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.''