The youth are the future of the nation – but what will happen if the youth don’t really care about the future and don’t even have a dream? How can they dream big and reach for their dreams when they don’t even have one?
Prim Paypon, the main founder and Filipino Dreamagineer of The Dream Project PH, launched the project on June 24, 2013. The volunteer-based organization aims “to build and support collective Filipino dreams amongst underprivileged communities across the Philippines.”
In his quest to help the youth fulfill their dreams, he interviewed teens across 54 of the country’s 81 provinces. He wanted to know whether Dr. Jose Rizal was still right in saying that the Filipino youth are the hope of the country.
But for many years, Paypon made a heartbreaking discovery: 7 out of 10 Pinoy teens don’t really have a dream. They simply don’t care about the future; though many of them are not also happy with today.
At first, he made the conclusion that this is most likely due to poverty – these teens don’t really feel like they have the right to dream because they were poor. But further studies revealed this is not actually the case.
Most of the teens he talked to didn’t cite poverty as reason why they don’t have a dream. Instead, most of them said they just don’t think they had the right to dream because of the discouraging words they received from others!
This was a heartbreaking discovery. Other reasons the teens stated are that they lack self-esteem, lack of passion, and lack of opportunity. Poverty actually came last as the reason why these teens don’t have a dream!
In his talks with the teens, he also learned that many of them want to see visual proof that it is alright to dream because they still have a chance of fulfilling these dreams. Thus, The Dream Project PH through Paypon is looking for ways to inspire these teens and prove that it’s alright to dream – and that they are the hope for the nation!
