Daughters of the Forest

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DAUGHTERS OF THE FOREST tells the powerful, uplifting story of a small group of girls in one of the most remote forests left on earth who attend a radical high school where they learn to protect the threatened forest and forge a better future for themselves.

Set in the untamed wilds of the Mbaracayu Reserve in rural Paraguay, this intimate verite documentary offers a rare glimpse of a disappearing world where timid girls grow into brave young women even as they are transformed by their unlikely friendships with one another. Filmed over the course of five years, we follow the girls from their humble homes in indigenous villages through the year after their graduation to see exactly how their revolutionary education has and will continue to impact their future lives.

(NOTE: DAUGHTERS OF THE FOREST includes hardcoded English subtitles)

'Daughters of the Forest is a window into an alternative future...Viewers experience the promise of an educational model that promotes self-reliance and commitment to saving the forest...Viewers witness the transformation of the girls as they grow, and make their own choices. Daughters of the Forest is a powerful educational tool for those exploring alternative routes to education, girls' empowerment, and sustainable development.' Dr. Flavia Ramos-Mattoussi, Senior Research Associate, Learning Systems Institute, Associate Director, Center for International Studies in Educational Research and Development, Florida State University

'In Paraguay, over 90% of the forest is gone and young girls from rural areas are bravely leaving their poor families to attend a school in its midst that teaches them technical skills to preserve it. Journey into the visually stunning forest to see girls wielding machetes to clear paths to cultivate the soil near the school, struggle to adjust to a new environment, and bloom into young women who achieve upward mobility to give back to their communities and families. Daughters of the Forest is a beautifully shot film, and a must see for anyone interested in understanding gender and education.' Dr. Glenda Flores, Associate Professor of Chicano/Latino Studies, University of California-Irvine

'Daughters of the Forest presents a glimpse, by turns lyrical and poignant, into the economic and environmental challenges in rural Paraguay. It shows how a group of young women, over time, take up popular education and use it to assert themselves and their visions of the community's future. The film provides an inspiring example of the possibilities of an education developed to promote positive social change.' Lesley Bartlett, Professor of Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Co-author, Critical Approaches to Comparative Education: Vertical Case Studies from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas

'We are invited to walk alongside these courageous young women, their families and their teachers as they learn by 'doing, selling, and earning money.' This is a must see for those who want to learn how an innovative high school engages girls in action-reflection pedagogical praxis through which they revalue themselves and each other amidst personal challenges, failures, and successes - the latter reflected in their embodied performances as high school graduates and beyond, as teachers and nurses.' Dr. M. Brinton Lykes, Co-Director, Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Professor, Community-Cultural Psychology, Boston College

'A powerful testimony...The film unveils the structural challenges facing young rural women in today's Paraguay and demonstrates how a multicultural educational initiative, sensitive to the region's socio-economic and ecological realities, is a source of hope and empowerment to young campesino and indigenous women.' Paola Canova, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin

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Main credits

Grant, Samantha (film director)
Grant, Samantha (cinematographer)
Byker, Carl (film producer)

Other credits

Edited by John Kane; music by Christopher Hedge.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

girls school, forest, Paraguay, girls transformed, experimental high school, learn to protect forest, building a better future, Mbaracayu Reserve, timid girls, brave young, indigenous villages, revolutionary education, Centro Educativo Mbaracayu, CEM, South America, American agri-business, Monsanto, ADM, extreme poverty, teenage pregnancy, dropouts, business plan, unwanted pregnancy, coming-of-age story, incredible journey, reforestation; "Daughters of the Forest"; Bullfrog Films

TIMECODE	IMAGES	NAME OF SPEAKER	Current Script

	Forest WS

01:00:16;24		Nilda	N: I had never seen such a marvelous forest. When I got there, I was surprised.
01:00:31;23	TITLE: A film by Samantha Grant and Carl Byker		A film by Samantha Grant and Carl Byker
01:00:37;11		Bianca	B: It scared me because I was so only used to soy and corn, and I had never seen so many trees so close together, right?
01:00:44;28		Bianca	B: But after I began to wander around, I fell more in love with it each time.
01:00:54;06	TITLE: Edited by John Kane		Edited by John Kane
01:00:58;05		Bianca	B: In one square meter you could find millions of things you can find in any other place.
01:01:06;27	TITLE: Music by Chris Hedge		Music by Chris Hedge
01:01:11;13		Numila	NUM: I enjoyed the pure air and I felt the freshness of the trees all around.

