Early life
Althea is one of four children from a very poor family based in Bulan, Sorsogon, Bicol region in the Philippines.
Her mother is unemployed and her father does a variety of labouring jobs to help feed his young family. They all live together in one half of her aunt’s house and sleep together on the floor but they do not sleep well.
Althea managed to go to primary school up to the age of 11 and was a talented student. She loved to study, particularly science. She often opted to go into school in the holidays even though there were no teachers, just to read the books.
Unhappily her family couldn’t afford the uniform or the materials she needed and so a secondary education seemed impossible for her.
Helping her family
Outside of school and from a very young age, Althea dedicated herself to supporting her dad. Helping him to raise money for the family by working along-side him. She helped him with fishing and by diving for gravel to help him in his construction work. A dangerous and physically exhausting occupation.
She says “I helped my father because I don’t want to see him suffering”. The hardest job was collecting gravel from the seabed. She would attach a rope to a bucket and with her sister Charity holding the other end, dive from their little boat into the sea down to the gravel bed. When the bucket was full she would tug on the rope and together, she and Charity would haul the bucket of gravel onto the boat ready to be sieved to remove the sand. She would do this many times until she had ten sacks and then she would carry the gravel sacks one by one to her father at the construction site for use in his building work.
New beginnings
Despite the depth of the water Althea is able to hold her breath long enough to collect the gravel and she says, “I do not have goggles and so it hurts my eyes but I get used to it, the weight is manageable and luckily there are fishes but no shark!”
When Althea met the Sisters in 2024 they were moved by the extreme difficulties of the family.
Thanks to our supporters the Sisters were able to offer Althea a place at the school in Biga.
It was a lifesaving opportunity for Althea to follow her dream of an education and she joined the school in the summer of 2024.
Life at school
Althea has quickly settled into her new life in Biga. She has made lasting friends and her first impression on arriving with the Sisters was amazement. “It was my first time to enter a building because in our town we don’t have any buildings there”.
She is finally enjoying the comfort and safety of a childhood and particularly loves the ice cream. She cried with joy the first time she had ice cream during the birthday celebrations in 2024. Chocolate is her favourite flavour. “It is the most thing that I love at school!” – Althea.
In her studies she loves science and reading. Her favourite subject is Biology so she was thrilled to discover the books at the school. She also loves cooking, she loves to make sugar cookies and she is interested to become a chef when she leaves school.
She has worked hard in her time at school, is a talented student and now top four in science. She is ambitious and hopeful for her future and determined to leave school ready to get a good job and help her family.
To the supporters in the UK she says simply “thank you very much for helping the poor children like me here at the Sisters of Mary”.