In the community of Floridain the province Saint Johna large group of students He faces adversity daily to get to school. Without access to a bus waiting for them close to home, they Travel a rough road for 50 minutes. Then they cross a river, to get to where they are picked up by a truck -similar to transporting pigs- in which they Travel crowded together to the educational center.
In this section, belonging to the La Zanja municipal district, there are three schools rural. Two of them only teach up to the fourth grade of primary school and the third up to the sixth grade; Therefore, when the students are promoted to secondary must go to the nearest high school: the Buena Vista del Yaque School, in the community homonymous.
Buena Vista del Yaque has delays in the construction and renovation of the court, kitchen and dining room. The students must take physical education classes in a small space and ingest the lunch school in their classrooms.
But there are also drawbacks with portions of the lunch schoolaccording to its director Frannelis Galván, who indicates that they are not enough for the 400 students registered; They are barely enough for 150. The National Institute of Student Welfare (Inabie) guarantees Free Diary that it will send technicians to investigate the situation, since the supplier comments that it sends the portions correct, but at school they are not “properly distributing them.”
get to this secondarylocated more than six kilometers from Floridarepresents a difficulty for students in the area, not only because of the distance, but also because of the deterioration of the path and the lack of adequate transportation.
“The more access those have students to education, less crime. Currently, that area has a lot of crime and it is because sometimes the studentsdue to the situations they have to go through on the way to school, they drop out of school, and many times they dedicate themselves to committing crimes,” says Galván.
Go through the waters
The students They get up at six in the morning. Those from the El Quemado and La Sabana neighborhoods, which are the furthest away, leave around seven in the morning; the others around 7:20 am, and they meet on the road to get to school on time. Check-in is at 8:15 in the morning.
They must cross the path covered with dirt and rocks that make their way between the mountains where the people formed this community. After walking approximately one and a half kilometers, they must cross the river that passes in the middle of the intersection of the Los Corozos and La Sabana neighborhoods.
The flow covers them up to their heels, however, on rainy days the flood is usually more risky. At the confluence they wait for the truck with a wide bed, closed by metal fences, to Travel more than five kilometers. Between 35 and 65 students They crowd into the vehicle, which has an approximate capacity for 30 people.
“The situation we are experiencing here is truly painful, because in addition to the conditions we have with this transportation, which practically takes them like goats to school, when the truck They cannot go, many times they have to arrive on foot and get up at 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning. There are no lamps or lighting on the road,” says Miguel Jiménez, a resident and relative of students.
Incident with the river
The crossing increases when it rains, because they tend to arrive late for school and crossing the flow is more risky. Last Monday, September 9, the students of the community They lived a nightmare, since the rain altered his return home, when they left school around four in the afternoon.
Although they reached the intersection at truckthey were unable to cross the river due to the flood: “When that happens, we all suffer, because we are all parents and we know what that is. Until we see them arrive, we are not calm,” says Sugeidy Jiménez, mother of two. students.
Santa Hernández, one of the community members, says that, seeing the weather conditions, some neighbors and parents They gathered on the other side of the river to try to cross them. They waited for hours for the weather to calm down. watersbut four hours later the students They were hungry and tired, so they decided to act.
They tied them with a rope and tried to cross them to the other side. In the process, two children fell into the water and were swept away by the current, but were able to be rescued in time. Their uniforms, books and notebooks were soaked, so they couldn’t go to class the next day.
The peculiar truck
He truck in which the students It was donated around 2018 by the government by Danilo Medina. The costs of repair and fuel were assumed by the parents of the studentswho gave the driver 50 to 100 pesos per week per child.
“There wasn’t always enough money to give; there were times when I only had money for food and I had to give it to him, or I didn’t have money for food and I didn’t have anything to give him either,” Jiménez remembers.
Currently, the costs are assumed by the city council, as well as a contribution of 6,000 pesos per month for the driver Mélido Sánchez, as he explains. The driver describes his job as difficult. He indicates that he does this work for the young people of the community and I would like to be able to do more for them, such as preventing them from crossing the flow, however, the truck can’t do it.
Request of the community
“We deserve better, because we are human beings. Just as those who live in the city contribute to the governmentthis is how we contribute. We need something back,” says Adriano Jiménez, father of one of the students.
The community members, students and the school cry out for support authorities for the improvement of the roads and the creation of a bridge so that there is greater safety when crossing the river, and in this way it is easier for the students access to education.
According to Miguel Jiménez, the city council told them that the bridge would be expensive. “I understand that it takes money, but how much does a human life cost? If the life of one of those children is lost trying to cross the river, how much would the loss be?” he asks.
