A paperboy fighting off poverty and pain

This is Jyothish, a grade IX student living in a place called Chelikuzhi, a mountainous place in the high range region of Kottayam. His family comprises his ailing father who became virtually paralysed 13 years ago, a blind mother, a sick grandma and a school going sister. He is one of the sponsored children of Reach Worldwide. Here is the touching story of his life…

His father Thankachan was making a hard living by working as a mason. When Jyothish was only one and a half years old his father contracted a rare disease of the brain and one day he fell down at his work place while working. Now he survives on a tube which is connected from his head to his chest. As he could not go out for work any more, the family’s only lifeline was cut off and they survived because their mother would go around the neighbouring houses to do the menial jobs. However, a few years later her diabetes worsened and she lost the sight of both her eyes. The burden of his parents together with the sick grandma and the education of his school-going sister came heavily on the young shoulders of Jyothish who was then only a grade V student. Not knowing what was even happening in life, this boy tried to scrape a living doing odd jobs as a paperboy or buying essential things for the neighbouring houses or by doing a part-time job in a mobile shop.

Today as he was thanking God and the good souls behind the Reach World wide, tears came rolling down his cheeks.