01:01:20;02		Claudia	CL: We have to care for the forest.
01:01:24;09		Claudia	CL: There are so many things here. There is so much life to protect.
01:01:35;24	TITLE: Daughters of the Forest		TITLE: Daughters of the Forest







	Sound up of chainsaw before we see slash burn
	Slash and burn
01:02:10;10	Charred Forest		TITLE: Much of the forest that once covered South America has been cut down.
01:02:16;21			TITLE: In Paraguay, one of he poorest countries in South America, over 90% of the forests are gone.
01:02:23;12	ANIMATION OF THE DEFORESTATION MAP TITLE: Mbaracayu Reserve		ANIMATION OF THE DEFORESTATION MAP TITLE: Mbaracayu Reserve
01:02:54;09	Forest aerial footage.	Ramon	R: It can be said that Mbaracayú is the last large forest reserve in Paraguay.
01:03:02;04		Ramon	R: Really, there is no other protected area in the country,
01:03:12;16	Oxcart pulling lumber.	Ramon	R: But the shortage of trees that are of commercial quality, that get a high market price, ensures that poachers keep coming back to cut down trees.
01:03:26;16	Smoking charcoal hut.	Ramon	R: This is a serious problem, because if people don’t understand the value of this reserve, they will keep doing this until there’s nothing left but a few stumps.
01:03:48;08	TITLE: The reserve is now surrounded by millions of acres of soybean plantations run by multi-national agribusinesses.		TITLE: The reserve is now surrounded by millions of acres of soybean plantations run by multi-national agribusinesses.
01:03:55;13	TITLE: But most Paraguayans receive neither money nor food from the lucrative soy trade.		TITLE: But most Paraguayans receive neither money nor food from the lucrative soy trade.
01:04:06;25	Farming walking down road.	Martin	M: Many families living around the Mbaracayú Reserve are starving.

01:04:12;29	Martin INTV	Martin	M: That's why they take trees, that's why they hunt animals, because there are no opportunities where they live.
01:04:22;23	Ache children walking	Martin	M: The situation for adolescent girls is particularly serious,
01:04:28;28	Young Ache girls	Martin	M: because boys have opportunities to travel to the largest cities to find work
01:04:34;15	Girl walking with Baby	Martin	M: but the girls don't have this flexibility.
01:04:39;16	Celsa INTV	Celsa	C: Poverty is more than statistics, numbers and what percentage of the people are poor.
01:04:46;05	Ache Girls in village	Celsa	C: Poverty has a face and in the rural areas, it is the face of a girl.

01:05:14;28	ANIMATION - Images of the school being built		TITLE: in 2009, a group of visionaries came up with a way to save the forest: Build a boarding high school for girls in the middle of it.
01:05:29;20			TITLE: The Mbaracayú School would teach the girls to make a living without destroying the forest, and the girls would then bring those skills back into their communities.

	JOHN

01:05:42;27	School construction.	Celsa	C: In the early stages, there was a lot of doubts.
01:05:46;06		Celsa	C: 'What is a new school, located in the middle of a forest, going to be like?' 'For what?' 'Why?'
01:05:53;21	Celsa INTV	Celsa	C: Nobody had ever even seen a boarding school. Nor a school with the system of 'Learning by Doing' in the region. It just didn't exist.
01:06:03;04	School construction	Celsa	C: Also, the technical schools in the region that did exist were only for boys.
01:06:09;09		Celsa	C: Never before had there been a school where girls could learn technical skills.
01:06:18;27		Martin	M: We see education as the only solution.
01:06:23;28		Martin	M: Women generally stay in their own communities while men move away.
01:06:31;03		Martin	M: So if you educate a girl you strengthen the whole commuinty
01:06:38;07		Martin	M: The situation of the indigenous Aché tribe is particularly difficult and dramatic.
01:06:45;22	Ache girls at CEM	Martin	M: That's why we decided to build a school that accepts girls from rural areas, particularly Aché girls.


01:07:03;27		Ramon	R:The Aché are hunter gatherers that live near the Mbaracayú forest.
01:07:11;12		Ramon	R: They've lived in the area for thousands of years.
01:07:18;16	Ache hunting. Ache around a wooden house.	Ramon	R: Their relationship with the forest is so close that the shrinking forest affects everything: their food, their way of life, whether their culture will survive.
01:07:43;24		Celsa	C: For this community to survive, they need to produce leaders that will guide them to a better place.
01:08:00;28	Truck arriving to Ache village		TITLE: Kue Tuvy Ache Community, 100 km from school
01:08:12;24	Celsa arriving to Claudia's house	Celsa	C: How are you doing? C:There he is. So this is your father.
01:08:22;03	Celsa meeting with Claudia's family	Celsa	C: The process of bringing Claudia Crinagui to the school was very difficult. We had to try to understand the parents and figure out what kind of future they hoped their daughter would have.
01:08:37;12	Conversation between Celsa and family	Catalina	CM: I want her to complete her studies so that someday she can be a teacher or nurse.
01:08:37;12		Celsa	C: A teacher or a nurse. It's important that she helps out here in the community, for the sake of these little ones.
01:08:53;10	Young Ache mothers and children.	Celsa	C: Claudia was the only girl in the community, who at the age of 15, had not yet had a baby.
01:09:04;01	Claudia INTV	Claudia	CL: All my friends are pregnant already. I'm the only one who's not pregnant yet. My mother gave me some shots to prevent it.
01:09:15;17	Claudia's mother INTV	Catalina	CM: if my daughter is going to school she needs to avoid interruptions in her studies from getting pregnant. In order to do that she needs to use birth control to prevent it. She can have a boyfriend but I want her to finish school first.
01:09:33;27		Claudia	CL: I want to excel as a good student and become a professional to help my people. I have my father to care for. My mother too.

