Blind teenager opens coconuts with her bare teeth
- 6 years ago
This big-hearted blind teenager was so keen to help support her family she learned how to open coconuts - with her mouth.
Sarah Gen Gusinalem, 13, started helping her father collect the fruit at a copra plantation in Bohol, Philippines.
But she was not allowed to use a machete to break open the hard shell in case she injured herself - so developed the technique of biting into the exterior.
Cracking open the coconuts then allows the fleshy meat inside to be harvested.
Sarah said: ''I have eight brothers and sisters. I want to do anything I can to help my father take care of them.''
Hard-working Sarah earns an average of 100 pesos (two dollars) for a day of work. She never went to school and was blind since birth.
Sarah's neighbour, Rhea Herra, said: ''She is the third of eight children. She knows that whatever money her father earns is not enough to sustain them all, so she works in the field.''
Sarah Gen Gusinalem, 13, started helping her father collect the fruit at a copra plantation in Bohol, Philippines.
But she was not allowed to use a machete to break open the hard shell in case she injured herself - so developed the technique of biting into the exterior.
Cracking open the coconuts then allows the fleshy meat inside to be harvested.
Sarah said: ''I have eight brothers and sisters. I want to do anything I can to help my father take care of them.''
Hard-working Sarah earns an average of 100 pesos (two dollars) for a day of work. She never went to school and was blind since birth.
Sarah's neighbour, Rhea Herra, said: ''She is the third of eight children. She knows that whatever money her father earns is not enough to sustain them all, so she works in the field.''