BY KEVIN CORBIN
Striving for a future
First thing most mornings, Halima Sahim, reaches for her cell phone, usually to post an emoji-filled sunny status update. Real life isn’t as rosy for the 24-year old woman from Muslim Mindanao as her social media updates, but Sahim considers her journey from an unemployed drop-out to educated and working woman an unlikely success story. As one of millions of youth her age in the region that encounters armed conflict, corruption, transition, poverty, and other daily barriers to education and employment, staying safe and positive isn’t easy. As a teenager, she wasn’t expected to finish school or learn a trade, but today she’s equipped with higher education, a job, and an advocate for other young women to strive for a future.
When I first met Sahim three years ago, in 2016, she was asking for any resources that could help her gain skills. She wanted to change her life. “My dream is to be a teacher so I can serve remote communities…often neglected because of security problems,” she said in an interview conducted over Facebook chat.
She admits that she used to be idle, staying at home, doing chores, and didn’t really have aspirations. Growing up she picked through garbage with her family. As she got older, her brothers moved on to temporary work in construction, forcing her to pick garbage alone. It was at that time that she remembers seeing a school bus drive by.
“I saw the children my age…wearing beautiful clothes and veils and they are clean,” she said.“ Then I looked at myself. What is the difference between them and me? Why can’t I ride the school bus?”
It was a pivotal confrontation, and drove her to leave the area looking for stable employment.
For Sahim, the morning comes early and with a symphony of roosters, motorcycles, dogs, and the usual sounds of the village as it returns from the night’s slumber. Hot and humid days are common in Lamitan City, Mindanao, in the Philippines’ southernmost and conflict-affected region.
Sahim, and millions of youth like her in Muslim Mindanao, are growing up among regular acts of violence, improvised explosions, gunfire, political assassinations, kidnappings of teachers, and pockets of religious extremism. Decades of protracted conflict, fueled by radicalism, poverty, corruption, and similar pressures that isolate and exclude young and vulnerable people, threaten an already weakened fabric between youth drop-outs, communities, and the government. The absence of basic education, human and youth services have excluded young people from mainstream society and, by forcing them to look for support – or answers to a confusing world – has exposed them to groups that can exploit them for militant, violent, or other efforts.
Conflict in the ARMM has disrupted Sahim from accessing basic human services and systems throughout her life. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and/or the Philippine National Police (PNP) often block off main roads that lead to schools, grocery stores and local government for hot-pursuit operations (when APF/PNP are chasing armed extremists), during bombing campaigns, or gunfire. These disruptions prevent Sahim, and her neighbors and friends, from leaving their homes. Often times, it prevents them from returning to it.
For decades, this regular conflict has challenged and created generations of fragile communities that are undereducated, underemployed, and disconnected from the rest of the country and world. Contributing to the conflict is one of Southeast Asia’s most violent jihadist terror groups, the Abu Sayyaf Group, which uses the complex system of jungles, islands, swamps, particularly in the islands Sahim lives in, as safe harbor for illegal activities. It’s led to a more conservative life for everyone.
Breaking local norms
At 25, Sahim had completed USAID-funded trainings for education and vocational training. These programs are generally welcomed by communities in the region that struggle to meet basic services, due in large part to corruption. Though welding is commonly regarded in her community as a man’s job, Sahim quickly demonstrated the skills and capabilities needed for the trade and identified it as her area of interest. Her level of skills on welding, as assessed by the Philippines government’s Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), merited the national certificate II – a nationally recognized credential. Soon after, she worked at Furigay Colleges in Limitans City as assistant trainer on welding.
After training and some employment, Sahim says her life continued to improve. During her training, Halima was elected by her fellow trainees to represent out-of-school youth (OSY) on her local government alliance. Local alliances are chaired by the city mayor with a composition that includes the Department of Education (DepED), Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA), private sector, Department of Labor and Employment, OSYs, and other agencies. Four OSY leaders participate as full members to each OSYDA body. About her work on the alliance, she said the other members, “You are our hope”.
“I gained strength to voice out concerns and problems of youth drop-outs.”
Soon after, Sahim received a local scholarship grant for studying at a nearby college, called Zamboanga City State Polytechnic College. The opportunity allowed her to work on a new dream of becoming a teacher. “My dream is to be a teacher so I can serve remote communities…often neglected because of security problems,” she explained.
Today, Sahim is 27 years old, married, working, and living in Basilan, Mindanao.
Throughout her life, she believes “Poverty is not a barrier.” To her younger siblings and other OSYs, she wanted to prove that a better future is possible and awaits them.
She says the experience has “taught me to dream; to believe in the possibility that a school drop-out’s dream can turn to reality”.