CCTV footage showing a 12-year-old boy from the town of Moche, in Peru, doing his homework on the sidewalk, under a streetlight, because his family can’t afford electricity in their home, has been viewed millions of times on social media after being shared by local police.
Staff at the Moche police department first noticed Víctor Martín Angulo Córdoba late last month, while checking security cameras. They noticed a young boy sitting on the sidewalk by himself at night, which they thought was suspicious. It was only when they zoomed in that they realized he was actually reading and writing something in his notebook, taking advantage of the streetlight overhead. Touched by the boy’s dedication to his studies, the police department shared the CCTV video on their official Facebook account and it quickly went viral.
Photo: Municipalidad Distrital de Moche
At the time of this writing, the video of Víctor Martín has been viewed over 5 million times and his heartwarming and at the same time heartbreaking, story has been making headlines all around the world. Local media managed to track down the boy and sat down with his mother to learn why he was doing his homework on the street instead of in the family home.
It turns out that the 12-year-old’s family is so poor that they couldn’t afford to o pay the electrical service provider to install a meter in their home, so they just relied on a simple candle to light up the place during the night. Unfortunately, Víctor Martín rarely managed to finish his assignments by the time the sun went down, and he recently had enough of the weak candlelight.
Photo: Municipalidad Distrital de Moche
“One day my son said ‘If I continue with the candle, I will lose my mind! I’d better go outside to finish my homework,'” Rosa Angulo Córdoba told Panamericana TV, adding that Víctor’s neck would often stiffen due to tilting his head to let the candlelight through.
Víctor’s mother said that although he helps out with chores and shepherds the family sheep every day, the sixth grader takes school very seriously and gets good grades.
After Víctor Martín’s story garnered so much attention in the media, the mayor of Moche visited the boy at his home to praise him and promised to personally pay for the electrical meter so he wouldn’t have to go outside every night.
“I hope they can help me, so I can have light at home and not have to go out to do my homework,” the 12-year-old told reporters. “I would like to be able to help my family and lift them up. I want to become a policeman and put an end to corruption.”
Víctor Martín Angulo Córdoba’s family is part of the five percent of people in Moche who cannot afford electricity. Makes you think about all the things we take for granted, doesn’t it?
