Bohol Beneficiary Update

Bikes for the Philippines (BfP) is expanding its Bikes for Education project to include a second school district, in Maribojoc, on the island of Bohol. After about a six month delay the training of the beneficiaries will begin next week.

In November 2012, Bikes for the World sent a second container of donated bikes to Manila to support adding this second school district, Pagnituan National High School. The pilot effort, in neighboring Baclayon, has been a huge success. When the program started in 2011-2012 the drop out rate for Baclayon was 4.5%; today that rate is 1.67%. Nationally the rate for the 2011-2012 school year was 7.8%.

Our donated bikes were met in Manila by a large volunteer network mobilized by Bikes for the Philippines. The central warehouse allows bikes to be refurbished by these volunteers before they are shipped to the smaller island of Bohol.

In September 2013, the Philippine Navy delivered 190 refurbished bicycles and spare parts to two projects, a smaller school effort on the island of Cebu and the larger school district, Pagnituan National High School in Bohol. The Bohol bikes were to be stored in Baclayon at Peacock Garden Resort where the bikes were secure and under cover, but not completely out of the weather pattern soon to come.

On October 15, 2013, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the region, rocking Maribojoc which was situated right on top of the North Bohol Fault Line, where the earthquake originated. Access to Maribojoc was immediately cut off from the capital when the main bridge leading into the village collapsed. Supplies would be ferried into town by tiny shipping boats.

All schools in the district suffered tremendous structural damage. Outdoor classrooms were set up under makeshift tents and villagers were living in shelters or compromised structures. Three weeks later the Super Typhoon Haiyan hit. The eye of the storm swung north of Bohol, devastating the island of Leyte. Much of Bohol's water and electric were generated from this island and wiped out in the typhoon.

With the kids unable to attend school and the community shaken from two major natural disasters back to back, it was clear the bike program would need to be suspended for the time being. BfP shifted efforts to rebuilding Maribojoc and began delivering things like rice and books to the struggling community.

April 2014. Currently, BfP  is poised to begin training beneficiaries  first thing next month (April). After spending some time in the elements, our bikes sitting at Peacock Gardens could use a little TLC maintenance, which will be completed by two students beneficiaries from our pilot program in Baclayon.

Jake Palijado

The Mayor of Maribojoc and the Department of Education worked together to designate two classrooms in Pagnituan that will serve as a warehouse and makeshift repair shop. Once they graduate next month, Jake Palijado and Hermongenes Pocot will assess and repair the bikes to be loaned to the next round of beneficiaries in Maribojoc. These two graduates will also serve as mentors and role models to the new beneficiaries in Pagnituan.

Meanwhile, Bikes for the Philippines is already looking at where the next container of bikes will be placed. Marikina, a school district on the island of Luzon (where Manila is located) and another on the island of Cebu are currently being evaluated. Storage, volunteer hands, and transportation continue to be a consideration especially given the complications that arose in Bohol during the latest round of storms, not to mention the ship transport and the exposure to salt water and sea air the bikes experienced.

Bikes for Education

Last month Bikes for the World's partner Bikes for the Philippines signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Department of Education in the Philippines.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro said bike donations from the Bikes for the Philippines Foundation Inc. will provide suitable means of transportation for poor but deserving individuals and help teach them valuable skills making this a two pronged benefit.

"The students have a hard time going to school due to lack of suitable transportation and they are at high risk of dropping out," Luistro said. “The bikes will not only help them get to school but also provides a way to teach road safety and environmentalism.”

The importance of this project, dubbed Bikes for Education, is clear and simple: keeping kids in school. Throughout the Philippines the drop rate among students is a persistent problem. According to DepEd data, the drop-out rate among high school students in Bohol was high at 5.63 percent in 2011.

This pilot bike project brought about 150 bikes to students in Bohol with another 200 about to be delivered to a neighboring school district. Recently another 50 were delivered to a school on the island of Cebu. Every single bike represents one step closer to graduation for its new owner.

Many students are responsible for chores around the house before and after school. Beneficiaries in the bike program all live 3km or more from school and many of them walk this distance to and from school every day.

The school day runs from 8 to 5 and if the kids are late they have to sit out until the afternoon session, missing valuable lessons. The roads to school are also steep and rough and students are often walking home in the dark. After completing family chores there is little time for homework.

On the rough, sometimes crowded roads in these remote towns you might find an overcrowded bus with students hanging off the roof. Jeepneys and habel-habels (seen left) can be found on the shared roads these kids are traveling to and from school.

