Viral Christmas photo prompts flood of donations and gifts
A 12-year-old boy and his family have received a flood of donations, after a photo of him pulling a Christmas tree out of a pile of rubbish went viral.
Gabriel Silva lives with his mother and two older brothers in a mud hut in Pinheiro, a town in northeastern Brazil, and spends most days after school digging through mountains of rubbish at the nearby dump.
On November 8, he uncovered a discarded plastic bag containing a small artificial Christmas tree.
“I had never had a Christmas tree before,” he said.
|| #fotojornalismo 📷
O poder da fotografia. Um registro feito pelo fotógrafo João Paulo Guimarães no município de Pinheiro, a 333 km de São Luís, tem chamado atenção nos últimos dias. Uma foto tirada em um lixão da cidade mostra Gabriel, de 12 anos, que acompanhava a mãe pic.twitter.com/eHt2BL1j2T— Biólogo Henrique, o Biólogo das Cobras (@BiologoHenrique) December 7, 2021
The image of Silva with his find, taken by photographer Joao Paulo Guimaraes, quickly went viral.
Instead of the small tree, Silva’s home now has a giant Christmas tree inside, gifted by a benefactor who was moved by the photograph, as well as a flood of other donations.
“We’ve gotten clothes, mattresses, baskets of food. Thank God, we’ll be able to get by fine for Christmas this year,” Silva’s mother, Maria Francisca Silva, said.
The family has also received money through online collections - coming as a significant jump from the approximately 600 reais ($AUD 149) Maria Francisca makes selling recyclable materials from the dump each month.
After an initial donation of 500 reais, the family has fulfilled a longtime wish and installed a hydraulic pump, replacing the rope and bucket they use to retrieve water from their well.
They also hope to fulfill another wish of building an actual house.
But Silva’s favourite gift was a bicycle he received from a teacher at school.
He spends most of his free time at the dump with his mother, who says he always helps her.
“I prefer to bring him with me. If I let him run around in the street, he could get into drugs, do things he’s not supposed to do,” Maria Francisca said.
“He’s a good boy. He always helps me.”
Along with a flood of gifts, the viral photo has turned Silva into a local celebrity.
“Every day, people want to take my picture, ask me things,” he said.
Guimaraes, who lives in the neighbouring state of Para, said he got the idea to shoot photos at the dump after seeing a video captured by Pinheiro’s public defender Eurico Arruda. In the clip, residents are chasing a garbage truck carrying rubbish from a supermarket.
“It was just crazy. There were probably 50 people chasing it,” Arruda said.
“That dump is like something out of the apocalypse. There are fires and smoke everywhere, vultures, dogs. It’s the bottom rung of destitute poverty.”
Arruda hopes Silva’s photo will raise awareness of people like him and his family, and has set up a cooperative to help trash-pickers defend their rights.
The local government has also promised that trash-pickers would receive monthly welfare payments of 100 reais ($24), and has vowed to build a legal dump that complies with sanitation regulations next year.
Images: Joao Paulo Guimaraes / Getty Images