Chris "Kesz" Valdez (born December 26, 1998) is a Filipino humanitarian and founder of Championing Community Children (C3). At age 13, Kesz was awarded the 2012

International Children's Peace Prize The International Children's Peace Prize is awarded annually to a child who has made a significant contribution to advocating children's rights and improving the situation of vulnerable children such as orphans, child labourers and children with H ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

, Netherlands. He is the first

Southeast Asian Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

to receive the International Children's Peace Prize and currently the youngest among the finalists nominated for the recognition. The $100,000 Euro prize was used to fund a variety of children’s projects and further his efforts to help Philippine children.

Biography

Valdez was born in

Imus, Cavite Imus, officially the City of Imus ( fil, Lungsod ng Imus), is a 3rd class component city and ''de jure'' capital of the province of Cavite, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 496,794 people. It is the ''de jure' ...

, Philippines on December 26, 1998. At the age of two, people would have found Kesz Valdez picking garbage in Manila's infamous Captive dumpsite which shows just how unfortunate his life was at such a young age. Valdez was beaten by his father and neglected by his mother up till the age of four years old after they decided not to sell him. In result, he was given a bad reputation and had to provide for himself. Given Valdez's situation at home, he was forced to beg, scavenge, eat garbage for food, and bring back money to support his father's drug and alcohol addictions. He escaped from his abusive family at four years old and spent his days begging for food on the streets in Manila's poorest slum area. At night, he could be found sleeping on top of open graves or in shop doorways. For over years, Valdez was a Filipino slum street kid who had no permanent place to live, sleep, or receive food from. He eventually studied on an outreach group called Club 8586 when he got a older. Valdez was taken into care and mentored by Manalaysay after being severely burned falling into a fire. Manalaysay was the mentor of another humanitarian working for street children CNN Hero

Efren Peñaflorida Efren Geronimo Peñaflorida, (born March 5, 1981), is a Filipino teacher and development worker. He offers Filipino youth an alternative to street gangs through education, recreating school settings in unconventional locations such as cemeteries ...

. In 2006, Valdez along with his friends, founded the

Championing Community Children Championing Community Children, also known by its members by its abbreviation, C3, is an organization founded by International Children’s Peace Prize laureate Kesz Váldez, who has started the organization in around 2006 in the desire to help ...

, Kesz's Action. This is an organization which aims at giving hope and showing the street children they can transform their own lives and inspire others to do so as well. Throughout Valdez's organization, he has helped more than 10,000 children in his community. He was able to inspire and help so many younger kids just through his own life experiences, which shows just how extraordinary he really is.

References

External links

Kesz's Action
1998 births Living people Children's rights activists Education activists Filipino activists Filipino children Filipino educators Filipino human rights activists People from Cavite People from Imus Tagalog people 21st-century Filipino people {{Philippines-bio-stub