_______ This photo was taken earlier this year, in April, on back to school in a Himalayan village of the Gorkha district in Nepal, and the humanitarian association I am a member of,was there to celebrate the event and bring the schoolkids of the villages we visited, a schoolbag , this year, for each of these children, smiling all the time and full of beans in the schoolyards where the school bag distribution sessions were held!
________ The Nepali schoolyear starts at the end of April, unlike here in the West. School education has been mandatory in Nepal only since 1975, with only 68% of Nepali children going to school.There is a system of private and public schools in the country, yet only private schools with fees to pay are known to be better than public schools. This is why NGOs and Western humanitarian associations are most welcome by the Nepali administration which keeps an eye on what is done while giving a bit of leeway to foreign financing of their schools...
________ The parents have to pay for the fees and the uniform, which is mandatory throughout the country. Sadly, many families with little income prefer then sending boys to school rather than girls, who are the first victims of child labour, even though things are improving in that regard.
________ I dedicate this photo to you, Virginie, hoping your schoolkids in these back-to-school times in France are as alive and kicking as these Nepali smiling schoolboys.By the way, I found it funny to capture these kids with two caps, one featuring a popular sports apparel brand, the other showing the Nepali flag, whose shape is unique among the flags of the whole world's nations. It is the world’s only five-sided national flag!
_______Thank you so much for your comments on my former photo from my trek...Have a nice weekend! Don't forget to zoom in!