Although motorized transportation is available in these areas, the fares are often too expensive. The rides can also be quite dangerous. Walking six miles round trip to school is often a burden some families cannot endure and students are forced to drop out.

Beneficiaries in the program are required to wear helmets and pass extensive written and hands on tests regarding road and bike safety and maintenance.

Students are encouraged to mentor younger students and often take part in community activities from feeding orphans, to spreading cycling advocacy in town, to standing up for environmental causes like Earth Hour.

Bikes for the Philippines director Joel Uichico said they are looking into expanding the project to cover more areas. With the partnership forged between Bikes for the Philippines and Department of Education this is a hope and dream likely to come true.

"I have asked the field offices to evaluate their areas to see if their students can be beneficiaries as well," Luistro said. This partnership is like adding hundreds of feet to the ground, people who are in place already who can provide feedback in many different areas of the Philippines.

The success of the original pilot program was in large part thanks to the combined efforts of the educational system of Baclayon. The teachers, principals, and school administrators made this effort work. The program itself was incorporated into the school curriculum. Teachers had first hand knowledge of how the bikes were making a difference in the classroom from kids coming to school with completed homework to participating in class with increased energy and enthusiasm.

This project was put together like a classroom assignment and carried out by those who know that best. Now, working hand and hand with the Department of Education when trying to reach a country made of islands, Bikes for the Philippines is poised to reach a greater number of students in many different districts, in turn, hopefully, lowering the drop out rate significantly across the country.

The Department of Education rates a school's performance (as well as an individual teacher's) based on three indicators: National Achievement Test results, liquidation of expenses, and the drop-out rate. Lowering the national drop-out rate has been a concern for DepEd and Bikes for the Philippines. Together they hope to keep kids in school, give them an education, and build stronger communities in all areas of the Philippines.

Students Gear Up For College

Graduates of Baclayon National High School

Congratulations to the first batch of beneficiaries to graduate from Baclayon National High School. Bikes for the Philippines was established to help keep students who live a great distance from school from dropping out by supplying them with transportation to school. Every single fourth year student loaned a bike last year through this program earned it by graduating high school!

Cristy Joy Razo and Eunice Faith Pude

Not only did all the 'seniors' graduate, but two students in the bike program just left for college the weekend of May 25-26 2013. Through the Passerelles numériques(PN) program two of our bike beneficiaries were awarded scholarships to attend the University of San Carlos in Cebu.

Cristy Joy Razo and Eunice Faith Pude, seen here with BNHS Principal Elvira Jabonillo, were both awarded a PN scholarship to attend university and earn a degree in IT. Room, board, and tuition will all be paid for by PN.

Through education, Passerelles numériques enables the most underprivileged young people to access employment in the promising sector of computer technology and break the cycle of poverty within their families.

Cristy Joy Razo

Bikes for the World was founded by Keith Oberg in 2005 after he saw first hand the effects the lack of transportation had on countless families and an entire community. Whether it be for school, work, or heath care, making bikes available to underprivileged people was a high priority.

 Enter Joel Uichico, founder of Bikes for the Philippines. He also saw a need to bring bicycles to the Philippines to not only keep adolescents enrolled in school, but also to bring to them a better way of life. So Oberg and Uichico eventually joined forces to bring to these students affordable (FREE!) bicycles in hopes of keeping them in school, giving them the means to a better education, and giving them hope for the future.

Bikes for the World simply delivered a container of bicycles to a project. It was the educators in the system that delivered an amazing program. And the students just plain delivered. They took an interest in the program, respected the initiative, and gave us exactly the results we were looking for.

Eunice Pude

Eunice Pude received this Magna through the Bikes for Philippines Bikes for Education program early in 2011 in the pilot program introduced in her high school in Baclayon. Students were chosen for the program in part due to their distance from the high school, which officials were noticing played an important part in why the drop out rate was so significant.

Eunice, in fact, probably lived the furthest from the school at 7km, making her round trip commute over 8 miles a day! Despite the rocky terrain and steep hills she had to climb, she mastered the bike and was able to save a ton of time riding to school instead of walking.

Eunice and Cristy Joy...with Joe in the background

Teachers reported students having more energy in class, were better prepared, arrived on time, and stayed more alert throughout the day after receiving their bikes. Some of the quieter students even gained more confidence once they entered the bike program.

