Be Part of Them – An Activist’s Perspective

By Eldemar Sabete
HAPI Scholar | HAPI-Bacolod Member

Throughout my years as a young activist, I have visited numerous areas and met a variety of people who have helped me gain a better knowledge of society’s inequities and oppression, particularly in the marginalized sector.

How powerful would it be if they worked together to improve their situation and hold the government to account for the suffering they face on a daily basis?

One lesson I have to share is this – we must pay attention to the perspectives of local farmers, fishermen, and laborers. We must understand their battle because it is ours as well. Their struggles have a deep impact on our lives.

As a community organizer working to empower youth from various marginalized communities, it is not difficult to get young kids to recognize the need for justice in their community, especially in matters such as:

• a lack of accessible, free, and high-quality education;
• government support for farmers and fisherfolk;
• unjust labor; 
• a lack of opportunity on market;
• basic health care;
• teenage pregnancy;

and many other issues, because these kids recognize them through observation and experience. It is their reality!

But just because they are conscious of the systemic problems that surround them doesn’t mean they are fixing them; unfortunately, some have come to just take it for granted. They accept their challenges as a part of their daily lives when they shouldn’t, believing it’s “normal”. It doesn’t help that rather than offer solutions, what their parents, guardians, and mentors tell them is that they must “study really hard” in order to become professionals in the future. 

In truth, that mindset has failed to address the issue, as the kids only end up avoiding and exacerbating it. Even so, it is not their fault or the fault of their parents; it is imposed by the system that has been brought about by these injustices.

The difficulties will be passed down to future generations. In the worst-case scenario, there will be no generation of farmers, fishermen, or other basic sectors at all to provide our fundamental needs should this cycle continue. Despite being the communities that propel the country forward, they are also the most disadvantaged.

The objective is to get our fellow youngsters to participate in those conflicts, to solve those injustices, and to bring positive change to their own communities through meaningful collaboration. This concern should be explored by the community as a whole.

Individuals who share the same struggles, ideas, and challenges form a community. Collectively having the same dream, aspirations, and objectives. How powerful would it be if they worked together to improve their situation and hold the government to account for the suffering they face on a daily basis?

The community is the most powerful unit of society. If you want to dive deeper than the surface, offer your lives to them and they will help you grow.

“Go to the people

Live among them

Learn from them

Plan with them

Work with them

Start with what they know

Build on what they have

Teach by showing

Learn by doing

Not a showcase but a pattern

Not odds and ends but a system

Not piecemeal but an integrated approach

Not to conform but to transform

Not relief but release”

– Rural Credo