And that, perhaps, is the most powerful feature of all. If you’d like to support Sulong Kabataan or volunteer, contact the organization through its community bulletin board at Barangay Hall, San Miguel, Bulacan, or follow its Facebook page (@SulongKabataanPH).
That early lesson in shared sacrifice became the blueprint for her life’s work. Beanne studied Business Administration at Bulacan State University, planning to climb the corporate ladder. But a required volunteer stint with a local NGO during her third year changed everything. Assigned to a coastal community devastated by a typhoon, she saw families living in makeshift tents, children writing on scraps of cardboard. Beanne Valerie Dela Cruz
“Trust isn’t given,” she says. “It’s earned by washing your own tables, sweeping your own floors, and admitting when you’re wrong.” A typical Tuesday for Beanne starts at 5:30 AM, checking messages from volunteer coordinators on an old smartphone with a cracked screen. By 8 AM, she’s in Barangay San Roque, helping a 15-year-old boy practice reading. By noon, she’s meeting with a local hardware store to donate roofing materials for a learning shed. By 4 PM, she’s teaching a basic accounting workshop to 20 teens using a chalkboard and marbles as counters. And that, perhaps, is the most powerful feature of all
“I handed a little girl a notebook and a pencil,” Beanne says, her voice softening. “She looked at me like I had given her the moon. That’s when I realized: I didn’t want to just sell products. I wanted to solve problems.” “Trust isn’t given,” she says
She doesn’t draw a salary. She lives with her grandmother and supports herself with freelance bookkeeping work late at night.
She’s already there, at a makeshift desk under a mango tree, teaching a child to read one syllable at a time.
At 28, Beanne isn’t a household name—not yet. But in the communities she touches, from the bustling streets of Manila to the rural classrooms of Pampanga, she’s already a legend in the making. Growing up as the eldest of three siblings in a modest home in Bulacan, Beanne learned early that resources were limited but resourcefulness was not. Her mother worked as a seamstress; her father was a jeepney driver. Money was tight, but the family’s dining table was always open to neighbors in need.