I was born in 1994 in Lucena, a city situated in the province of Quezon, Philippines...My family was poor, but despite our losses...

That’s when she married my stepfather who served in the US Military. Because of his job, we moved to the US...

Unfortunately, the north also houses some of the poorest and least privileged of the country. Labor can be as easily bought and sold...

For the first few years of my life, all my immediate family lived in a low-income, one-roomed apartment in the city within a close-knit...

A bunch of wildflowers left my hands and dropped upon his grave. It was clear that the goodbyes were final. I was burying my husband...

I was expected to labor for the rest of my days and help support my family like every other child in my village. I was not supposed to be...

Traditionally, Indian families want boys, but as they already had a son, my parents welcomed my birth with all their heart...

In fact, I was 16th in the rankings, including my father’s children from his two older wives, who each had six children before...

I grew up on a large council estate with high-rise flats as far as the eye could see. It was full of crime, poverty, and drug addicts...

They say that life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you. In my life—in chasing my dreams, in fighting to provide...

I grew up watching how hard my father worked to earn bread for us. Because he was a mason, my father spent his days under the hot sun...

Ever since I can remember, I listened to the stories and news on the radio, longing to be part of the airwaves. I toyed with the idea...

My country is destroyed—people have died of hunger, died from a lack of medicine, or simply have been killed. Thanks to a dictatorship...

Times in the southern US during the 1940s and 1950s were trying ones, indeed. We were poor. I guess you could say “dirt poor.” I remember...

My parents were not rich, but we had enough to go around. My dad was a businessman, and my mom taught at a primary school. In the absence...

My father refused to work because he believed if we had too much money, we would be damned, so my mother and I would cut dry wood to sell...

My childhood was a long-term nightmare that I couldn’t wake up from. My father was very violent and abusive, so I never had a chance...

People around me see a beautiful picture of my life. They see a young entrepreneur who owns a nice flat and went to Dubai for her...

Growing up I was an extremely naughty kid who loved to mess with people. Most of the time, it was all in good fun, but I remember one...

I was born on August 18, 1988 to a timid mother and a drug-addicted father. My father was in the picture for the first six months of...