In Puerto Princesa, the road to school can come with two very different kinds of baggage: a child’s dreams and, during the rainy season, a puddle—or several—that seems determined to get in the way.
A notebook can help with one. A pair of rain boots can help with the other.
That simple reality is at the heart of Dream Machine, the advocacy platform of actress and children’s advocate Anne Curtis, which is marking nine years of turning children’s small wishes into tangible support.
Its latest effort in Puerto Princesa reached 638 children and families this year, delivering school supplies and rainy-season essentials to communities where seemingly ordinary things can make an extraordinary difference to a child’s day.
“We built Dream Machine anchored on the simple belief that no dream is too small and no one should be made to feel ashamed of what they hope for,” Curtis said.
From June 3 to 8, Dream Machine brought its Balik Eskwela Gift-Giving Initiative to nine Puerto Princesa communities, distributing school kits to 300 children. The kits included notebooks, pencils, art and bond paper, folders, rulers and other supplies—small tools for the very large business of learning.
Then came the rain.
On Aug. 8 and 9, Dream Machine returned to 11 communities and puroks, including Mangingisda, Luzviminda, Iwahig, Lucbuan, Bahile and San Jose, distributing rain boots, raincoats and umbrellas to 338 beneficiaries.
For children in remote communities, getting to school can be an adventure of its own when flooded paths and heavy rain turn familiar routes into difficult terrain.
The two initiatives, conducted with the Academy for Excellence in Leadership Transformation, brought Dream Machine’s Puerto Princesa reach this year to 638 beneficiaries.
“Every dream counts, no matter how small,” Curtis said. “A notebook, a pair of boots, these aren’t just supplies. They’re a way of telling a child their dreams matter.”
And perhaps that is the cleverest thing about Dream Machine: it understands that helping a child dream bigger sometimes starts with giving them something very practical—a pencil to write with, or boots sturdy enough to get them there.
After all, dreams may not need much luggage. But the journey to them sometimes does.
