MARVIN Sordilla was born without a right leg in Miguat, a mountain barangay in Digos City, where his family lived in extreme poverty.
Sordilla ran away from home, and was forced to beg on the streets. To stave off hunger, he would sniff rugby.
Sometimes, he would spend the day without having had any breakfast, lunch and dinner. He would just go to sleep, spreading a carton on the concrete pavement.
Sordilla often woke up in the wee hours of the morning, suffering from fever or convulsion.
Chance encounter
It was during one of those mornings that Atty. Johari Bana chanced upon him sleeping on the pavement next to the building of his law office.
Bana felt sorry for the kid who was wearing an improvised leg made of cut bamboo.
He took a photo of Sordilla’s condition and showed it to Dr. Gloria Sadigos, an orthopedic surgeon.
Sadigos provided Sordilla with a real artificial right leg that enabled him to walk.
New-found confidence
It was then that Sordilla realized his life had meaning.
He told Sun.Star Cebu that he stopped schooling at grade 3 because he was being teased for his disability.
Even inside the classroom they would laugh at him, he said. He felt he didn’t belong there.
That changed when received his artificial leg because he was able to walk without crutches.
With a new sense of pride, Sordilla returned home to be with his parents and siblings.
Sordilla, now 14, is back in Miguat.
His mother sells banana cue, while his father is a farmer.
He said he helps his father clear farms.
Sordilla said a teacher who has taken pity on him is helping him study again through the Alternative Learning System of the Department of Education.
Gratitude
Yesterday, Sordilla visited Cebu City for the first time as one of 5,000 youths who took their first communion as part of the 51st International Eucharistic Congress.
He was grateful to Bana for bringing him and his companion, nine-year-old Lord Lorence Banico, to participate in the activity.
“During catechism, which was a requirement for the first communion, we were taught to always pray to God, respect our parents, and respect all the people around us,” Sordilla said in Cebuano.
His benefactor met Fr. Carmelo Diola of Dilaab Foundation, which takes care of street children in the city, two years ago.
“We fed the street kids in Digos City and when we became friends, I supported Dilaab where I also learned how to handle these homeless children,” Bana said.
He said street children are vulnerable because they resort to stealing if they’re hungry. But it doesn’t mean they can’t become law-abiding citizens with the proper guidance and the feeling that they are loved, Bana said.