01:09:46;11		Celsa	C: Her parents were very hopeful about her coming,
01:09:50;23	Claudia preparing to leave village.	Celsa	C: but her father has been ill for some time of tuberculosis.
01:09:59;07		Celsa	C: She did not know at that moment, if this was the last time she would ever see her father.
01:10:09;19	Claudia hugging parents.	Claudia	CL: This is the first time I've ever left my home. I love my parents so much.
01:10:16;04	Claudia INTV	Claudia	CL: That's why I cried a lot when I left them. I feel very sad about my dad.


01:10:37;00			TITLE: First Day of School


	Students arriving to CEM.
01:10:51;13	Students moving into dorms	Celsa	C: On the first day, there was a lot of tension and the girls said 'We won't be able to stand it!'
01:10:59;25	Tense faces and hand wringing	Celsa	C: There were many people who predicted that the school would not make it through the first year, or all the students would all quit.


01:11:23;24	Studying entering hall, leaving shoes.	Celsa	C: No shoes. No shoes.
01:11:32;06		Girl 1	G1: Your name, your age, and what you like to do.
	Indoor icebreakers.
01:11:35;18		Girl 1	G1: So once you've introduced yourself, throw the ball to another girl.
01:11:43;08		Girl 2	G2 (with ball of string): I am Esther Maldonado, I'm 14 years old, I'm from Paso Real I like music, dancing, and talking with my friends.
01:11:52;25		Girl 1, Girl 2	G1: And you like soap operas, don't you? G2: yes.
01:11:58;21		Celsa	C: In the first few days after the students arrive, I try to get to know them.
01:12:10;12		Celsa	C: In Paraguay, there are many broken homes because of migration from the countryside to the city. So there are many adolescent girls growing up without the affection they need.

01:12:30;26	Web icebreaker	Girl 1	G1: Say your name, how old you are and where you're from. And whether you like soap operas.
01:12:39;28	Nilda speaking to students shyly.	Nilda	N: I'm sixteen years old.
01:12:41;26		Girl 1	G1: Sixteen. And where are you from?
01:12:46;07		Nilda	N: From Yasy Cañy.
01:12:47;17		Girl 1	G1: Very good. Let's give her a hand.

01:12:51;23		Nilda	N: When I came here, I didn't want to speak in public, and I almost cried that day because I didn't want to say my name.
01:13:00;25		Nilda	N: I wanted to come here for a long time, but when I arrived, I didn't feel comfortable.

01:13:07;08	Young Nilda CU biting her crucifx	Celsa	C: It's self-esteem that is really our goal as an institution.
01:13:14;09		Celsa	C: Today is the beginning.
01:13:17;21		Celsa	C: Our big test as an institution will be at the end, when the girls graduate. Try this here instead of previous line.

	More web icebreaker



01:13:54;19	Girls walk into forest, see lizard.	Celsa	C: Here, the girls' learning is active and doesn't just happen in a classroom,

01:13:59;00	Guide points out animal track.	Celsa	C: but also in learning every detail of the forest.
01:14:06;03	Big Lizard	Guide	Guide: And there's our friend. There he is.
01:14:10;18		Celsa	C: What we're really trying to do is to form them into guardians of the forest.
01:14:19;06			Guide: This is a Ybyra Pyta tree that is approximately 200 years old.

01:14:27;01	CU Bianca	Celsa	C: Bianca is a 'Brasiguaya' girl which means that her parents are Brazilian but she was born in Paraguay.
01:14:36;24	2 shot Bianca and guide	Bianca	B: My parents separated right after I was born and so they decided I should stay with my grandmother because she could give me a better life.
01:14:46;07		Bianca	B: I grew up with my grandparents.
01:14:48;04		Bianca	B: They've always supported me up to a certain point. When I got into some crazy stuff, it was a different story.
01:14:56;22	Girls walking in forest.	Bianca	B: I didn't work, I didn't do anything, so I had all this extra energy. And what I would do is go out with my friends to use up some of this energy.
01:15:07;03	CU Bianca looking up into canopy	Celsa	C: The situation of not being with her mother or her father lead her to go through various crises with alcohol or other situations, so that when she was fifteen, her grandmother says, 'We can't handle you anymore.' And she goes with the father and the father has the idea to bring her to the school.
01:15:30;20		Bianca	B: At the beginning, I suffered a lot coming to a strange place. I really didn't know anyone.
01:15:40;00	Tracking shot of girls walking	Bianca	B: I called my Dad and told him that I didn't want to stay there because I would die there, because everyone would forget about me.
01:15:48;16		Bianca	B: I carried on like that for a while until they explained that throwing a fit wouldn't get me anywhere because what they were doing was for my own good.



