When life felt like a narrowing road, Mae Indoc chose to widen it. Not only for herself, but for her four children that held her future.

At 29, with a husband working as a tricycle driver and children depending on her, Mae made a decision that many call brave and few get to live: she went back to school.

“Isip ginikanan, daghan mi og pagsulay nga nasinati. Ang panginabuhi dili sayon…” she recalls. For Mae, there were moments when continuing felt impossible.

The family received support from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) which acted as a lifeline that helped Mae and her children survive those years. The grants she received as a 4Ps Grantee were used to support her children’s school and health needs. This provided her the opportunity to utilize her husband’s income for her studies and the rest of their expenses.

Mae speaks of 4Ps with gratitude: it gave her the strength and inspiration to pursue her education at a time when her husband’s income alone had to sustain the whole household. But she also made a vow to herself: she did not want to be a family that depended on assistance forever. She wanted to change their story.

“I wanted to give my children the best opportunities,” Mae says simply. Help from neighbors and relatives came, she remembers, but she felt that relying only on others wasn’t the right path. If she had the ability to move and to strive, then she had to use it.

With that conviction she enrolled at Caraga State University and, by the grace of God, finished a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work. The sacrifice was real: juggling household responsibilities, studies, and the quiet pressure of being the family’s hope. Her husband, her biggest supporter, took on the burden of earning so Mae could attend classes.

“Sa una nga nag eskwela pa si mama, pag wala siyay klase kay muuli siya para atimanon mi. Unya si papa kay manarbaho para maka eskwela ug makahuman si mama,” remembers Allen Timothy Indoc, Mae’s third child — “When Mama was still studying, whenever she had no class she would come home to take care of us. Then Papa worked so Mama could study and finish.”

Her resolve translated into results. She passed the Social Work Board Exam on her first try in 2022, a milestone that marked the closing of one chapter and the opening of another. After short stints at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and at a Non Government Office (NGO). Not long, Mae was offered a position at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) as a Municipal Link in Buenavista, Agusan del Norte in 2023, a full-circle moment for someone who once received help from 4Ps.

“Once I was hired in DSWD, I voluntarily exited from the 4Ps program,” Mae says. “I did this because I know that with determination, it’s possible to change your life.”

In 2024 she also passed the Civil Service Exam on her first try. For Mae, those are more than certificates; they are proof that hard work, faith, and the quiet insistence to keep going can alter a family’s path.

Today, at 37 and the mother of four, Mae carries a different kind of responsibility. She is no longer a beneficiary in need of guidance; she is now the one guiding beneficiaries.

“Karon, isa ko ka municipal link sa DSWD. And what truly makes me happy is that I’m now serving the same community I came from,” she says. Where she once stood with hope and need, she now walks with a clipboard and a listening ear, helping families navigate programs, find resources, and imagine possibilities they might not have thought reachable.

Mae’s story is not only one of personal achievement; it is a gentle argument for the power of social support combined with individual determination. The 4Ps helped keep her family afloat when they needed it most, but it was Mae’s decision to study, to persist, and to build skills that allowed her to step off assistance and into service.

She offers a message she hopes others will hear: “Ang akong istorya usa ka pahinumdom nga ang kalisod dili babag sa kalamposon.” Mae’s story is a reminder that hardship is not a barrier to success.

Standing now as a municipal link in the same town where she once sought help, Mae’s life is testimony: that the same community that once held her can now be strengthened by her hands. She signs her name not with the pride of a solitary victory, but with the steady certainty of a mother who turned struggle into a promise kept.

“Ako si Mae Indoc, usa ka inahan, kanhi 4Ps Beneficiary, ug karon usa na ka Municipal Link sa Buenavista, Agusan Del Norte, nag serbisyo uban sa kasing kasing.” – I am Mae Indoc, a mother, a former 4Ps beneficiary, and now a Municipal Link in Buenavista, Agusan del Norte, serving with my whole heart.

Mae’s successful shift from 4Ps Grantee to Municipal Link truly inspires those who have little hope for a better life. Her aspirations for a brighter future, hard work, and proper utilization of 4Ps’ grants propelled Mae and her family to a better life.

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) primarily aims to alleviate poverty by enhancing children’s health, nutrition, and education, while also addressing the cycle of poverty across generations through steady investments in human capital. It offers conditional cash assistance to disadvantaged households to promote human development and uplift the living conditions of the most vulnerable families.