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"I know of no more encouraging fact
than the unquestionable ability of man
to elevate his life by conscious endeavor"
Henry David Thoreau

KUWENTONG BULILIT AWARDING AT CARDONA, RIZAL
Florinda Inoturan

When the Pope challenged the youth in 1995 to do something relevant and concrete for the betterment of society, the four founders of the Kilusan para sa Kinabukasan initiated that a booklet of stories published. Pamanang Pambata was the brainchild of the said four students from St. Scholastica's College - Manila. During that time, the most pressing issue was illiteracy. From there, they have pooled their talents and resources to come up with a collection of short stories, songs, poetry and activities. This book has been distributed nationwide through the network of the Asian Social Institute.

Since then, the organization has been working toward a second book. This is how Kwentong Bulilit was launched, as a story-writing contest for grades 4 - 6. There were two schools that participated, San Francisco Parish School and Lunsad Elementary school. The stories were to be written in Filipino. Of the stories that have been collected, seven stories for each school were short listed. These stories were then rated and later ranked by three credible judges. These judges were highly qualified in terms of their mastery of the Filipino language and their discernment of creativity and originality. The top three students from each school were selected.

The Awarding Ceremonies were held last January 2003. The event was part of their morning flag ceremony. The school principal, teachers and students were there to show their support for the winners. Each student was given a bag of school supplies, a cash prize and certificate.

After all these, why this tedious manner of compiling stories? The rationale behind this is to make children a part of the learning process. In other words, kids writing for kids. Not only will this encourage other children to become creative themselves but would also serve as proof of how authentic these experiences of children are.

This is only one step in developing the Pamanang Pambata 2. Our next goal is to compile stories coming from the grassroots sector: the fisherfolk, farmers and the indigenous people. With this, we hope to hear the voices of the Filipino youth of today.