Saturday, June 16, 2007 Girl, 5, who saved 2 tots from fire wants to be a star, fulfills wish to face cameras By Jujemay G. Awit Sun.Star Staff Reporter With Rene H. Martel
ALL she wants is to be an actress. Instead, at five years old, Chevaune Julve is already a real-life heroine.
Chevaune saved her younger brother Natha-niel, 4, and a cousin, Stefan, 3, when a fire broke out shortly after she came home from school last Thursday.
“Asa man diay si Tantan (Where is Nathaniel)?” was the girl’s first question when she arrived home in Doña Cristina Subdivision, Sitio Banawa, Barangay Guadalupe, with her mother Preciosa.
It was Chevaune who first noticed the smoke coming out of her aunt Violeta and uncle Jose Ramirez’s house, just next door.
Shocked
When Chevaune realized that her brother and cousin were inside the house, she immediately ran to get them.
“Naa ma’y aso, pero dili man to daob. Pwerte nakong hilak kay na-shock man gud ko (I saw smoke, but I knew it wasn’t just from a bonfire. I was so shocked, I kept bawling),” said Chevaune.
Shocked or not, she successfully prodded her four-year-old brother to come down, but failed to persuade her cousin to do the same. It was her father who later snatched the three-year-old from the house.
Chevaune admitted she was scared by the flames, but the thought of losing her younger brother was even scarier.
A Sun.Star Cebu news team paid Chevaune a visit yesterday. She was still in her school uniform, playing amid the rubble left by the fire with her cousin Princess, 9, and Nathaniel and Stefan.
Chevaune is a Kinder 2 student at the Labangon Elementary School.
What was she thinking when she braved the fire to save the young boys? “Nagsige lang ko’g pray (I just kept praying),” she said.
After the rescue, she again prayed. “Jesus, salamat Jesus ha kay wala nasunog among balay kay wala baya mi’y kwarta.
Salamat pud nga wala nasunog ang mga bata kay luoy. Dili man ko ganahan masunog akong manghud kay mingawon man ko (Thank you Jesus, ha, for keeping our house safe, because we haven’t got any money. And thank you for saving the boys.
I wouldn’t want my brother to get hurt. I’d miss him).”
Limelight
Chevaune is the second child of a housewife and a driver. She wants to be an actress. Like many five-year-olds, she can hardly stay still, always moving and dancing.
If a career in show business doesn’t come her way, Chevaune said she does not mind becoming a nurse and going to the United States.
Her newfound popularity has given Chevaune a taste of the limelight, what with her televised interviews and having to pose for pictures with several teachers and classmates.
When a Sun.Star photojournalist aimed his camera at her, Chevaune posed like a model, putting her arms on her hips, smiling and waving like a real actress.
But what may seem like play to her is a real blessing to her family.
“I am so proud. It’s like the Sto. Niño has used her as an instrument to save the other children,” said her mother Preciosa.
Grandmother Marciana Ramirez was proud of her granddaughter too. “Sa iyang kalinghod og panuigon na kahuna-huna gihapon siya’g salbar sa mga bata. Dapat mahadlok unta siya sa kayo (She’s so young, but instead of getting frightened, she had the presence of mind to save the children),” said Marciana.
But even heroines need a break. Chevaune later begged off from the interview to play with her cousins. As the news team said goodbye, Chevaune promised to dance for them again next time.
At City Hall, a commendation was discussed for Chevaune’s parents.
For a five-year-old to act beyond her age shows how her parents have mentored her properly, said Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
“We extend it to the parents for having a girl like that. It shows that even if she comes from a poor family, (her parents) were able to teach their children, particularly this girl, the values of family loyalty and of responsibility,” he said.
“This is not to take away the credit from the girl. This is in special consideration to the ones who brought up the girl. How I wish all the parents here in Cebu were like that,” the mayor added.
Councilor Gerardo Carillo will ask the City Council to pass next week a resolution honoring Chevaune.
Aside from asking the Council to commend Chevaune, Carillo will also ask that Banawa be declared under a state of calamity so funds could be released to help Stefan’s family. (RHM)
