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A HOMELESS FILIPINO boy has been overwhelmed with aid after a heart-wrenching photo of him studying on the pavement and using faint light from a McDonald’s outlet went viral on the Internet.
Nine-year-old Daniel Cabrera will fulfil his dream of becoming a policeman after donations of cash, school supplies and a college scholarship poured in, his mother, Christina Espinosa, told AFP on Friday.
“We’re overjoyed. I don’t know what I will do with all of these blessings,” the stunned 42-year-old grocery store employee and domestic helper told AFP.
Now, Daniel will not have to suffer just to finish his studies.
Inspiration
The photo, posted on Facebook last month by a college student, showed Cabrera doing his homework on a wooden stool placed close to a McDonald’s window to catch the light from the store.
The 20-year-old medical technology student, Joyce Torrefranca, captioned her Facebook post:
I got inspired by a kid.
It was then shared close to 7,000 times on the social networking site and reported by local television.
Espinosa and her three youngest children, including Cabrera, have been living in her employer’s mini-grocery store since their shanty home was gutted by fire five years ago.
Espinosa said she earned just 80 pesos ($1.77) a day working at the store and as a domestic helper for the store’s owners in their nearby home. She augments the income by selling cigarettes and candy on the streets on Mandaue, an urban centre on Cebu island in the central Philippines.
Their grocery store home is close to the McDonald’s outlet that had served as Cabrera’s study nook, she said.
‘I want to reach my dreams’
Cabrera’s father died in 2013 due to severe diarrhoea, said Espinosa, who has three older children, all married and living separate from her.
She described the boy as a tenacious child with a single-mined focus on getting an education.
“He is a very studious and determined boy… he would insist on going to school even without his lunch money because I have no money to give,” Espinosa said.
He always tells me: ‘Mama, I don’t want to stay poor. I want to reach my dreams’.
Espinosa said, aside from the cash, school supplies and scholarship offer that would guarantee his education through college, people had given school uniforms and a reading lamp.
The local church and government social welfare office had also received aid on his behalf.
“Our problem is how to manage all this financial assistance,” the city’s social welfare office chief, Violeta Cavada, told AFP.
He has become a symbol of poor slum boys in the city who can’t study because they don’t have electricity.
Despite strong economic growth in recent years, roughly one quarter of the Philippines’ 100 million people still live on less than one dollar a day, and giant slums dominate all major cities.
Torrefranca’s post was shared around the world and in multiple languages, including Spanish, German and Portuguese, all touched by the boy’s perseverance.
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the world need more of this chap. Determined. brilliant that he’s getting the help he deserves.
The world needs an even spread of wealth and resources.We all love to preach but very few of us are prepared to give up our lifestyle to help those living in such poverty.
The mother is working two jobs and they’re still homeless. Scandalous. Virtual slavery.
Except slaves are given a home.
And kids in Ireland complain about slow WiFi…
Yes allister esp the 1100 homeless kids in temporary accommodation in Dublin. Easy doing homework while sharing a hostel room with your whole family.
It’s pronounced wiffy.
And not having proper drugs to abuse.
Hey tap, it must be depressing being a self hating irishperson
Why are people so unwilling to accept we have homeless children in Ireland? Hostels, b&bs, hotels all over Dublin in particular are full of homeless families. How is it so many can empathise with a homeless Filipino, but are so disdainful of our own who have fallen on hard times? Oh, I forgot, they are prob single mother tarts or sw scroungers.
Hey, is your name Pat Lyons but you call yourself Tap Solny because I see what you did there.
I am sure that he will succeed.
As my Grandfather used to say “I complained about having no shoes until I seen a man with no feet”
That’s sandalous ..
As my Grandfather used to say “I complained about having no shoes until I seen a man with no feet”…
“So I took his shoes”
Boom.
I’ll never forget what my Granada said to me before he kicked the bucket. ” Hey Tom, watch how hard I can kick this bucket” He passed away the following year.
What a great young fella!
highlights 3 things,homelessness, innocence of kids,and the determination of the human being.all the best wee man.
Despite strong economic growth one quarter of the population live on a dollar a day. Which just goes to prove how theoretically out of touch with human reality economics is.
Growth means getting bigger than you were, not necessarily progress. Ireland is the fastest growing economy in the eurozone, just because you’re the tallest midget in the class doesn’t make you a giant.
wants to be a police man in a country with one of the most corrupt forces in the world. Aim higher my boy aim higher
I’m in the Philipppines at the moment, lots of homeless kids hang around McDonalds to beg.
It would break your heart to see them. I’ve fed a few of them in the last few days. Despite having nothing they are always cheerful and polite.
I work with homeless youth in my spare time. There was a young girl literally living under a bridge while studying for her leaving cert. But managing to attend school by day. Homeless because of domestic difficulties. We placed her in a homeless hostel for the few weeks leading up to and during the exams. I look forward to seeing how this courageous feisty girl turns out.
The fact that the mother works two jobs and is still homeless proves that capitalism and globalisation are not working… But hey, the shareholders of mickey dees and starbux are getting richer
I reckon there won’t be an article on The Journal today about how ‘evil’ Direct Provision is.
inspired, not wondering why homeless children are left doing home work on the side of the road
I’m currently living in the Philippines. I can tell you there is wealth in this country but it’s not getting to the hard working people that deserve it. The economy is growing but based on remittances from the 10 million Filipinos who work abroad. I’m glad this has gone viral to show how unfair the system is here.
What an amazing kid! What I find lacking, however, is criticism of a system that allows a huge divide between rich and poor. Such a system is creeping into our country. Rents forcing families onto the streets. Single mothers having to leave 7yr olds at home alone. People have made fortunes off the back of this crisis and pushed the wedge that divides rich from poor further into society. This kid could be one of ours, doing homework under a car light. Let’s not let this happen here.
Got something in my eye… Wonderful
Isn’t it fantastic what direct aid can do and not get lost in the whole bigger aid picture . Delighted as I so wanted to help him but didn’t know how
He’s doing his Nohomework
Free advertising for big chain McDonald’s – have they stepped in and helped?
thumbs down this comment 500 times and I will never thumbs down a comment rv3r
Free advertising for MacDonald’s – wonder if they have put their hand in their deep pockets?
Free advertising for McDonald’s – wonder if they have put their hand in their deep pockets and helped?
Free advertising for McDonald’s – wonder if they have put their hand in their pocket to help?
lovely story
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