national hero back in the philippines. a tv movie was made about his life, and he even got his own television show. but for efren, the support for his mission meant the most. when we started this, people were laughing at us. that crazy idea has gone a long way. today, his push cart classrooms can be found all over the country. he s also built two education centers and a high school. the work efren started when he was just 16 has now reached around 40,000 children. we re never too young to give back to society. and one is never too ordinary to be a hero. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, efren penaflorida. efren.
colleagues have also stayed close. x minus 1 equals zero. when a typhoon decimated areas in 2013, causing widespread destruction, efren mobilized his team to help in one of the hardest hit areas. he also issued a rallying cry to his fellow cnn heros. i contacted all my co-honorees. they responded. henley was there. he was able to bring water filters to each community. robin lim was there, also, to help pregnant women. when the three of us met together, we were like avengers coming together to help the community. today, efren is 35 years old. he works on his project full time and teaches a math class. he continues to push his cart.
the focus of a tv movie. but efren says that more important than the accolades are the results that his program has inspired. when we started the organization, gangs, street wars are very rampant. we saw there s a tremendous decrease of the issues of gangsters and gangs around, and we are glad that we re one of those people who help in making the place better. taking the push cart classroom to new levels, efren has recently teamed up with the department of education in the philippines and with other international groups to replicate the push cart classroom. the cart on classroom here in the philippines is a symbol of hope and education. we have counted 83 replications all over the philippines. plus, we have two aboard in indonesia and in kenya. that idea has gone a long way. it reached thousands of children, and it touches their lives. we believe that education is a powerful tool.
supplies. volunteers brought the classroom to kids who were forced to drop out of school in the philippines. he was a teenager when he started the project in the slums to combat gangs and the bullies who threatened him at school. he hoped to engage kids through learning instead of violence. in 2009, when the cnn heros met me and the volunteers pushing the carts, people were laughing at us. they would discourage us. they d say it s a waste of time. the cnn hero of the year is efren penaflorida. but after cnn heros featured us, it changed everything. you are the change that you dream, as i am the change that i dream. and collectively, we are the change that this world needs to be. efren says the heros recognition came at a time he needed support more than ever.
after we were featured, people were like, you re doing a good job. it changed everything. it changed the perspective of a lot of people. in a country where nearly a quarter of the people live below the poverty line, efren s story of hope helped put a struggling population on the map. as the world began to focus on the plight of children living in poverty, more kids got the chance to learn. whenever we go from one community to another community, children were like swarming around, running towards us. they were waiting for us and smiling. they really have this hunger for learning. today, efren s simple little cart and a team of passionate volunteers have brought education to an estimated 40,000 children around the world. many of these kids were sold into prostitution or working in garbage dumps or had been coerced into gangs. efren is helping them learn and get back into school.