Access to Education: A Beacon of Hope in Rural Areas
Access to education takes on its full significance in the country's interior regions, where it often represents the only way for children to break free from their precarious social conditions and aspire to a better future. Stronger than poverty, wrapped in their dignity, it is the determination to succeed at all costs or this common hope called social elevator, which drives hundreds, even thousands of children to brave extreme conditions in these rural areas to seek knowledge and learn to read and write in order to acquire the skills and knowledge that constitute the best weapon against poverty and adversity.
A Young Boy's Determination
In Thibar, Oussama is one of these children living in the heart of the countryside. Every day, he gets up at dawn to accomplish multiple and arduous tasks, such as venturing into the dark recesses of the forest - where the winter temperature drops below zero - to gather wood. This meager booty allows his family and himself to warm up somewhat in the evening, before he embarks on his long daily walk of several kilometers to his high school. There, despite painful and numb fingers due to the cold, cracked by the removal of twigs, and aching feet due to the long and painful walk, he grasps his pen to meticulously copy the lessons, absorbing the knowledge transmitted by his teachers. One day, a simple gesture of generosity by one of them will remain forever etched in his memory. It was a very harsh winter day, similar to the countless winter days when it is very cold in Thibar. Despite the freezing cold, Oussama wears a short-sleeved summer sweater and sandals in which his feet are frozen with cold. His French teacher at the time immediately notices these reddened and frozen feet, understanding that they were his only shoes. Feeling deep compassion, she decides to buy him espadrilles and warm clothes. To avoid hurting his pride, she presents them to him as a simple gift. A gesture of overwhelming humanity that touches the young high school student's heart.
A Chance Encounter Years Later
Transferred to other regions before integrating a high school in La Manouba in Greater Tunis, Selma S. loses sight of the young man. He, on the other hand, never forgets this teacher who showed such great generosity. Seven years later, Selma S. rushes to a clinic in the capital, accompanied by her nephew suffering from respiratory failure. Panicked by the deterioration of the child's health, she hears someone call her name. The young doctor who quickly approaches her to take care of the child and provide the necessary care is none other than Oussama from Thibar. The meeting is emotionally charged for the one who recognized his former French teacher and had never forgotten her kindness. He reminds her of the smallest details of that day when, because he was shivering with cold, she had given him espadrilles and warm clothes, in that high school nestled in the depths of the countryside.
The Social Elevator: A Mixed Reality
If for Oussama, the social elevator has finally worked and achieved its objective, it unfortunately remains blocked for hundreds of other young people from the interior regions who, despite having obtained their diploma, remain today confronted with unemployment.