01:16:16;20	Class, learning national anthem lyrics	Instructor, class	INST: To the unfortunate peoples of America... CLASS repeats.
01:16:24;17	Various shots of Numila in class.	Celsa	C: Numila is our first student from the Avá Guaraní indiginous community. (Numilla Vine ID)
01:16:31;16		Celsa	C: For Numila the problem is living with people from other cultures. She's only ever lived with people in the Avá Guaraní community.
01:16:43;26		Celsa	C: Before coming to school, she had already had a boyfriend.
01:16:39;13		Numila	NM: I met him in my community. At first we were just friends but then we got to know each other better.
	Shot of Numila and Claudia
01:17:00;09	Matias (Numila's father) INTV	Matias	MG: Numila called me and said she was very sad and really wanted to come home. She missed everything. (Matias Vine ID)
01:17:07;25	Matias and Celsa walking toward school	Matias	MG: She said she wanted me to go get her at that exact moment.
01:17:14;21	Verite conversation with Matias and Celsa	Matias, Celsa	Conversation: C: Now she's starting to participate in the group. M: Yes, yes C: She'll get more comfortable with her classmates very soon. You know how it is- on the first day, they don't know each other. M: Yes, yes - I told her that's the way things are at first.
01:17:28;04		Matias	MG: I told her 'No, this is not necessary. If I come and get you now, you'll never go back.' 'This is your only opportunity to get an education'.
01:17:42;25	Numila in Class	Numila	NM: Then I decided to stay, and I convinced myself that the suffering would pass.



01:18:02;22	Celsa and students sitting on grass	Other girl, Numila, students	Other girl: And in the next ten years? NM: I'd like to be a doctor. All: A doctor!
01:18:11;05		Celsa	C: First, we have each girl imagine her future in terms of 'what is my goal?'

01:18:22;23	Celsa INTV	Celsa	C: For many of them, no one, no school, has ever asked them. Their parents haven't asked them.

01:18:32;03		Celsa	C: It's the first time someone has asked them, 'What do you want to do? Who do you want to BE?'
	More grass sitting shots. Students going in school.
01:18:43;00	Students reading goals indoors.	Girl 1	G1: My goal in 3 years is to finish school. My goal in 10 years is to become an Agricultural Engineer.


01:18:50;21	Students reading goals.	Girl 2, Girl 3	G2: My goal in 3 years is to finish school and become someone in this life. G3: What is the goal I want to accomplish in 10 years? I want to travel around the world, teaching and being a role model for others.
01:19:06;05	Celsa speaking to students.	Celsa	C: My goal in 3 years is that I would like to be in this same room but with you all here on stage to receive your technical degree in environmental science.
01:19:20;17		Celsa	C: Together we can. OK? Together, we can! Again - Together, we can!!




01:19:37;20		Celsa	C: The school requires hard work
01:19:41;03		Celsa	C: and not everyone who comes has the courage and the maturity.
01:19:58;19		Celsa	C: Valvina did not get dropped off at school by her parents. She arrived with her boyfriend.
01:20:06;20	WS of school ext Shot of girls walking arms around one another Gathering stuff in bunk	Celsa	C: She was doubting her decision to come to the school. Because her relationship with her boyfriend was very serious. And her classmates tried to convince her to stay.
01:20:25;29	Girls encircle Valvina and beg her to stay	Various students	G1: Please Valvina don't leave. We are praying for you not to leave. G2: Please, stay at least three more days. G3: There are too many things to do here. You just need to get used to the school. G4: What do you need in order to stay? What is the problem?
01:20:41;12		Celsa	C: She found 400 reasons not to stay in school. The classmates gave her 400 reasons to stay in school. That it would be worth it.
01:20:52;23		Celsa	C: But she felt weak and decided to leave.
01:21:00;15	Valvina and mom leaving school	Celsa	C: Each time a girl leaves the school, I wonder about the future of that girl.
01:21:09;13		Celsa	C: As she was leaving the school, a classmate called after her and tried to take the role of the parent or friend. It made me laugh because she said, 'Bye, I hope the next year when I see you again, you're not pregnant.'

01:21:37;22			TITLE: Paraguay has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in South America TITLE: 20% of all teenagers in Paraguay have had at least one baby. TITLE: In the indigenous communities, that rate soars up to 70%.

	JOHN
01:21:58;23	Class in progress.	Instructor, class	INSTR: Good morning class. CLASS: Good morning
01:22:03;15		Instructor	INSTR: Today we begin our Sexual Education chat.
01:22:08;20	Claudia CU	Instructor	INSTR: Pregnancy lasts for 9 months, and so for this child to...
01:22:14;27	Students looking at booklets.	Celsa	C: One of the main reasons girls of this age drop out of school dropout is pregnancy.
01:22:22;21	Class	Instructor	Teacher: You are all familiar with the condom, right? It's a rubber that men use and that many men refuse to use.
01:22:32;12	Numila MS	Celsa	C: Families do not speak to their children about sex.
01:22:36;12	Celsa INTV	Celsa	C: It's taboo. It's a topic not spoken about. That doesn't exist. But pregnancy does exist.



