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Education International
Education International

"Terima kasih!" say the children of Kampong Bawah Awe [Photo story]

published 7 August 2008 updated 7 August 2008

Please click on the pictures to start the slideshow.

The SDN Ceunamprong is one of the seven schools in the Aceh Jaya District of Indonesia which EI has helped to rebuild. Children from the surrounding villages attend this school.

One of the villages, Kampong Bawah Awe, lies four kilometres away. There are no buses to and from the village. More fortunate children from Kampong Bawah Awe go to school by bicycle, but not everyone has a bicycle.

Those who don't, have to walk. They leave their home as early as 5:30 in the morning. If they are lucky, they get to hitch a ride from one of the huge trucks laden with earth dug from the surrounding areas.

When it rains, as often and heavily as rain can get in the tropics, the children of Kampong Bawah Awe have to stay at home and miss their classes. If it rains while they're on their way to school, they arrive at school completely drenched, with mud plastered around their feet.

Thanks to the Global Unions Aceh Project Office, which donated two autorickshaws to the school, the children of Kampong Bawah Awe now do not have to leave home before dawn. Nor do they have to miss school, or get completely wet when it rains. "Terima kasih!" they say, and that means "thank you".