smiles & pain
Nov.27, 2005: MH Del Pilar Street, Manila
This image has always disturbed me - even though Gina bright smile comes through, the child next to her has cuts & scrapes all over her face & forehead, and I remembered not realizing this until right as I pressed the shutter.
I don't know the child's name, and she had been rescued from a local children's shelter the day before, by Rosa & Edison's Grandfather Willie (I remember the child living on MHDP St in years past, but for some reason was removed by authorities in early Nov. 2005).
Willie was telling me the horror stories of what can really happen to kids there in the shelter (chaos, violence, abuse, etc) and told me he'd just manage to get this child out on Nov. 26, 2005 and was caring for the child at his place - actually an abandonded/condemmed movie theater they were living & sleeping in - along with Rosa & Edison's Auntie..
PJAMES