Ruth Susa, the teacher who is carried on a pulley to get to her school in Meta

In Noticias RCN’s latest broadcast, journalist Juan Eduardo Jaramillo shed light on the story of Ruth Susa, a 52-year-old teacher from Cabrera, Cundinamarca, who, in severe hardship, has come a long way to get to at the school located in the village of Los Pinos, in the municipality of Acacías, in Meta. The absence of a bridge and paved roads means that it takes a long time for a woman to get to her workplace and even put her life in danger.

A cable about 800 meters long, which can be walked in 25 seconds, at a speed of 120 km / h, became Ruth’s only means of transport, in addition to the long and tiring walks. Ruth, in the traditional way, climbs on the pulley, located nearly 600 meters high, and sets off to reach her destination: the mountain opposite. The teacher, seated on a rope which serves as a seat belt, and equipped with a device in the form of a triangle to brake, reaches her goal and begins a journey, on foot, uphill, for about half an hour.

The journalist, who accompanied the teacher on this occasion, noted that the this school is 20 square meters in size and has no electricity service, making it difficult for children to use computers or even fans. Ruth, in addition to teaching, helps the children with what she can. The teacher even brings food to help the parents of minors who have seen their economy affected in recent months, and have difficulty getting to the city.

“Yes, it’s a risk, but in any case, it’s the effort that we make because these students no longer have to go to their classes. You are risking your life. This is what I like, and this is what I want ”, the woman commented in her interview with this newscast. Jaramillo reported that in fact, several teachers have abandoned teaching at this educational center due to the danger and the distance of the finish path.

This case had already made the news years ago when, in 2016, the investigative journalism program, Los Informantes, revealed how children were risking their lives to get to the same school. “When you’re little, you prepare your bag and put it to bed; when it is big, it curls up and they hook it to the pulley, they take the brake and they throw it away ”, said Johan Norbey Trujillo at the time, a boy who was 8 at the time, studying in Los Pinos.

In 2020, the governor of Meta arrived in the area and assured that his agenda included the repair of the bridge which fell on August 27, 2018; deliver three 10-kilowatt transformers to maintain the flow of electrical energy; and equip the school in the village of Los Pinos de Acacías.

“It’s an important visit, we meet our compatriots from the cold. We will improve the conditions of this population. We have already been to El Duda, La Macarena and Mapiripán, and we will continue to visit the most remote areas ”, declared the governor, in dialogue with the mountain farmers. Likewise, and amid concerns over the number of dropouts among students who could not make it to school, a call was made to the community to encourage minors to return to classrooms.

In 2021, in fact, and at the initiative of Susa, among others, an “enrollment” was made, because, in the absence of children, the only option left at school is to close. Indeed, on the day of Jaramillo’s recordings and the RCN Channel newscast, only two children came to take lessons, they are ‘the teacher Ruth’..

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