By Ma. Katherine Lubrico Calunod

Purok 6, Taboc Sur, Oroquieta City, Misamis Occidental, 7207

Life will knock us down, but we can choose to get back up. – The Karate Kid, 2010

This has been my life’s motto and has kept me going for the past years. I was born and raised in a low-income family where we always worried about our next meal. 

I am the eldest of four siblings. My father, the family’s breadwinner, is a fisherman, while my mother is a housewife. 

I remember growing up with no electricity and no water supply at home, so we relied on gas lamps and had to sleep early at night to save gas. 

Also, we always walked a mile or two to fetch clean water to drink. My parents taught us to go to school without money to buy snacks during recess. 

I remember that whenever it was recess, I always opted to stay in the class so that I could not see my classmates and schoolmates enjoying their snacks. 

That is why my mother will see that we eat enough breakfast to sustain us for the rest of the morning class. It was only during high school that my mother had to give us money for us to pay for our fares. 

She will give us P15, enough to cover the cost of the fare going back and forth to the school, a total of 14 pesos at that time, so I will have one peso to spare for my snack. 

However, that one peso can only buy me a cold drink or a candy, not even enough to quench my hunger. 

Nonetheless, it did not stop me from keeping on. What I did was for me to buy my snacks; I saved the fare intended for going home by walking from the school to our house.

In high school, we became a 4Ps beneficiary of the Pangtawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

 It is a tremendous blessing to my family. This time we don’t have to worry if the weather is not favorable because if this happens, the sea will not be fit for fishing, and, hence, there will be no food on the table. 

The 4Ps made my family’s worries lighter so that it would somehow fit the release date of the payout on those days when we had no money, and my father could not go to the sea to fish. 

After receiving the payout, my mother will see that she has bought 50 kilograms of rice. So we could have a good meal once in a while, which I was looking forward to during payouts. 

It might be small for some, but it fed my family and me. 

Indeed, 4Ps alleviated the hunger my family was experiencing, especially on days when we had nothing.

Here comes college. 

Even though my father doubted his ability to support me during this time, he still pushed me to go to a university to study and get a degree. 

During my first year, I was unaware of the scholarship intended for 4Ps beneficiaries, the Expanded Students’ Grants-In-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGP-PA).

I only learned about it during my second year in college. I applied and passed the necessary documents for the scholarship. 

Unfortunately, I failed to avail myself of the program. 

Despite this, I did my best to maintain my grades and obtained a spot on the dean’s list, which exempted me from paying my tuition fee.

The scholarship was of great help to my father’s budget allotted for me. Luckily, in my fourth year in college, a professor of mine happened to be the head of the scholarship program I had applied to. 

He knew I was a 4Ps beneficiary, so he just told me to submit the documents, and I became a scholar. 

It was timely because I had to pay for my graduation fees in my senior year. So, once again, it eased the burden of my family’s having another payment to think of. 

I graduated with Latin honors (cum laude) with my course Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT). 

I am eternally grateful to God and my family, who have always been there for me throughout my journey.

Since 4Ps caters only to a maximum of three children per household, it will be our last month to receive help from it because my third sibling will be graduating from senior high school this coming June 2022. 

Looking back and counting the years the program has been with us through thick and thin, it has been with us for eight fruitful years. 

In eight years, I obtained my master’s degree at MSU-IIT in 2019, and by 2020, I started to pursue my doctorate at the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD), where I am a DOST scholar. 

2020 was the most challenging year for my family and the rest of the world because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, everyone was encouraged to stay at home and be extra careful whenever going outside by always wearing a facemask and maintaining social distancing. 

There was even a time when only one family member was allowed to be outside of their home to buy household necessities. 

The pandemic has brought fear to everyone and made massive changes, especially in the world market. 

Almost all of the prices of the goods in the market have risen. Fortunately for us, my father, aside from being a fisherman, was granted a job order in the city, and thus, this helped our family’s finances. 

Moreover, almost five years of being a DOST scholar has paved the way for my family to improve our house. We buy some appliances at home too. 

I am not employed or affiliated with any agency since I am a DOST scholar, and it requires us to focus on our studies first.

Indeed, we can either choose to get back up or stay still when life knocks us hard. 

But always remember that there is grace in choosing to fight rather than doing nothing to improve our lives. 

The program is a blessing. It assisted me in my journeys like being a 4Ps beneficiary and a recipient of a scholarship, and so on. 

With that, we only have to remind ourselves that there is always a rainbow after the rain.