This is the moment a blind toddler walked into a shop clutching a handful of coins asking for help to buy a notebook for school. Vanessa Esposio told staff she had been blind since birth with glaucoma when she walked into the 7-11 convenience store in Manila, Philippines, on June 20. The poverty-stricken four-year-old revealed she had collected coins and saved them to buy the book – just like her classmates.
Despite being barely to see, she said she wanted to buy the notebook so that she could start to study at school like other children her age. The encounter was captured by a customer inside the shop who helped her to communicate with the staff. After being taken over to the shelves with notebooks, Vanessa chooses an orange one. She also picked out a new pencil.
She is the daughter of a single mother and the second youngest of nine siblings.