Congratulations again to Eunice Pude, Cristy Joy Razo, and all the bike beneficiaries in the Philippines education program. The second project in a neighboring community of Maribojoc is about to launch with bikes already delivered by Bikes for the World. We hope Cristy and Eunice serve as role models to all the students and show them there is room to dream for a bigger future. Many of these students have never left the island of Bohol. Cristy and Eunice are currently in Cebu with the rest of the 2016 class orienting themselves to a new lifestyle, new friends, and brand new plans for their futures.And we hope they decided to take their bikes!

Courtesy PN and Marie Serreau

Boys Will Be Boys

3rd year girls from Baclayon National High School, Philippines

Continuing with our focus on girls on bikes...Bikes for the World recently got word from our Philippine partner Bikes for the Philippines Foundation (BfPFI) that when training boys and girls to ride or work on bikes the best practice is often to separate the sexes.

As with other programs we work with, BfPFI was finding many girls who had never ridden a bike before. Many factors contribute to more boys knowing how to ride a bike from time availability to having a bike to ride.

Village Bicycle Project in Ghana was finding even if they gave bikes to girls to ride, their brothers or other males in the village would often steal them for themselves.
 
In the Philippines each selected student is loaned a bicycle for their sole use, thus eliminating that problem. But when Joel Uichico, Director of BfPFI started training the beneficiaries at Baclayon National High School he noticed a distinct difference when training boys and girls together. Both in riding and maintence training some of the boys were picking it up faster than the girls making training them together challenging.

Uichico said the boys were actually making it harder for the girls to learn at their own pace. And some of them would even refuse to mentor the girls to help them along.

 The education model set up by Uichico hand selected beneficiaries who lived great distances from school to receive bikes through the program in order for them to graduate. He started with the older students, training them in safety, skills, and maintenance. Those students would then in turn help mentor the younger students.

What he found was by separating the students by year and then further into boys and girls, the training was much more productive and focused.

Just as we see here in our cycling circles in DC, men and women are often very different, and some women find it intimidating to learn next to guys. That's why you'll see some bike shops offer classes geared specifically toward women. And bike rides for women only. But once they get the hang of it...On Your Left.

When I visited Baclayon I had the opportunity to ride with our student beneficiaries there. Joel and I joked when we stopped to rest and noticed the girls all removing their helmets and then proceeding to brush and fix their hair. Teenaged girls, we said.

But what I didn't appreciate was the teenaged boys. Uichico recently shared a training observation with us, "Sometimes, the boys would want to teach the prettier girls first. This is all understandable owing to the fact that the children are in their younger teens."

Because no matter how you slice it, boys will be boys no matter what language, what culture, what country. The tiny community of Baclayon on the island of Bohol in the Philippines is no different.

To be fair, I saw nothing but cooperation and camaraderie between the students during my visit. Certainly the skill level did separate the riders, a large majority of newbies being girls. But with time and practice this too shall change.

BfW Outreach Coordinator Yvette Hess

Through the rice paddies, muddy single track, steep rocky terrain of Baclayon, congested traffic of Manila...I never heard one complaint from my generous tour guides, be it the students of BNHS, the Bol-anon cyclists, or Athena and Bans, Champion cyclists, that this girl wasn't keeping up with the best of them. And I did most of it with a camera in hand!

It might take us girls a half a second to gain the respect of our male counterparts, but once we do, there's no stopping us. Guys: try to keep up!

Will Run For Bike Parts

Bus service for students of Maribojoc

The latest project of the Bikes for Education branch of Bikes for the Philippines will bring bikes to these students of Maribojoc. This school district is in a neighboring town from the pilot project that brought donated bikes from the United States to the island of Bohol in the Philippines. Bikes were loaned to students who lived over 3km from school to help keep them enrolled in school.

Bolandrina family loading bikes at Lorton

Bikes for the World sent a second container of over 500 bikes to Bikes for the Philippines. This shipment has just arrived in Manila. These bikes will be going to the students of Maribojoc. We loaded this container in November with the help of a Massachusetts (yes way up there) volunteer, Joe Bolandrina. Joe packed up his car with his family and loaded a rack full of donated bikes then drove all the way to Lorton Virginia to help pack this container for the Philippines.

Joe also held a collection last year and is doing another one this year through a similar organization in the Boston area called Bikes Not Bombs. His daughter Lily did a school project on this effort and has already started collecting bikes for similar projects.

As with our first container, the bikes will be unloaded and stored in a warehouse on the main island where Manila is located. The Philippine Army is preparing to help unload the bikes and look them over before transporting them to the island of Bohol.

