Students In Vietnam Village Ferried Across A River In Plastic Bags To Go To School

Students in Huoi Ha, a remote village in Dien Bien province, Vietnam, know that education is vital if they're to lift themselves from poverty, and will go to great lengths to ensure that they can attend class. Even if that means climbing into a plastic bag to be dragged across a raging river!

Flimsy bamboo bridges and rafts that are used for most of the year in the village are unsuitable when the river floods during the rainy season. That's when it’s time to get creative as “healthy men, fluent in rivers,” are given the task of pulling over 50 schoolkids across the potentially deadly torrents.

According to Vov.Vn, the children are afraid but determined, watching anxiously as they await their turn. The crossing is incredibly dangerous as only a small mistake could be swept away by strong floodwaters.

Thanks to the investigative journalism of the good people at Vov.Vn, it seems that a solution to this problem could be on the horizon, as the government seeks to invest in more bridges in the remote region.

Image credits: vov