By Lorie A. Cascaro
HERE’S an entrepreneur by heart who continues to provide the Filipino youth with a fun-filled, high-tech but affordable education.
Formerly an English professor at the Western Mindanao State University, Zamboanga City, Anyati Abdullah Orcullo created the Voyager Educational and Event Services to bring the digital mobile planetarium to the rural areas of the countryside.
“My experience as a student was very limited to the classroom situation. And when I had the chance to travel and access technology, it is my utmost dream to provide this to children in the far-flung areas. That’s why I invented a mobile planetarium,” she said.
Her motivation to help schools in far flung areas have an access to technology is deeply rooted in her childhood experiences.
Once a farm girl from a small town in Zamboanga del Norte, she had to walk 10 kilometers from her house to study at the Patawag Elementary School.
“I walk mountains, different terrains and all that. I didn’t have access to technology at all then. I was such a farm girl, that’s why I love farming,” she said adding that her first encounter with planetarium was in high school at Labason, Zamboanga del Norte.
Years passed and she was able to travel to Brunei where she reinvented herself as a businesswoman, putting up one business after another.
Aside from Voyager, she owns the Anyati’s Boutique and Atelier, HBM laundry and cleaning services, Vetiver Biosolutions Company, and Ads Allure Advertising.
“That’s why I reinvented myself, not just an educator but also as a fashion designer, and businesswoman,” she said.
Bringing the mobile planetarium to the far flung areas, the Voyager team let the children pay at a minimum price.
As Orcullo puts it, “If we can make money from the big cities because it’s where the children can afford to, we will make them pay for the far flung areas.”
“I am not a profit-motivated person, and Voyager is much like a hobby. But, I want it to be sustainable. I have a very long vision,” she said.
She instructed the Voyager team that whenever they have an event in a school, they have to identify students who are very keen into the subject matter—Astronomy that is, so that the company can follow through their learning progress.
“And, if the company is sustainable enough, we can actually give some subsidy. We can fund them and send them to school where they can have further studies. I want students to actually excel by giving them a chance to develop in what they believe,” she said.
During the recent launching of Voyager’s new logo and Voyager Adventures 2012 at the Grand Menseng Hotel, Davao City, Orcullo said in her welcome speech that if the Voyager can produce an astronaut 10 to 20 years from now, then the company owes it from Davao City, where it began.
The first Mindanao-based company to have the digital mobile planetarium, the Voyager was established in 2008 as Ads Allure Advertising Company in Brunei and finally moved to Davao City.
Currently located at JKA Bldg., Door 1, Tahimik Avenue, Bangkal, the Voyager launched its one-of-a-kind project, the Voyager Adventures, after three years of organizing big and successful exhibitions and expos in Brunei and Davao.
True to its vocation to bring technology in the far flung areas, Orcullo said the Enchanted Reef is a most awaiting project of the company this year.
“What I love about Enchanted Reef is that it is presented in an animation movie that children will enjoy because this is a story of two fish in a reef. We are very concerned that the reef will be destroyed. This will have a touch of marine biology conservation and climate change, recycling. They will not only be entertained but also learn that there is a need to start conserving,” she said.
“I was an educator and I have many students who became big people. They came back to me and said, ‘You made my life. I am who I am now because of you.’ And I want to continue that legacy,” this eloquent speaker told Edge Davao.
