A school of their own

The people of the Riverside school in Nepal rely heavily on the presence of the school to bring about change for the children. Throughout the movie it was made pretty clear that students who don’t attend school have little chance of transcending the caste system that still exists. On top of that is the fact that even if children attend government schools instead of private schools they still do not have a good chance. The people working at the school realize that the battle they are fighting is uphill as conflict and poverty threaten the children constantly. I think this battle is not unlike the one at Stanton elementary. The corruption caused by poverty around the school is constantly a threat to the children that may one day give in to it or, hopefully they will use school to escape that fate. I actually think that even though the children of the two schools live in completely different parts of the world, the likelihood of them escaping poverty is about the same, but both hold onto the school as the only hope for that. When the man running the Riverside school found out about the child brothel his first reaction was to bring them to the school. Not to find them foster care or call police or involve the government in any way, I don’t think he saw that as a viable option, he thought the best place for them would be at the school.


Like, “I am a Promise”, the documentary was not entirely focused on what exactly the children were learning at the school, but more about the things they had struggled with up to that point. It is just shocking to watch the film and see just how bad things can be, what the children have gone through is literally unbelievable. Throughout my life I never saw going to school as a way of survival, as a means to a good career yes, but not as a way to avoid a fate of certain suffering. I was astounded to learn about how many children work in Nepal and never have or will attend school, especially compared with the U.S. where it is required that children attend school and it is illegal for them to work.