	WS of Numilas House
01:22:52;08	Numilas family hanging out with Numila and babies	Celsa	C: In Paraguay, many women use herbs, or 'yuyos' to protect themselves as a family planning method
01:23:01;15		Celsa	C: but they are still having lots of kids.
01:23:04;22		Celsa	C: The case of Numila is particularly worrisome because she says, 'I'll use what my mother gives me - yuyos.'

01:23:15;09	Numila INTV	Numila	NM: I learned lots of things at school. For example, how to protect myself from getting pregnant.
01:23:23;26	Numila and her sister make masa	Numila	NM: The protection that they teach us about is injections, condoms, and the pill. I tried the injection once, but it made me sick.

	NM INTV
01:23:38;17	Numila and her sister make mas	Numila	NM: My mom got me some herbs. She has been giving me herbs for a while.
01:23:46;24		Celsa	C: It’s a really important that the girls receive sexual education

01:23:52;25		Celsa	C: but sometimes this conflicts with the traditional culture.
	Celsa INTV
01:24:02;03		Celsa	C: Adolescent pregnancy is a very sensitive subject for me. I've lived through it myself.
	CELSA TELLS Numila
01:24:12;19		Celsa	C: Numila
01:24:14;00	Celsa and Numila at Celsa's desk. Shot-reverse shot with C and N.	Celsa	C: I want to share my story with you. When I was 20, I also wanted to keep studying to work, to get ahead in life. But sometimes, we fall in love. We have boyfriends. Like what happened with you, right?
01:24:35;24		Celsa	C: So I had my boyfriend. I fell in love. Soon after, I lost my virginity to him. But the hardest thing was, that that very first time, I got pregnant. It was absurd! I was a smart girl. I was a leader.


01:24:57;13		Celsa	C: And then I went to a public hospital. It was awful. There were cockroaches. I fainted. Nobody took care of me. I was there for three days in the hospital.
01:25:12;02		Numila	N: And your mom didn't come?
01:25:14;02		Celsa	C: My parents didn't come.
01:25:16;09		Celsa	C: I was all alone. And they left me there. And afterwards I had no milk. I got an infection. Everything got infected. And I couldn't nurse my baby girl. And I had to buy formula. So I bought formula. But then I can pay my hospital bills.
01:25:39;06		Celsa	C: And in that moment I said "I am going to be someone. This will never happen to me again. This is never going to happen to my daughter. And I'm going to...I'm going to finish my degree.
01:25:52;28		Celsa	C: And not only am I going to finish. I'm going to work to make sure that other girls like me, or like my daughter never have to go through anything like this again.
01:26:06;01		Celsa	C: It's because of all this that I have come here and got to know all of you here at the school. Because really for me all of you are the greatest people I've known.


01:26:14;00	Celsa INTV	Celsa	C: You have to talk about it. You can present examples, you can show them.
01:26:20;00		Celsa	C: But this doesn't doesn't necessarily mean that there will be a change.
01:26:23;01		Celsa	C: And this is why we worry about their future. Because we already know what could happen. Simple as that.



01:26:39;14	WS school, fast motion	Celsa	C: It's the second year at the Mbaracayu School.
01:26:44;17	Kitchen shots, girls cooking	Celsa	C: Among companions, among friends, the girls have a formed a very special group
01:26:52;09		Celsa	C: even finding a family that they didn't have before.
	Shots of School
01:26:57;23	Montage	Celsa	That's the magic of the Mbaracauy school.
01:27:26;21		Celsa	There are moments of frustration, there are moments when you feel alone, or experience bad times,
01:27:36;03	Add in the shots of claudia brushing her hair...	Celsa	personal conflicts, like any other teenager.
01:27:45;13		Claudia	CL: At first I liked the school. The first year went well. But the second year, I didn't like anything anymore. All the other Ache girls changed. They started rumors. They weren't nice to each other and me. It was hard to be treated that way.
01:28:14;29		Claudia	CL: I was the only one from my village. The other girls-there were 5-were from the other village.
01:28:23;27		Claudia	CL: They would just look at me. and talk to each other but not include me. It hurt. It made me miss my family. It was very lonely. I cried a lot. I did not like it there anymore.





01:28:50;25	Nighttime at School Moon Dance music starts	Celsa	C: In my own school experience, the best nights where we really got to know each another were the dances.
	Dance scene shots
01:29:00;29	Celsa INTV	Celsa	C: Honestly I love to dance.
01:29:07;09	Dance shots		C: At the dances, I always try to see who's getting along and who might be having a hard time interacting.


