Some of our students walk a couple of miles every day…twice. (We are not able to provide transportation to all areas where these children are from).
To get to school in time, they have to start out early, walking for an hour or more. Several of the kids are quite small–only in kindergarten. The road they take to the school goes right past my house. Often in the mornings, I have seen parents pass by carrying their little ones to school on their backs or taking them down off a donkey and encouraging them to hurry on. Sometimes, even the older kids will hoist the smaller ones on their backs for a portion of the road.
That is the daily sacrifice they make and the value they place on a good education–on a better chance to escape the vicious cycle of poverty.