The story of the Ecuadorian boy who goes to school in a llama

Eight-year-old Jhoel rides his pet Benjamin for several miles to go to school. His tour went viral on TikTok

A boy named Jhoel comes to school every day riding his llama Benjamín, in the province of Cotopaxi.

A little boy riding a llama travels along a road in the Ecuadorian Andes to get to his school. The boy is called Jhoel and Internet users learned about his story through a video uploaded to TikTok . Every day, Jhoel walks several kilometers with Benjamín, the llama he uses to go to the Suniquila educational center, in Angamarca, province of Cotopaxi, 203 kilometers from Quito.

In the middle of a landscape surrounded by mountains, at 2,966 meters above sea level, and with an average temperature of 7 degrees, Jhoel gallops Bejamín while carrying a small backpack on his shoulders.

When the video went viral on TikTok, many users thought that Jhoel was a Peruvian boy, however, it soon became clear that the touching scene took place in Ecuador.< /p>

“We are going to do a similar shot, only we don’t have a car (…). So that you can make that comparison.” There it can be clarified that this is in Ecuador. It’s not that we’re angry, rather just so they know that there are all these tourist attractions in Ecuador as well”, comments a man who appears in the video with Jhoel, through the account @lacarcosa.

Since he went viral, eight-year-old Jhoel has been visited by several local youtubers who have delivered gifts for him and his family. For example, A few days ago he received a plasma TV and a ball. Jhoel also received a computer, school supplies and even a cake.

In a YouTube video, Walther Ushco Quintana, who shares content on that platform, assured that Jhoel represents the panzaleo culture, wearing a red poncho and a black hat. Also, Ushco says that Jhoel is the exemplification of the “Andean chagra” that rides a “llamingo” (llama) and not a horse.

What happens with Jhoel is common for rural children, who must travel long kilometers to reach their schools.

In his accountability speech on his first year in government , the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, said that in one year the government reopened more than 100 rural schools and promised that, at the end of his administration, we will reach 1,000 more schools .

The government project to open rural schools seeks to reopen schools that in previous years were closed or merged with other institutions, these closures, according to the Ministry of Education, which forced hundreds of students to travel longer distances to continue their learning.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has emphasized, from its office in Ecuador, that the right to Going to school and learning is essential for the development, safety and well-being of all children.

The reality of rural schools in Ecuador not only implies the distances that children must travel to reach these educational centers, but also shows deficiencies in infrastructure and others. Hence, in November 2021, UNICEF, with the support of the European Commission for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), has implemented a response in water, sanitation and hygiene, which has allowed more than 12,000 girls and boys to return to school. , in 118 rural schools in Ecuador. Many of these educational institutions, like the communities where they are located, do not have drinking water or sewage services.

The intervention has included the donation of rechargeable stations for washing hands, drums, water purification tablets, soap and alcohol gel, masks for teachers, signage to promote hand washing and refurbishment of sanitary infrastructure in schools, among others.