Homeless boy studies his way off the streets of Mindanao
Now a college graduate, he aims to help others raise themselves out of poverty and despair.
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| Rusty (left) with fellow graduates of Xavier university in Cagayan de Oro City. |
One day in 2009, Rusty put on a tattered shirt and his best pair of faded pants and queued up outside the university for a chance to interview for college. His long hair and worn clothes made him an anomaly, but they didn’t dampen the impression he made.
Six years later, on March 28, Rusty marched out of the university gates with a diploma in Development Communication. It was a long journey for this former street kid who insists: "It does not take much to get off the street."
"You don’t need money to get off. You need a mountain of desire to get off the street," he told ucanews.com after his graduation last week.
Rusty was only seven years old when he and his older brother Rodolfo fled their troubled home in the mountains of Agusan province. In the city, the boys sought shelter in the slums. They spent their days outside the gates of the university begging for coins from passersby.
Early on, Rodolfo went missing. He was later found to have been arrested by the police on charges of selling drugs. Rusty was left on the street at the mercy of the elements, but eventually made his way to a shelter where he spent four years, attending school.
"I wanted to learn," Rusty told ucanews.com. A family offered to adopt him but he fell ill and had to be taken to a hospital, where his brother, Rodolfo, who had been released from prison, found the boy.
"He took me back to the shanties where I was exposed to criminal life," said Rusty, who was 11 at the time. The two boys became thieves and drug runners for the syndicates.
"We would get high and pass out because of hunger," recalled Rusty. The police arrested the boy. He was sent to a center for children in conflict with the law.
"I was in and out of the center," he said, admitting that he even helped others escape. After another arrest, the center's officials refused to re-admit Rusty. He was instead sent to the city jail. After admitting to a crime he says he did not commit, Rusty was sent to a youth rehabilitation center in a nearby town where he stayed for two years.
In 2006, the then-17-year old Rusty was free, homeless, and back on the streets outside the walls of Xavier University.
It was there that he became captivated by an art exhibit which would change his life.
"I saw the paintings and sculpture and it captured my imagination," he said. Rusty spent days looking at the artworks. "I know how to draw, but not that much," he said.
The exhibit was by Rhyan Casino of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and Gary Spiers.
"He actually approached me," Rhyan said of his first meeting with Rusty. The meeting was followed by several other encounters that formed a bond between the artist and the homeless boy.
"I asked him if he wanted to change. He said yes, so I took him [in]," Rhyan said. Rusty started learning how to do henna tattoos. He also became a street performer, attracting a huge following. He performed fire dances and played musical instruments on the streets of the city.
"Rusty is tenacious in studying his craft," said Rhyan.
While honing his art, Rusty helped Rhyan establish Deri Husi (Here Friend) Initiatives Inc., an organization that tries to attract street children to arts and off the streets.
Rusty, however, did not lose sight of the gates of the Jesuit university. One day, he applied for admission and a scholarship.
"We knew right there that he was different, that there was something about him," said Rechelle Tolinero, a faculty member at the Department of Development Communication. Rechelle said the young boy answered interview questions in the Visayan language because he could not speak English.
"What struck us the most was his honesty and straightforward demeanor. He had no pretentions," Rechelle said. "His determination was undeniable. Where other students would just quit at small problems, he never stopped," she added.
After the interview for the scholarship, Rusty played his flute to thank the panel. "He was a grateful soul," said Rechelle.
Af first Rusty could not believe that he was able to enter the university, much less become a scholar. "I knew that getting in was just the first step, and I worried that I might never survive the first semester," he said.
It was not smooth sailing. While studying, he worked to pay for food, books, and other school requirements. But the street kid survived and thrived, continuing his art and excelling.
Rhyan said Rusty’s life is a "testament to the power of the art as a transformation tool".
"Art for me is a healing process. It has healed me, and it is peaceful," Rusty said, adding that he does not forget where he came from. He still spends time with street children in Cagayan de Oro.
The former street kid is now talking to other children, encouraging them to get off the streets. Some of his contemporaries are going back to school while two others have also finished college.
"One is a dance scholar while another is studying to become a pastor," Rusty said with a smile.
"He genuinely wanted them off the streets and into schools," said Rechelle.
"He is a living example that it can be done," she said of Rusty.
"He is not the brightest, smartest scholar, but he makes up for it with determination and drive, almost a hunger to do better," Rechelle said.
Rusty shared that at times, when he is almost about to give up, he draws strength from people he has met. "I always remember my conversations with people who experienced hardships," he said.
"I have now my father, my siblings, and a nephew to think about. I must work for them, but they have to learn how to live too," Rusty said. "Nothing in life is easy," he added.
Source: UCAN
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