BREAKING THE CHAIN OF POVERTY

By: Norberto Betita

She hails from Carrascal, Surigao del Sur, a small coastal town characterized by tranquility coupled with cold and relaxing gentle breeze from the Pacific sea. In the opposite side trailed by the National Highway are shown mountainous landscapes of brown and green. Distinctly displayed above and hidden beneath the rolling hills are the abundant riches long buried by Divine hands bestowing the providential promise of temporal prosperity. The bounteous mineral deposits of nickel and iron ores upon the land propounded the fitting description of a “rich man’s land”. Yet such abounding material prospect requires a long way and time of anxious and indeterminate waiting by the town’s folks.

Among those who are yearning for the realization of the promised bountiful harvests was a poor woman in the rich man’s land SNNHS ‘69er ANAME ARREZA. Motivated by an unrelenting and inexorable desire to be educated she took the pains of crossing the very rough, dusty and muddy highway each weekend from Carrascal to Surigao City and vice versa. The depressing encounter with penury did not deter her to press on and keep going. Her provincial upbringing rendered her reluctant and withdrawn. However, she is loved by friends and classmates. The firm determination she carried through the four years of difficult high school life built for her an even greater commitment to succeed notwithstanding all odds.

After high school graduation and with positive vision reaching the extreme panoramic view of a bright potential she packed all her optimistic dreams and started her journey into a higher dimension of life’s thoroughfare. She knew that there is no royal road to success and her only chance to cross the roaring seas of challenges is to unyieldingly persevere towards victory. Her first single step was to enroll at the Southwestern University for a two-year pre-nursing course. After graduation she again enrolled at the CCC-Chonghua Hospital School of Nursing for another three years to complete her nursing course. She graduated, took the board and thus became a Registered Nurse. Nursing during her time was a five-year course to qualify to become a Registered Nurse. After her four months community work at her hometown, she returned to Cebu City and worked at the Cebu TB Pavillion while at the same time taking another two years of scholastic training to eventually earn the coveted degree of Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

In her heart remained the unwavering and resolute allegiance to break the chain of poverty in her family. She knew beforehand that it would be difficult to lift her family from the murky lake of poverty without her standing higher ashore. Her struggle to obtain the necessary academic preparations became for her a redeeming cord to save her family. Then a kind of pre-destined blessing came as her former classmate and friend invited her to work in Vienna, Austria in 1976. She had no money, but all her financial requirements were provided. In 1980 she married giving her the name of Aname Arreza Gines and was blessed with two children, and now with two grandchildren. 

While working at Vienna with sustainable income, she started breaking the chain of poverty in the family by inviting her brother and then five of her nephews and nieces to join the Filipino Diaspora and work in Vienna. As of now there are already thirty five (35) of her direct and extended families including children now living in the City of Vienna ranked always in the Top 10 cities of the world. In mercer’s quality of living survey the city of Vienna is No. 1 in 2014; EIU’s livability ranking and overview no. 2 in 2013; and Monocle’s quality of life survey No. 6 in 2014. Through her determined and spirited effort the chain of poverty in the family had been slowly broken as they moved ashore into a more realistic land of the rich.

The once tranquil and lowly fishing town of Carrascal where Aname was given birth and had grown in poverty is now starting its way to move in prosperity. But together with its unrestrained feverish desire for the acquisition of material wealth that the mines offered the town is now on the verge of possible destruction. The once clear sea water now turns brown and the corals where fishes live and breed are now filled with mud siltation.

The poor woman who once lived in a prospective “rich man’s land” has been so richly blessed together with her family as to be able to live a life of slight luxury comfortably relieved from the pangs of abject poverty and distressing stings of penury. She retired from her nursing job in 2009 and now lives at Haslau An Der Donau Niederosterreich, Austria.

She looks back with deepest expressions of gratitude and heartfelt appreciation for the rich experiences provided by the chain of poverty and the motivation gained from her high school Alma Mater, the Surigao del Norte National High School, which moved her positively forward to her ultimate victory, rising to the top and breaking the chain of poverty in her family.

She will come to join with the SNNHS ‘69ers during the coming joyful golden jubilee celebration comes 2019.