Erstellt am: 12. 7. 2013 - 12:29 Uhr

Sylvia walks to school

Trying to get an education can be dangerous.

Today, Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for education for girls, celebrates her 16th birthday by addressing the United Nations in New York. In today's Reality Check we looked at the problems facing girls trying to get an education in other parts of the world. Girls like Sylvia, for example.

James Stone/Plan International

The beautiful but hazardous wilderness of rural Tanzania.
Photo:James Stone/Plan International

Sylvia is eight years old and she lives in a rural village in the Namawawala district of Ifikara, Tanzania. She wishes to go to school, but as her family is very poor, they cannot afford to provide her with basic shoes for the walk to school or a good uniform. Despite all the difficulties especially connected with the journey to school, she sets off on that one a half hour trek every day.

James Stone/Plan International

Sylvia with her mother outside the family home
Photo:James Stone/Plan International

She walks through fields, the scrublands are harsh and the plants are spikey and will tear at her clothes. Snakes are an ever present danger in these fields.

James Stone/Plan International

Snake-infested scrublands
Photo:James Stone/Plan International

She walks along dangerous dusty roads trying to avoid the cattle trucks that swerve by at high speeds.

James Stone/Plan International

Dirt-track Roads
Photo:James Stone/Plan International

Often she will take a more secluded journey, she sometimes passes prisoners working in the fields who are noticeably unsupervised. In these more secluded areas, children are often approached by people offering lifts to school and they are in danger of being kidnapped.

James Stone/Plan International

Arriving at school
Photo:James Stone/Plan International

Finally, she arrives at school. She must then make the journey again at the end of the school day to get home. "Even though I don't enjoy the journey, and sometimes find it very scary, I am willing to do whatever it takes for me to get a good education," she told the aid agency Plan International.

James Stone is a photographer from Plan International and to mark their "Because I am a Girl" Canpaign, he followed her journey to school one day and chronicled these dangers. He spoke with us on Reality Check (12-13).

Also, on today's Reality Check we caught up with Ed Snowden's plight at Moscow Airport. After 3 weeks holed-up there, the whistleblower has asked for a meeting with human rights lawyers to discuss his situation and options. Our man in Moscow, Charles Maynes told us about what's going on.