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Beawiharta / Reuters
Students walk across a new bridge as they cross a river to get to school at Sanghiang Tanjung village in Lebak regency, Indonesia's Banten village on November 29, 2012.
Children in Indonesia are taking a perilous route to school using a broken suspension bridge. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.
A perilous daily journey undertaken by a group of Indonesian schoolchildren just got a whole lot easier.
In January, PhotoBlog reported on the dangerous river crossing the children faced after a bridge collapsed. Ten months on, Reuters reports that a new bridge has opened.
Epi Sopian, the head of Sanghiang Tanjung village, said the bridge had been built with the assistance of non-governmental organizations and the country's largest steel producer, PT Krakatau Steel.
Related content:
Beawiharta / Reuters
Then and now: A combination photo shows children crossing the old collapsed bridge (top) on January 29, 2012, and students using the new bridge (below) on November 29, 2012.
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Very cool!
Congrats to their parents for realizing the importance of education. Wonder how many of 'our' kids would undertake this trek every day (no stories please of 'when i was young we walked two miles in the snow':) Great story.
These kids walk uphill going to and coming from school.
Yes; but their bridge isn't covered in ice year round like mine was! Panzies!
The power of the press doing good (for once)!
Alabama: having worked in may 3rd world countries, from my experience the kids know full well to get out of the squalor they are growing up in they need to get an education.
In America you are considered a bad parent if you don't wait with your child at the bus stop in a heated car when the temperature outside is colder than 60°. In Indonesia you're a bad parent if you don't make your kid traverse a broken rope bridge over a deadly river to get to school!
Our kids are huge drama queens. Sheltered away from the big bad world.
Well, not all of them.
Kids have always been drama queens. Its the parents today that are out of control with their over-protectiveness and give in to their child's whining.
And I thought my dad had it bad walking to school uphill, both ways! in the snow!
You beat me to it, arz.
Built with Non-Government funds, lol I guess its not much different here, if you wait for the government your grandchildren will still be traversing the collapsed bridge.
OMG about time! Today is the tomorrow these kids dreamed about yesterday.
...and tomorrow is the next week these kids will dream about .85 months ago.
if there wasn't a moving body of water under that damaged bridge..but instead..a giant pile of foamy bits... i'm sure those kids would've loved that thing....
thats what I was thinking! lol
Thats It! My kid is walking to school next week! He complains to walk to the library afterwards.
These little guys cross a dang river on a rope bridge!!
Bah - they just would have fallen into the river, swam back to shore, tried again and arrived to school a little late and wet with an undeniable excuse for missing first, second, third, and fourth periods.
Now what kids? Now what? NO MORE EXCUSES!
First of all, this is a Muslim government and they do not want children in school, especially girls, so they would NEVER provide the safety for these students.
They want mainly madrasa's to continue their unfair/cruel domination over women.
Bless the village and steel company who funded the bridge themselves to help educate the next generation of GIRLs.
Indonesia is not all Muslim people.And they are not extremists either.I'm glad to see that they have a decent bridge so that they can safely go to school.
Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world.
I lived in Indonesia for three years. dojustice, you don't know anything about the country.
Where there is a will, there is a way - Adapt, Improvise and Overcome! Congraulations to both parents and the children.
Why didn't they fix the old bridge sooner?
Because it is not a wealthy country and their government doesn't do much of anything that the developed worlds governments do for their citizens.
Awesome!!!! That is good to see that those kids got some well deserved HELP.. geeze.... And kids here in the USA think they have it rough?
And this is why America is falling behind the rest of the world in education, even though we spend more per student than anywhere else. If American kids had to cross a broken bridge to get to class, they'd just skip school.
And the adults would skip work.
Do you really think that over billion Muslims don't want their daughters to be educated????
Do you think the Taliban and what you see on the news is the whole pictures?
So if I go to Utah and take photos of certain people who don't use electricity, nor drive cars, and dress in the same long dresses in pastel color, does it mean the whole US is like that?(by the way I have nothing bad to say about long conservative dresses, I am just giving this as example)
It is not like that. In fact Muslims value education and over 1400 years ago,the wife of Prophet Muhammad was the teacher of at least 80 male scholars, many of the Hadith(what the Prophet said and taught) reached us through her teachings.
Sadly, these days, many people are misinformed, media has a huge role in this.Even when moderate Muslims speak up, it is never enough or satisfying for some people who already made up their mind.
I hope soon the world will be a better place for our children.Muslim parents also want a good life, education, success, and peace for their children like everyone else.
Peace out.
Did anyone here see the story about Chinese kids in mountainous villages carrying their desk from home to school everyday, climbing hills and through valleys ? And those are no roads, or hand railing on the steep hills either. Just rocky paths. Now that's dedication to education.