Education is a right for all children, but in many cases going to school is not an easy task. We do not talk (only) about road safety or distance from school, some issues that touch us more closely. We talk about when the road to school involves strong difficulties.
"Trips to school", "Journeys to school", is a photographic exhibition which opens today at the UN headquarters in New York. It shows the work of 18 photojournalists from around the world who have captured images of girls and boys who challenge long distances and extreme climates in the Arctic, Brazil, Kenya, Libya and other countries.
The strength of children who break geographic, social, economic and gender barriers to learn can stand out from the exhibition. A laudable interest, since education for all is so important for the development of people and societies.
Girls, the disadvantaged, indigenous populations and those residing in very remote rural areas, "street children", immigrants and nomads, the disabled, linguistic and cultural minorities ... are just some of the neglected children for whom school is far away.
That is why, when some of these children manage to jump the barriers, they are an example for other children and especially for the rest of society who, perhaps, see that it is worthwhile to go to school and improve thanks to it .
The children we see in the New York exhibition (and in a book with the same title that will be published in English and French) they cross deserts, rivers, icy waters or dangerous urban contexts. But let's face these children, who from five or six years, make these difficult "Trips to school."
An example is the children of the Iñupiat community of Kivalina, Alaska (United States), who cover the journey back and forth to the school in the dark, with glacial temperatures, facing icy winds. Fabricio Oliveira, six years old, saddles his donkey every morning to ride along with his cousins for more than an hour, through desert lands, to the school of the town of Extrema, in the Brazilian Sertão region. Elizabeth Atenio, six years old, lives in Kibera, a poor village in East Africa, near Nairobi (Kenya). Every morning, Elizabeth puts on a uniform and embarks on a dangerous one-hour walk to get to school. According to Elizabeth's teachers, at least 20% of her classmates have been raped. Like Amal, an 11-year-old Libyan, Sa'ade a 9-year-old Nigerian and Renaldo, a 6-year-old Frenchman, these children demonstrate a surprising determination to attend school.
We know these and other stories through the images thanks to the work of 18 graphic reporters who will document the trips to and from school in different countries of the world.
The photos presented in the exhibition and in the book "Journeys to School" They are a reminder of the urgent need for children around the world to attend school. The exhibition will travel for three years, until 2015. In April 2013, it will arrive at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.
Official Site | UNESCO In Babies and more | Decalogue of education for all, Complete school, UNICEF website on the right to education, Video: right to education
