Recently, well-known journalist and Tribal Link colleague, Ms. Barbara Crossette interviewed Athili Sapriina while he was being sponsored by Tribal Link to attend Columbia University’s Human Rights Advocacy Program (HRAP). The interview resulted in an article for passblue.com. Please take a moment to read this excellent piece the and inspired responses it received.
Athili has informed us that the article has been featured on the front page of the Morung Express, the top ranked newspaper in Nagaland. It is also the second page anchor story of the Eastern Mirror.
Thank you to Barbara Crossette and passblue.com for sharing Athili’s story with the world.
By Amy Dean
In 2008, Thomas Hircock father told him about the villiage children in Jhakhand, and Bihar, India. His father, David works closely with the Indian organization Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), or Save the Childhood movement, helping stop child labor in the northeast states of Jharkhand and Bihar. In these areas, the literacy rate is often no higher than twenty percent, and most girls do not attend middle school. When David asked the villages what they needed most to help with children’s schooling, the answer wasn’t paper or pens—it was bicycles. With schools often five to seven kilometers away from villages, the hardest hurdle in curbing child labor wasn’t making the child go to school, it was getting them there. And David’s son Thomas was determined to help.
The Indian state of Jharkhand lies in the northeast, under a blanket of dense forests and housing some of the most mineral-rich land on earth. The forests make travel difficult, and the profitable mines increase the likelihood of child labor in the region. Consequently, school attendance is low, and for those that do attend, it can be a dangerous journey. Natural predators, like snakes and leopards, are found along the paths to school. Even child trafficking has been known to occur in the area. In spite of these dangers, the girls still want to attend school. Their male peers are allowed to spend the night at schools, but it’s considered culturally inappropriate for girls to do the same. So the young girls must complete the dangerous trek twice a day, with lengths for some up to ten kilometers one-way.
Thomas, at age fourteen, teamed up with his school, Stratford Friends School and together they created the bike club and raised $600 to buy 10 bicycles in 2008. Four years later, the bike club is stronger than ever. In 2011, they raised over $900. The bikes are built in India, and constructed to withstand the difficult forest terrain. Each comes with a repair kit, to ensure long-term use. With each bike possibly holding the weight of four children, quality was stressed over quantity.
Every year when possible Thomas travels to India with his father, often to the State of Jharkhand to distribute the bicycles, and the villagers are very grateful for their contribution. Welcoming parties and food often greet the Hircocks in each village, with festivities continuing as the girls gleefully take the bicycles for their first spin.
BBA founder and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kailash Satyarthi has cited the bike club as a very influential program in stopping child labor. At a recent UN Conference, he praised Thomas’ efforts, saying that only when children unite globally to end child labor, can an ending be in sight.
As for the future in Jharkhand and Bihar, the bikes have already set the girls’ aspirations high. It’s easier for the girls to attend school, and it allows them to visit neighboring villages to inform other children about their educational rights, guaranteed by Indian law. Raj Kumari, a young girl now aged 13 of Jharkhand, when visiting the local district magistrate along with some other children, asked the magistrate about building a high school for the area. He responded, “You are a young tribal girl, what do you want with an education?”
Kumari’s confident response? “One day I want to be a district magistrate like yourself.”