During the Triennials Xchange Series 7, the delegates who are members of the Aboitiz Leaders of Excellence, met Dr. Caridad “Caring” Maadil of Perpeutal Health Community Cooperative, Inc. (PHCCI) of Dumaguete City.

Nanay Caring is a currently a member of the PHCCI Board of Directors, was once the Chairperson of the board and was a member of the supervisory committee. Because her main work is being the Dean of the College of Arts and Education in St. Paul Dumaguete, she is serving PHCCI as a volunteer.

In 1974, after graduating from college at the Siliman University, Nanay Caring joined the PHCCI. She has heard about it from the Redemptorist fathers because she has worked for them right after graduation. 

Despite the shortage of time, we still had a chance to ask her a few questions, and here is what she had to say.

“When I came here, I was just told that I would represent PHCCI as a finalist of the Triennial Awards. And it came to me as a surprise that there were a lot of youth who are here in this organization (Aboitiz Leaders of Excellence-ALEx). In fact, the first people that I got involved with were the youth, and little by little, I learned that you (the delegates) were chosen among the members of ALEx. I was so impressed because although I work in the school, and also had some chances to get involved with leaders, it’s the first time that I was with real leaders. All of you are leaders and it’s amazing that you have a lot to contribute to this change. And although you’re still youth, to my expectations, you are already mature in your way of dealing things. You have adjusted to be away from home and left alone among yourselves in a far place in Mindanao (Davao City), and I can see that you are well adjusted and you can cope with the responsibilities that are expected of you. I could see that you have a lot of experiences already and I’m impressed by the way you do your responsibilities and that you are able to cope with it and you don’t need a lot of prodding from adults or the ones who are in-charge of you. You come as scheduled and you do your task. You are very active and are already fluent and articulate about the things that you think about. No doubt that you are indeed leaders.”

“At my age, I was not like you. At my age, I was not really a leader but I think I am a potential leader that’s why I became one of the leaders in our cooperative and our community. I can say that you [the youth should] expose yourself to the community… take things as positive that everything has a reason. Normally, there will be some errors but I say that when you fall, you just rise up because the important thing is that you are able to get back again in your two feet and take more challenges. I think that you are meant to meet a lot of challenges in your life but I think this preparation is for you to be able to overcome all those challenges, so just keep yourselves get connected and listen to people because no matter how low the people you might judge, they all actually have stories to tell and their stories are also important so give importance to all the people that you meet no matter what the status of that person is.”

The Aboitiz Leaders of Excellence interviewing Nanay Caring