Today, Ana boards with a YCDP batch mate in Pasay City and commutes everyday on the mass railway system to her work in Ortigas. With glowing recommendations, she has now been entrusted to care for the office of the nationwide president of hoteliers and also receives personal guest requests for housekeeping. “I like housekeeping because we’re the first people that the guests encounter,” Ana, the girl who was once so concerned about being a simple lass in the big city, says.

As independent as ever, she still supports her family back home and her two brothers are in their final year of high school. In her spare time, she enjoys going to the mall with her friends or reading the newspaper to catch up on current events. She’s even thinking of going back to school to earn her degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management. Just like any girl enjoying her youth, but one who has faced incredible obstacles and triumphed.

“Don’t think you can’t do it,” Ana said when I asked her if she had any words of encouragement to other young people like herself. “You have to believe you can do it. Think of what you want to achieve and go for it. Don’t give in to negative thoughts,” she said. More than just saying it however, Ana has lived her words.
Ana has become a role model and an inspiration to many young people, not only in her home province of Negros Occidental but in Manila as well. She has given hope to many young girls and women like herself who have been sexually abused and who believe that their futures have been taken from them. It was you who gave Ana that hope and it’s you who can continue to help others like her with your donations.

The YCDP is just one of UNICEF’s many projects in connection with partner NGOs which are designed to help sexually exploited girls and young women regain their self-worth and dignity. By sending your help as soon as possible, you can ensure that the program keeps running and that more girls and young women from the province can have a second chance to reclaim their lives and futures.