Boy Gains Attention For Simply Doing Homework

Víctor Martín Angulo Córdoba, a 12-year-old boy in the city of Moche, Peru, carries his homework outside every night and completes it beneath the streetlight. Why? His family cannot afford electricity for their home.

The police department in Moche posted a video of Cordoba doing his homework in the street on social media, where it quickly attracted more than 5 million views. Police had thought Cordoba’s behavior was suspicious until they realized that he was diligently writing in a notebook while laying on his belly under the streetlight. Cordoba’s family relies on candles for light after the sun sets, but the candles don’t provide enough light for Cordoba to complete his homework.

The sixth-grader’s mother, Rose, told a TV station in Peru, “One day my son said ‘If I continue with the candle, I will lose my mind! I’d better go outside to finish my homework.'”

Going viral on social media may have been a stroke of good luck for the schoolboy, who reportedly gets great grades. After the story circulated around Facebook and Twitter, the mayor of Moche visited the Cordoba’s home and vowed to get the family electricity. Only 5 percent of people in Peru live without electricity in their homes.

“I hope they can help me, so I can have light at home and not have to go out to do my homework,” Víctor Martín Angulo Córdoba told reporters in Peru. “I would like to be able to help my family and lift them up. I want to become a policeman and put an end to corruption.”

Peru is considered a “second world” country, but still suffers from high rates of poverty and government corruption.