POLISHING SHOES. The Shoe-shine Project for Street People (SP4SP), kicked off last January 5, is now making waves inside the university. The shoe shiners are stationed by the benches along the campus main lane with students, faculty and staff comprising their clientele. Photo by Jerome Torres.
By Maria Monica L Borja and Caryl Be B Trabadillo
The sun glints off overhead as Wendel Cris Sorono, clad in a blue polo shirt and an old pair of pants, enters the gate of Xavier University. It’s a usual day for him. But he's neither here to teach nor to study. He’s here to shine shoes.
Twenty-eight-year-old Sorono is one of eight beneficiaries of the Shoe-shine Project for Street People (SP4SP), a livelihood venture initiated by XU for street dwellers.
Sorono recounts that he didn’t initially want to be part of the project, preferring instead to do side jobs like “barking” for jeepneys. Yet what pushed him to join is his growing family. He has a two-year-old daughter who inspires him to look for a better occupation.
"Para ni sa kaugmaon sa akong pamilya," says Sorono, firmly pushing a shoe brush from side to side to polish a customer’s black leather shoe.
(This is for my family’s future.)
Empowering people
A project of the University Chaplaincy under the leadership of Fr Richard Ella SJ, in partnership with Street Tutorial Advocacy (STA) headed by Jerome L Torres of First-Year Formation Program (FFP), SP4SP provides not just a profitable enterprise for the street dwellers, but also an opportunity to learn.
“Through this project, they will discover something that will help them improve their lives. They won’t just be thinking of how they can survive for the day,” says Torres, who tutored Sorono under STA.
“Giving them the opportunity to learn [Basic English and Math] is not enough. This led me to the idea that if I empower them through this livelihood, they will realize that they can improve their lives,” continues Torres who related that his compassion and concern for the less fortunate stem from the struggles he experienced as a youngster.
“There were no opportunities given to me. I had to discover them myself,” he says. “I don’t want them to experience that.”
The shoe-shine project, which kicked off last January 5, is now making waves inside the university. The shoe shiners are stationed by the benches along the campus main lane with students, faculty and staff comprising their clientele.
Outside classroom discussions
More people and organizations are supporting the shoe-shine project by bolstering their marketing and promotional strategy online and otherwise to help them reach out to as many clients as possible.
“One of my objectives is to help people realize that they can help themselves knowing that there are people supporting them,” Torres adds.
The shoe-shiners are expecting more clients now that more people know about them from online posts. Besides, they also hope to learn about customer relations and interpersonal communication.
Sorono, along with other shoe-shiners, is very thankful for the opportunity given to them to earn money and learn important life lessons, to Torres for his dedication to help them and to the Xavier community for giving them the venue and support to stand on their own two feet.