01:29:18;23		Celsa	C: Claudia is a very quiet girl. She doesn't talk much, but she sees everything.
01:29:27;11		Claudia	CL: I'm afraid the other girls will laugh at me because I am Aché and they are Paraguayan.
01:29:37;28		Celsa	C: She speaks Ache. Her second language is Guaraní, her third language is Spanish. So for her, even talking with the other girls was very hard.
01:29:53;16		Celsa	C: Learning respect and tolerance for other cultures is something we are accomplishing here, because here at the school, we all live together.

01:30:17;19			A SCHOOL THAT PAYS FOR ITSELF


01:30:35;21		Celsa	C: One of the most unique things about the school is that the girls learn to earn money by working in real businesses.
01:30:52;11		Celsa	C: The concept that we want to teach is to 'learn by doing' by selling, by doing business, and by earning money.
01:31:08;15		Bianca	B: The school worked in various sections like the garden, the fields, the dairy farm, the kitchen, the hotel.
01:31:15;27		Bianca	B: Section A that spends the whole week in the classroom, and section B that spends the whole week in the fields. And every week, it rotates.
01:31:23;28		Bianca	B: My favorite week was in the fields, of course.

01:31:33;09	Students getting off back of truck. Instructor teaching them how to harvest.	Sesame	C: Sesame is one of the main crops in our country right now.
01:31:39;18	Students watching and working.	Sesame	C: And normally, you don’t see girls learning to grow this crop.
01:31:52;03		Girl 1	G1: Go! Get out of here!
	Boys making fun of girls working.
01:32:00;03	Girls watching.	Celsa	C: The first reaction, as it typically happens, is that these men looked at the girls and made fun of them, because of the activity they were doing thinking, 'Soon she'll be pregnant and she won't be doing this work because she'll be taking care of her kids'.
	Boys walking away. Girls continue working.
01:32:25;00	Sesame bales.	Nilda	N: Before, I thought that only men worked in the field and that women couldn't do that. And now I understand that women can do whatever men can do, and women have the same rights as men.

01:32:50;10	Girls getting on truck.	Celsa	C: The experiences are real, the challenges are rea, but the earnings are also real.
01:32:57;20	Girls milking cows	Celsa	C: Our businesses bring in money that supports the school, and allows it to keep growing.
01:33:09;03	Martin INTV	Martin	M: In many poor countries, governments simply do not have the money to fund quality schools.
	Girls grabbing farm tools.
	School Farm, cows
01:33:18;00	Martin INTV	Martin	M: We hope that this year or the next, this school will successfully cover 100% of its budget with income generated here in the school itself

01:33:28;21	Girls selling farm products to store.	Martin	M: by the students and the teachers.


01:33:44;28		Martin	M: One business run by the girls that brings in money is the tree nursery.

01:33:54;02		Bianca	B: I believe the nursery is important not only in terms of sustainability, but also in terms of raising awareness.
01:34:07;10		Bianca	B: For example, my grandparents didn't know they had to maintain 25% of their farmland as forest.
	Girls working in Nursery

01:34:22;16		Celsa	C: We went to big landowners and we have shown them the native trees that we're growing, and we now have contracts with them for 20,000, 30,000 seedlings. And it was revolutionary to see such young girls were reforesting much of what we were losing in this area.
01:34:54;00		Bianca	B: Starting from the seed, one can see the whole process of what makes a tree. Seeing the seed,how it grows how it germinates. It grows a little more and then one day you're like, 'Woah, that's the tree I planted!' It's like us, right? Like me like you. Like all the girls there. The seed was planted, it started to grow, and reaches a point where it's grown so much that it can bear flowers and fruit.


	Bianca Feeding chickens
01:35:29;11	Bianca feeding chickens	Bianca	B: From the moment I stepped into the reserve, my future changed completely. Before that, my idea was to stay in my town, finish high school, get married, get pregnant. If I hadn't gone to Mbaracayu, I think I would have about three kids and be a housewife. Instead I'm continuing to study and learn.
01:35:55;04		Bianca	B: After coming here, I learned that here, I can be who I want. I can invent the person I want to be.



01:36:27;20		Celsa	C: Numila has a very supportive family. Nonetheless, her boyfriend has also been around for the past three years.
01:36:37;23		Celsa	C: But, in this moment, she's uncertain, thinking 'What am I going to do with him?' 'Because this relationship is not taking me where I want to go.'
01:36:49;25		Numila	N: He said he wants a baby, but I'm not ready yet.
01:36:56;28		Numila	N: He went out and got drunk. When he came home, he hurt me. I tried to talk to him but then he threatened me and said he was going to kill me.
01:37:10;13		Numila	N: I'm going to leave him.

