ABA LAMITAN CHAPTER

H-LIGHTERS
30 DAYS CHALLENGE

FEELINGS
I feel blessed for I was able to hear their stories and especially of Joana that actually
surprised me because based on her story, during her young age, she already
experienced being maltreated in the hands of her mother such as being punched, being
hit by a stick and also she shared how her mother almost sell her to a man just to have
money and joana told me that her mother is a prostitute and sad thing, one of joana's
brother died because he was beaten endlessly by their mother. Joana and her other
siblings also experienced to sleep in the street and eat foods that are from trash. But
despite the happenings she experienced, she is still now able to go to school with the
help of her grandmother and away from the hands of her mother and continue to do
better for her dreams.

LEARNINGS
"A person can learn from other people's exeperience" Indeed. Joana's experiences
made me realized that I'm lucky and other kids too because we didn't experience that
kind of life during our young age, we are much luckier and we must be thankful of
that. And Joana's story is just a reminder that we should be thankful whatever we have
for the reason not all things we are experiencing right now is also experienced by
other people. There are still people who can't take meals three times a day just as we
do and not all people have shelter to stay, there are some who sleep at streets with no
anything to cover their selves from the cold winds and rains. So we must be thankful
and contented on the life we have right now.

EXPERIENCE
During that moment, I just guide the kids on their seats and asked them to share
stories about the picture and I listened to each of them and asked about their families'
whereabouts at the same I give them some advices and joana went to me when I was
near at the comfort room and surprisingly she started talking about her family and all.
I struggled at first because I was carried by my emotion and I feel like crying that
time when she is sharing her stpry to me but i tried my best not to show it to her until
we ended our day.

TAKE AWAYS
Life isn't just as easy as we think, we may always encounter difficulties along our way
and these difficulties will really test our selves but the best thing we can do is not to
let our selves carried by our problems. Stay optimistic and always look on the bright
side and just as joana stay positive despite the negativies in our life. We still young,
never let our selves be drowned by our own problems. Stand up and make a
difference.