Vivian helps everyone Be the Best

Vivian is a busy mother of five. She and her husband live in the dense, urban community of Tondo in Manila. Chalice's Tondo site staff first met her in 2020, when her daughter Ashley was sponsored. As soon as Vivian walked through the door, the site staff said, “Her fieldworker sensed a potential in her."

Just a few months after she attended her first Chalice family circle meeting, her fieldworker encouraged her to attend the site’s BidaBest Family Empowerment Program.

“Bidabest” (Be the Best in local parlance) is a Chalice-supported seminar program for children, teens, and parents. Seminar topics include parenting skills, advocacy about social issues, emotional well-being and spirituality.

In the early days of the program, professional facilitators ran the sessions – but they proved so wildly popular the initial team of facilitators could not run enough sessions to meet the demand. So the Tondo site started to train parents of sponsored children and youth to become facilitators themselves.

Vivian’s fieldworker had her pegged as a facilitator. “She was hesitant at first because, at that time, she was looking for a stable job to support her four kids in their studies,” Tondo staff say. But Vivian was accustomed to volunteering, and she found the time to attend facilitator training.

Her greatest challenge was overcoming her fear of public speaking. After six months of practicing in front of her family circle, she was starting to feel more comfortable.

"She no longer shakes whenever she is speaking,” staff say, “and her charisma helps because parents can relate to her discussions and are participative whenever she is the one who facilitates.”

Her topics are not easy but are highly relevant. Vivian’s monthly sessions cover issues such as mental health, violence prevention and healthy relationships.

"’Practice what you preach’ is a popular saying she embraced being a Blessed Advocate,” staff say. Vivian believes that if she is going to teach her fellow parents a topic, she must apply it in her own family’s life first. And she can tell that the techniques are having a positive effect.

"With each session focused on parenting and family dynamics, she sees a gradual shift in how she connects with her children,” staff say as Vivian shares her experiences from her home life. “Communication became more open, they understood each other better, and their relationship at home improved a lot.”

Vivian has just finished months of training in a housekeeping course, and she's excited to find full-time work with her new credentials. She is grateful to Chalice and the site for giving her the opportunity to grow in the BidaBest program.