	Montage sunset

	JOHN
01:37:40;11	MUSICAL MONTAGE... We see images from several of the senior projects here. Montage style... Let it breathe. We can see the Ice Cream project, Eliza presenting her project using her folder and photographs (I think this happens in her interview), some images of the Ache making Artesania etc	Celsa	C: In their third year, the girls must present a project that combines everything they've learned in their first three years at the school.
01:37:57;14	Bianca and other girls in a kitchen cooking.	Celsa	C: They develop real businesses.
01:38:03;02		Celsa	C: They learn to make a marketing survey, they learn to serve customers, and they learn to create a succcessful business plan.
01:38:20;28		Bianca	B: I'm a partner in the business Native Flavors of My Homeland, which is a business that makes organic preserves and jams.
01:38:29;14		Bianca	B: We had to make a budget of our expenses and also a budget that laid out how much we could expect to gain from this.
01:38:36;03		Bianca	B: I knew that I knew how to make jams, but I didn't know that I knew how to sell jams to people.
01:38:44;29		Bianca	B: Tomorrow, we'll be ready for anything. We'll be ready to face the job market.



01:39:08;11		Celsa	C: Claudia comes from a culture that came out of the forest only 40 years ago.
01:39:14;00		Celsa	C: For her having an education may not yet make as much of a difference.
01:39:19;25		Celsa	C: However being with her community, helping save the forest, that is extremely important for her.


01:39:30;16	NEED BETTER IMAGE FIX FOR THIS	Reporter	News: The Aché are reclaiming the title to 4600 hectares of land
01:39:34;10		Reporter	that they consider to be their own from their ancestors.
01:39:37;06		Reporter	But now according to reports, the land has been invaded by poor farmers who have no land of their own.
	Stills of Ache protesters
01:39:43;20		Claudia	CL: I was at school and I heard rumors that there were problems with the Ache land.
01:39:51;09		Claudia	CL: I packed my things and then we met up with the Aches of Chupapo, of Puerto Barra, of Itapotug, and a few other Ache communities.
01:40:00;10	Claudia INTV	Claudia	CL: We all got together and together we went to Asunción, because this was a protest that affected all of the Aché.
01:40:06;11	More stills	Celsa	C: Ths struggle has affected Claudia's studies, because she was conscious that she would have to abandon her exams, but the struggle for that land was very important.
01:40:21;16		Claudia	CL: We went to different places. We didn't have food. It rained. We suffered a lot. That was tough
01:40:42;15		Celsa	C: They eventually returned to their communities, but she was very affected by this situation. and she's not returning to the school.
01:40:56;16		Celsa	C: In addition, Claudia is now at moment expecting a baby.

01:41:03;25		Claudia	CL: My mother says that I'm not her daugher anymore because I got pregnant.
01:41:19;03		Catalina	CM: She stopped taking her birth control shots...
01:41:22;21	Celsa INTV	Catalina	CM: I'm very upset, but there's nothing I can do about it.
01:41:28;10		Claudia	C: I'm very concerned that she won't make it to graduation day.


	SAM

01:41:55;17	Numilla getting into car and riding along road...	Numila	NM: When I left my boyfriend, I focused on my studies.
01:42:02;17		Numila, Driver	SYNC: NM: Here's another girl who finished school. Driver: Should I stop here? NM Yes.
01:42:08;02		Numila	NM: Today I was visiting other girls from my community to invite them to join me at school.

01:42:21;14	Numila getting out of car, different place.	Numila, Boy	SYNC: NM: Is Gabriela here? Boy: Yes
01:42:25;10		Numila	NM: I wanted to tell them that they should keep studying. That without studying, we are nothing.

01:42:31;16		Numila, Jane	SYNC: NM: Excuse me Miss Juana? J: What is it? NM: Is Gabriela here? J: Gaby?
01:42:42;11	Girl shows up. Shakes NM hand.	Numila	NM: You really have a lot of opportunities there [at the school]. There's the possibility of visiting other countries, of learning things. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you really have to go there. You will learn many things. You will develop your mind.
01:43:00;19	Numila and girl verite conversation		NM: Tomorrow is the graduation.
01:43:06;09		Numila. Gaby	G: Ok, thanks. NM: Hope to see you there, Gabriela. Feel free to get in touch at any time.
01:43:13;14		Numila, Gaby	NM: See you later G: See you later!

01:43:16;14		Celsa	C: This experience of coming to the school transformed the life of Numilla. It transformed her from a defensive girl into someone proactive. A person who has the initiative to make things better.


	JOHN

01:43:39;16		Reporter	NEWS: National leaders recently turned over the official title of land ownership to the indigenous communities.
01:43:46;04		Reporter	NEWS: The Aché tribe of Kue Tuvy received the land title.Received the land title of ownership for a ranch of 4600 hectares.

01:43:56;23		Celsa	C: Thanks to all the effort they put forth they finally got the title to their property
01:44:05;11		Celsa	that was delivered to them directly from the hands of the president himself. Federica Franco and the government palace.
01:44:12;21	News of footage of signing over title, Pres Franco. Still of Franco kissing Claudia	Claudia	CL: it was the first time I ever met Federico Franco. I was very happy. I'm very thankful because he gave us the title of our land.
01:44:37;11		Celsa	C: Today we had a big thrill. We went to Claudia's house where she is staying with her parents.
01:44:44;10	Celsa hugging Claudia.	Celsa	C: Hi! It's been a long time!! (Hugs Claudia) [subtitles say: Translation TK]

01:44:50;05		Celsa	C: I was very happy to see her.
01:44:51;22	Celsa speaking ot Claudia's family	Celsa	C: and also to see her father in much better health. After talking, they were both hopeful and they agreed that Claudia should definitely return to school.
01:45:06;03		Catalina	CM: Now that she's pregnant, she can have her baby and continue to study. I will always support her.

