Jenny Tulawi is the first recipient of a yellow boat in Simariki Island Ancestral Domain of Zamboanga City. When Jenny received the boat, she was still in 5th Grade at 14 years old.
For the Sama-Banguingui youth of Simariki Island, the priority is not education, but putting food on the table. Jenny gets paid to tie seaweeds with her aunt whenever she gets the chance. But when this is not available, she goes around to pick seashells which she then sells to make ends meet.
Before she received the boat, the only way she could transport herself and the shells she picked up was using a styrofoam icebox barely held together with packing tape. She would bring it everywhere because the box was also the only thing she could use to come to her tutorial classes and submit her modules.
Allison of Qingdao Amerasia International School (QAIS) in Shandong, China, is the donor of her boat. Allison was only in 8th Grade when she fundraised and chose YBH as her beneficiary charity. In September 2020, the 8th graders of QAIS chose a topic they wanted to focus on for their Community Project. Allison decided to raise awareness about how plastic wastes in the ocean put marine life at risk. Inspired by her best friend Nina, who had made reusable t-shirt bags for a farmers’ market while still in the same school, Allison followed in her footsteps. She believed that this was a creative and resourceful way to reduce the use of plastic bags.
Allison started her project by asking her community for t-shirt donations. Naturally, they gave her used clothes. She then upcycled the t-shirts into reusable shopping bags. Finally, at their Parent-Teacher Conference in March 2021, she raised enough money for a self-paddled yellow boat thru her sales and donations from various people. She donated the money to the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation, aligning with our goal of getting students safely to school.
Allison named the boat “In memory of NINA ELIF ROWE” to honor her best friend Nina, who passed away in January of the same year. Nina, at age 12, bravely lost her battle against Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a type of fast-growing brain tumor.
On July 8, 2021, Jenny received the Yellow Boat of Hope “In memory of NINA ELIF ROWE.” Far from each other but connected in their hearts, Allison, Nina, and Jenny’s story is a hopeful one. As Nina closed the book on the final chapter of her life, Allison brought renewed hope to Jenny’s pages.
Allison’s yellow boat will immortalize Nina’s legacy as a brave kid who fought an unimaginable battle by enabling Jenny to continue fighting her own.
In July of 2022, Jenny graduated elementary as part of the pioneer batch in her school. She entered 7th Grade in Talon-Talon National High School last October 2022.
Written by Rainiel Eric Viray
