Climbing Out of Poverty –The Uplifting Story of Atuler Village
chinagate.cn by Zhang Ling, March 9, 2017 Adjust font size:
Alarming photos that emerged last May of 15 Chinese schoolchildren forced to scale an 800-meter rock face on unsecured rattan ladders on their journey to and from school, drew international attention to the local area’s poverty.
A file of children climbs up the 800-meter cliff on their way to school. [West China Metropolis Daily]
Cliff-top Village
The children, aged 6 to 15, belong to 72 families living in the cliff village of Atuler, in Zhaojue County of Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture in southwest China's Sichuan Province. It is a severely isolated and poverty-stricken community located halfway up a mountain at an altitude of over 1,400 meters.
The rattan structure, a chain of 17 smaller ladders tied together without any railings, was the shortest possible way for locals to access the outside world.
Children take a rest during their long trudge to school. [China Daily/Chen Jie]
Even for adult villagers, climbing up and down the old rickety wooden stairs on the cliff is not an easy task. For the schoolchildren, traveling to the boarding school that lies at the foot of the mountain once a fortnight is like a battle with death. It is hard to imagine how dangerous it can be during snowy and icy weather!
"Last April, a middle-aged villager died after falling off the cliff," said a local resident, Chen Jigu. "The case raised local parents' concerns over their children’s safety, and they decided to create a rota to accompany the children on their way to and from school."
A little boy from Atuler Village uses a leaf to wipe the sweat from his face on the journey between home and school. [China Daily/Chen Jie]
Even so, too many school-aged children still drop out of school. Family poverty is another major impediment to the local children in taking advantage of a proper education, said the father of five.
Income from their farms is simply not enough to meet their monthly living costs and the demands of their children's education. To make matters worse, the need to accompany their children prevented parents and carers from exploring other possible sources of income. According to the head of the village, residents live hand-to-month on less than U.S. $1 per day.
"Our main income comes from selling agricultural products, mainly chili peppers, walnuts and potatoes," said a villager. "Poultry farming could help us earn a little extra money, but the problem is that there is no feasible way for us to transport poultry down the mountain."
It is also poverty and the lack of road access that prevents young local men from marrying people from other villages at the foot of the mountains. Most of them have no choice but to move out.