Bike beneficiaries run to raise money for spare parts

This past weekend three bike recipients and Director Joel Uichico ran in the Condura Skyway Marathon to help raise money for spare parts to keep their donated bikes rolling.

Results from the Condura Skyway Marathon:
1. Nino Rex placed 241 with a gun time of 1:12:57 and a chip time of 50:55
2. Joseph placed 242 with a gun time of 1:12:58 and a chip time of 50:55
3. Lovezyn placed 2284 with a gun time of 1:59:46 and a chip time of 1:37:43
All three completed the 10 K.
 Joel completed the 21K.

Congratulation to all the runners in the Condura Skyway Marathon!
I bet you all are ready for those bikes now.

Go Joe!

The Bikes for the Philippines' Bikes for Education project is one of our favorite projects we donate bikes to and not just because we've been there, met the beneficiaries, and even rode to and from school with them. This program, which was started about a year ago, provides bicycles to students who live over 3 km from school in an effort to keep them enrolled in school and eventually graduating. The students are taught how to ride, basic mechanic skills, and overall bike safety as part of the school curriculum.  THIS is why we love this project!

Courtesy: The Coffee

We were excited to learn that Bikes for the Philippines had successfully documented the first installment of bikes that were distributed in Baclayon, where we visited. They were ready for container TWO! This shipment of bikes, using the same model, would be used in the village of Maribojoc, very near Baclayon, again on the island of Bohol. Students will be hand selected and interviewed before entering the program. As with the pilot project, students will be allowed to use the bikes to get to and from school only, earning them upon graduation.

Andrew Glover with Plong-Plong in NJ

Back at home we had been collecting bikes, some specifically for this project. Jo Grant, who approached BfW for bikes for BfP had a collection in Boston earlier this year. Joel Esguerra, working with Gensler, has done a ton of fundraising for this project, as well has holding a collection this summer.

Plong-Plong, seen here in his BfW Tshirt, donated several bikes he collected in his NJ neighborhood for BfW. Because Plong-Plong is from Tagbilaran City, Bohol, Philippines (the city between the two Bikes for Education projects) we made an exception and set those bikes aside for the Philippines shipment.

Bolandrina family

Fast forward to November. Joe Bolandrina and family, Grethel, Lilly, and Max! packed up the car and drove from Massachusetts all the way to our Lorton VA storage site to help us load this next container for the Philippines. Grethel had moved from the Philippines in the 80s and Joe had helped out at that collection outside Boston in the spring. They fell in love with the program and had to help!

And help they did. We got over 500 bikes in this container, which is now on its way to the Philippines. This family of four must have rolled 2/3 of the bikes in there themselves. Lilly and Max were troopers. Max struggled with quite a few bikes that towered over his head, but never gave up. And Lilly documented the whole trip for a school project. In fact we already had a donation from their school come in after a student carried home a flyer in his backpack about our project.

Lilly Bolandrina loading a bike from Massachusetts

"I'm Lilly Bolandrina. I helped Bikes for the Philippines donate bikes for kids and adults in the Philippines. I did this because my dad wanted us to come and see what it is like to go to Virginia and watch him help Keith ( the person who does Bikes for the World) donate these bikes. Bikes for the World helps Bikes for the Philippines. Instead of just watching my dad help I helped as well. I wheeled bikes from the abandoned prison gym to the container that gets shipped to the Philippines. It was very hard because most bikes were very heavy and the wheels would not turn on some.It was really cool to see all the different sized bikes and a couple of tricycles. Some of the bikes also were missing parts so they looked funny. We helped for four hours until we had to leave.

Lilly and Max sealing the container

Then tomorrow we came back again to finish loading the container with bikes. We crammed 501 or 502 bikes into the container . Most of the bikes were mountain bikes and baby bikes. Still, there were some road bikes and quite a lot of young children bikes. On the second day of filling the container we only had to work for two hours. I got to give the very last bike to go inside the container. Then my little brother and I put the little I.D. tag on the container to show that it hasn't been opened yet."

Thank you Lilly, Max, Grethel, and Joe! The next step is traveling to Maribojoc to meet the bike beneficiaries and ride with them. I'm pretty sure I saw Joe marking a bike to be set aside for him to borrow while he is there! It would be a treat to track Plong-Plong's (a long time friend of Joe's) donations as well as bikes the Bolandrina's donated.

Check out Joe's enthusiasm as he donates his older son's first Gary Fisher:

Teaming Up In Africa

Bikes arriving in Kenya

Bikes for the World is shipping to Kenya again this weekend. It's our last loading of the year and we need your help out at Lorton.