01:45:13;18	Clauding preparing to leave.	Claudia	CL: I still want to become a doctor or a teacher. That's why I want to study – to be someone.
01:45:30;05		Celsa	C: In spite of all this, he is going to graduate –
01:45:33;28		Celsa	C: one more girl achieving her dreams and the dreams of her family.



01:45:41;25			GRADUATION DAY


	People Arriving


01:46:38;03	Bianca INTV	Bianca	B: That moment seems huge to me. I remember I cried like I never had before, my God, the entire graduation. I was excited but I was also sad having to leave that place I have gotten so used to.

01:46:54;01	Numila getting diploma	announcer	ANN: Numila Gómez Portillo, from the Avá Guaraní community. She is thankful for her classmates her entire family and especially her father.
01:47:03;27		Celsa	C: Very good!
01:47:13;22	Images of Nilda	Nilda	Nilda: I felt so happy because I knew I had reached that goal whichI had promised myself and my family.
01:47:25;24	Claudia diploma	announcer	ANN: Claudia Crinaguii of the Kue Tuvy community receives the degree in environmental sciences
01:47:35;08	Play up the shot of Claudia's mom	Claudia	CL: I'm happy to graduate.
01:47:37;26		Claudia	CL: It was worth it to leave my parents to study.
01:47:46;26		Celsa	C Speech: What we prioritize here is living together and learning. For me the girls... the ones from the past, the ones here, the ones not here yet, they're my daughters. You have everything you need to make your dreams a reality and your family's dreams and the country's hopes for you. Girls of the Mbaracaú School, we all know that together we can do it, right?
01:48:16;00		Celsa	C: - Together... Girls; - we can!
01:48:18;08		Celsa	C: Louder! Together...
01:48:18;08		Graduates	Girls: We can!
01:48:24;21		Celsa	C: It's a very big change of mindset in which a girl who came without knowing what her future would be, today says 'I am not afraid of the future, because my future is something I create.'

01:48:51;06	Dressing in gowns. Martin INTV	Bianca	B: They told us that in all graduations, you have to dance the waltz. But I didn't know that we would be dancing the waltz in the reserve. It was incredible because everyone was all in white and everything.
01:49:07;28		Martin	M: We saw with surprise and happiness that many girls opted to wear long ball gowns. It's very rare to see this in rural areas.

	Waltz
			BEAT
01:49:43;17		Martin	M: This was not just a graduation from high school. It was a graduation from a lifestyle, from a lifestyle of poverty to becoming young professionals who are not afraid of the future.


01:50:04;00	Face Face		Numilla, Bianca, Claudia, Nilda and their ages...
	JOHN

	FACE FADE with different ages
01:50:39;26		Celsa	C: Despite giving them every opportunity at the school, outside, the graduates will face new challenges.

01:50:53;12	Celsa INTV Numila classroom	Numila	NM: My parents called me at work and told me there was a place available in our community. They told me that the children needed me here, so I came.
01:51:41;02	Claudia at home with baby. Claudia INTV Claudia back with family.	Claudia	CL: I have my baby. I want her to study. I think she can go to school. She can go to the high school so she can have a career. I will send her to the Mbaracayú school.
01:52:20;15	Nilda working in hospital	Nilda	N: I'm doing my training here in the hospital. I love this work. I like children very much, and I enjoy caring for them. That's why I chose pediatrics. In my university, I'm getting good grades, thanks to the Mbaracayú school. Everything started for me at Mbaracayú.
01:53:04;10	Bianca at university.	Bianca	B: Right now I'm studying environmental engineering at Villarica National University. I'm taking my final exams at the moment. I hope I pass.
01:53:14;13	Bianca INTV Bianca at university	Bianca	B: When we were at the school in the reserve, there was always someone in front, who would clear the path for us with a machete. So we wouldn't get lost in the forest. When I left the school, I realized that there was no longer anyone there. This machete of the leader coach and director had to be passed to us. Wow! Now it's your turn and you have to clear the path. Because there are other people on the path behind you, and in addition to clearing the path you have to teach others to clear the path for themselves.

01:53:48;22		Martin	M: The school is new. Of course its not perfect. Of course it's not the only solution.
01:53:57;26		Martin	But it's going to give them a strong livelihood.
01:53:59;17		Martin	M: It will give them the confidence to be able to face challenges from another perspective.



01:54:11;09		Celsa	C: I would like to see a future where there is a genereation of daughters becoming mothers in the community and passing on to their children the value of the forest.
	School outdoor shot.
	Girls in dorms
01:54:26;05		Celsa	It requires effort but with the effort comes reward. Celsa 0113p15