Donations pour in for 10-year-old boy from Sultan Kudarat after KMJS feature

Never underestimate the kindness of strangers.

Shortly after "Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho" (KMJS) featured a 10-year old boy from Sultan Kudarat tirelessly plowing a two-hectare land with a horse to help out his family, donations from netizens poured in for Reymark and his family. 

According to a KMJS episode on Sunday, Reymark received help from numerous good Samaritans, including a group from South Cotabato.

“Ang sakit sa puso tingnan ‘yung bata na ganoon ‘yung trabaho,” Jed said.

“’Yung boss po talaga namin is nag-post sa social media. Tapos ‘yung mga tao naman nagpadala doon sa account.”

[It’s heartbreaking to see a child do that kind of job. Our boss, so moved by the story, posted it on social media. And donations poured in.]

From South Cotabato, the group endured a two-hour travel time to give Reymark the donation.

Meanwhile, another group gave groceries to help with Reymark and his family’s daily needs.

A Filipino living in Canada, Stewart, even heard about Reymark through social media and decided to reach out to offer help.

“Bigla po siyang nag-pop-up sa Facebook ko, ‘yung kuwento ni Reymark. Tapos tinawag ko po yung anak ko at pinanood ko sa kanila at talagang nalungkot kami sa kuwento niya,” Stuart said.

[Reymark’s story popped up on my Facebook feed. We watched his story and we were really moved by it.]

“So later that day, nag-post ako sa Facebook sa business group namin kung sino ang gustong tumulong para isang fee na lang at buuin natin ‘yung pera natin para maipaabot ang tulong namin kay Reymark.”

[Later that day, I posted in a Facebook group, asking who else wanted to send donations to Reymark.]

According to Stewart, help and donations poured in.

Stuart also promised that they’d find a way to help Reymark reach Canada when he grows up.

Reymark’s empty house was now filled with grocery supplies, sacks of rice, canned goods and even school supplies.

“Masaya po na marami pong tumulong (The help we received was overwhelming),” Reymark said. He shared that he also decided to give the less fortunate some of the help he received.

Reymark happily shared that he as well as his horse Rabanos, can now stop plowing land as he focuses on his dream of becoming a part of the army.

Asked why he wanted to become part of the military, he answered, “Ang atin pong Philippine Sea po. Na hindi po maagaw ng China po dahil nawawalan na po ng supply po ng isda po.”

[ I want to defend our Philippine Sea. I don’t want it to be taken by China because we’re losing fish supply there.]

In the middle of the interview, Reymark’s mother, who was gone for a month, surprised Reymark.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, 2.1 million Filipino children are forced to work for their families.

This, of course, has many effects on the child, both physically and mentally.
“Physically nao-overstretch yung muscles nila. Puwede silang maaga magkaroon, actually, ng mga rayuma na tinatawag natin kasi maaga pa lang manual na yung trabaho nila,” family medicine specialist Dr. Cheridine Oro-Jose said.

[Physically, their muscles get overstretched. They can have early joint pains because at a young age they do manual labor already.]

She added, “Emotionally, at their age dapat naglalaro pa lang sila and they learn things to play.”

[Emotionally, at their age, they should still be playing.]

Hoping that less fortunate people will be given help, especially since he has firsthand experience in labouring and plowing land at such a young age, Reymark said, “Hindi ko po sasayangin ang binigay po nila sa akin. Gamitin ko po sa mabuti po na paraan po.”

[I won’t waste the help given to me. I will use this in a good way.] — Kaela Malig/LA, GMA News