A PHOTO of a young Filipina doing homework on the street has garnered much attention in the online community.
The image, taken by a local resident, shows a barefoot girl believed to be Cielo Gonzales sitting on a canister while writing on a piece of paper placed on top of a thin paperback book, Mirror Online reported. The photo gained more than 12,000 likes on Facebook, as of press time.
In an interview with TV Patrol, Jenalyn Gonzales, 10, the sister of the girl believed to be 7-year-old Gonzales and her sister, are documented wearing pajamas while sitting on a flattened cardboard box on the side of the road. According to the report, Jenalyn was teaching her sister to write.
Gonzales should have been in first grade by now, but she had to stop going to school. Her mother, Linda, who picks up trash for a living, could only afford to send Jenalyn to school, according to TV Patrol.
The television news station further stated that the photo that went viral was taken of Gonzales studying under the Manila Light Rail Transit.
The viral photo elicited comments from a number of social networkers.
“I appreciated this child’s determination to learn. I hope someone could help her to pursue her studies, and organization, or foundation. God bless her,” one individual wrote.
Other responses criticized the Philippine Department of Education.
“How useless is the Department of Education? What point have they in this country? What services do they offer?”
The new viral photo comes a few months after a photo of a homeless Filipino boy, Daniel Cabrera, using light from McDonald’s to do homework gained a huge popularity on the Internet. Cabrera is 9 years old and a third-grade student in Mandaue City, according to Rappler.
Cabrera’s photo, taken by a medical student named Joyce Torrefranca, drew comments from people expressing how impressed they were with his efforts to study. It also led to a fundraising page established specifically for him, which raised P234,134, the Daily Mail reported.
