From the Manila slum of Aroma emerged an unlikely Cinderella: ballerina Jessa Balote, who at age 10 was plucked out of her grubby life by a ballet school to prepare her for a life onstage.
The ghetto called Aroma reeks of putrefying trash collected by its residents for recycling. Half-naked children with grimy faces play on muddy dirt roads lined by crumbling shanties of tarpaulin walls, cracked tin roofs and communal toilets.
