Ricky

(This entry was written in November 2013 after Typhoon Yolanda sent the Visayas to its knees. I was not able to upload it on time as it is only now that internet connectivity in my place has been restored. To date, Ricky is still in Metro Manila, still without sponsor for his medication)

The boy in the photos is Ricky. I don’t know his true family name. His absent father has never acknowledged his paternity over him. He lives with his maternal grandparents in a house demolished by ST Yolanda (International Name: Haiyan) when it wrought havoc in Aranas, Balete, Aklan, Philippines on November 8, 2013.  He was entrusted by his also absent mother to his grandparents when he was still a toddler. He is now 12 or 13 years old. He is in his 1st year High School in a public school in Aranas.


    Other than being without a loving parents to care for him as he deals with the trauma of surviving the monstrous typhoon, he is stricken with a skin ailment that dermatologists in Kalibo, Aklan (the capital town of Aklan Province) have to refer him to skin specialists in Iloilo City or in Manila. Some good souls did help him seek medical attention in Iloilo but only for the initial examinations and the conduct of biopsy. Now Ricky has to raise money needed to address the real problem.



     Today (November 29, 2013), Ricky wears his Sunday’s Best and with an adult companion prepares to leave for Manila via the nautical highway. He will try his luck queuing at the Philippine General Hospital hoping to find benevolent benefactors and the attention of the best doctors.

    For one last time, he posed for the camera by his grandparent’s makeshift hut besides the ruins of their original house. A serious face he displayed for such a young heart, already scared and hurting more than the malaise silently consuming his left leg.

   Ricky hopes to be home before the Yuletide season ends. He looks forward to a reunion with his ailing grandparents and his classmates to break bread with them in a simple celebration of commemorating the birth of Christ in a lowly manger. He hopes too to return home to a house that will provide his small family of three a dry place to lay their tired bodies.



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