On November 9, 2007, in Davao City, Philippines, at the tender age of 11, little girl Mariannet Amper hanged herself with a nylon rope. Borne to parents whose mother earned only P25 a day packing noodles, or half a US $ dollar, and a father who is jobless, the little girl lived a life at the cellar even among the slum dwellers. In a slum area, her family was discriminated because they were unshaven, dirty, and poor even by the slum standards. Who ever said that even among the poor, there is no social ladder.
But the little girl did not die without a statement. Under her pillow was a diary and an unfinished letter she titled, “Wish ko lang”, which means “my wishes”. She wished for a bag, new shoes, and jobs for her parents so she could finish primary school. At a tender age, she knew that her only ticket away from the depravity of slum life is education. In her diary, she wrote she missed school because she had no money for the fare. She was absent so many times that her teacher stopped counting. Her passion for learning was evident when she said that being absent for a week felt she missed school already for months. Though she wanted to go to church, she could not because she had no money for the fare.
In life, she was nothing, but she had something that even death could not take away from her: her dreams, the dreams that she surely shared with the little children across the globe. How many children have been deprived of food, health, shelter, and education? Mariannet made sure that her death would open our eyes to the grinding poverty children have been exposed to.
The news shocked the senses. How could a little girl decide to hang herself? The children are supposed to be gay, playful, and unmindful of the troubles the parents have. If what were flashed in the news was the suicide of an adult, it would not have bothered us that much. But here was a child who was innocent and supposed to be insulated from the woes of the adult, all the while bearing the pains only the adults should carry, finally taking her life when she could not have P100 to buy materials for her school project.
Yes, she was finally buried. But she kept us shocked that we should be too calloused if her poignant statement about life among the poor children would not open our eyes.
