Ashoka
Philippines ??
"Let all that you do be done in love." - 1 Corinthians 16:14
This has been one of the life verses that inspire me to always strive for excellence in everything that I do for God’s glory.
My name is Pearl, and I, together with my team of passionate changemakers, envision a world where every youth earns a good living and builds a better future for the next generation. Our focus is on addressing one of the most pressing challenges in the Philippines - the increasing youth unemployment rate. To achieve our goals, we collaborate with leading companies in the country and provide our students with comprehensive training in human skills and an accelerated pathway to full-time employment.
As we strive to make a meaningful difference in our students' lives, I strongly believe that having a driving motivation is essential. Therefore, I was inspired to share my greatest motivation with my team, which is God's love as the ultimate example of putting love into action.
To overcome this social issue, it is crucial to put love into action by demonstrating excellence in our work and providing genuine care and support to the young people under our guidance. These youths often struggle with low self-esteem and feel isolated in their search for employment to support their families due to the lack of a support system. However, to continue providing love, we must be constantly motivated and come up with innovative ways to stay driven. After all, we cannot give what we do not have.
During the year 2021, as the world underwent a transition to the "new normal," I took the initiative to organize faith-inspired sessions for the female leaders in our team. These sessions were based on the concept of discipleship and focused on discussing the Fruits of the Holy Spirit, with love being the first topic of discussion. As a result of these sessions, we began to meet regularly and established a strong foundation among the women leaders in our organization. Together, we aim to grow spiritually by intentionally praying for each other and meditating on God's word. Furthermore, we have also started discussing topics that encourage excellence in our work, given that we are trying to bring about significant change in our society.
A couple of years have passed since we first began our spiritual journey, and in December 2022, I was asked to lead a faith-based session for the entire team during our year-end retreat. We will soon share this journey with the rest of the team, starting with our foundational topic: the importance of God's love in everything we do. Our team is now more focused on finding innovative ways to put love into action as we pursue our goals of creating positive change in society. Our shared spiritual journey has even inspired us to develop FAITH Goals in addition to SMART Goals and other faith-based solutions.
No matter where we are in our change-making journey, and who we are with, we are compelled by love, cultivating love, pursuing love, and demonstrating love.