Friday December 14   10am - 2pm
Saturday December 15   10am - 2pm

Wheels of Africa (WoA) is one of our new programs of 2012. The organization was established in 2008 to bring awareness to cycling in Kenya and in turn making cycling safer in remote areas. But it's not just a cycling 'club'. Wheels of Africa provides donated bikes at affordable prices to people who would otherwise not be able to afford one.

WoA helps put more people on bikes and keep them safe

They have also donated some of the bikes given to their program to further their mission of increasing cycling in Kenya. They recently donated five bikes to Our Lady of Peace Primary School. The also took part in a Training Program in Nairobi teaching kids bike handling to sharpen their riding skills.

In addition to the work they are doing in the community to get more people skilled and on bikes, they are also providing adventure rides to tourists of all skill levels.  So if you are in Nairobi anytime soon, look them up!

Ivy lives 3km from school in Baclayon, Philippines

One of the aspects of cycling we at Bikes for the World have always been concerned about is safety. From our offices in the DC area, however, we can provide helmets with our shipments, but we can't be sure they are being used. In the Philippines, for example, the kids in the program are REQUIRED to wear a helmet while on a bike and it is strictly enforced. It's a contained area with not many kids on bikes, they are easy to pick out.

But when you ship bikes to an area such as Kenya or Namibia and the bikes are being dispersed over a large area to adults and kids it's harder to track who is doing what. This is when it's great to be working with established nonprofits on the other side with people on the ground doing that leg work for you.

Paulina Endjala, BEN Namibia's mechanic trainer

Even better is when two partners team up and work together. That's what BEN Namibia (another BfW partner) is doing with Wheels of Africa. BENN now has mechanics on the ground training new mechanics involved with the WoA program in Kenya. Currently, Paulina Endjala has been training mechanics on the island of Mfangano as part of an initiative of Bicycles for Humanity Colorado.

Here is an email they just received from Samwel, one of Paulina's trainees:

"Yes aim samwel from Kenya i am living in a small island around lake victory, i would like to take this chance to thank your organization for sending one of your trainer madam polina to our island mfangano . me samwel i was blessed so much.May God bless you samwel."

  post.  Here you can see a group from the Kaoko Bicycle Shop, a remote shop set up by BENN, with their Christmas stock of solar lights ready to sell.

Elephant Energy with BENN

Another group out of Colorado helping to bring safety to Namibia is Elephant Energy, who we told you about in a previous

Elephant Energy has been working with BENN to bring solar power to the remote villages where they have set up bike shops using the containers our bikes are shipped in. Using the BENN network of employees (trainers) Elephant Energy has been able to train locals in solar power, how to repair the lights and solar pads, and how to sell the product.

Courtesy BENN

We are pleased to see this partnership forming between two of our partners in Africa, Bicycling Empowerment Network (BEN) and Wheels of Africa. With the successful model of BENN behind them and the partners BENN has established in Africa, Wheels of Africa has a great hub in place in moving forward.

From October 1st BENN facebook page:

BEN Namibia today began its support programme for partner organisation, Wheels of Africa, in Nairobi. BEN Namibia will assist WoA with strategic planning, mechanic and business training and share our experiences with developing a network of 30 bicycle shops in Namibia. The WoA bike shop was started with support from Wheels of Change, Montana, and Tour d'Afrique foundation, both BEN Namibia partners.

Powered By Education

 

 JOE ISRAEL

Joe Israel was one of the first bike recipients in the Bikes for Education program in Baclayon, on the island of Bohol, Philippines. Through this program students were identified and interviewed by local Bikes for the World partner, Bikes for the Philippines (BfP). The bikes are intended to help students living over 3km from school to stay enrolled in class by loaning them a faster, safer means of transportation.

The drop out rate in Baclayon, like many other communities in the Philippines, is in danger of rising due to the location of the schools in relation to the students' homes. In the village of Baclayon there are many primary schools but only one high school. Therefore, even if a student lives relatively close to school chances are once they enter high school they may not. Two of the critical areas forcing students to drop out are household income and distance from school. Many of the students are an integral part of the household, completing essential chores or helping to care for younger siblings, and the time spent walking to school (sometimes over 4 hours a day) becomes too big a burden on many families. That is why these two factors played a big part in who was chosen by BfP to receive a bicycle.

Joe mentors younger girls in mechanics

 What BfP and the teachers running the program found was the bicycle offered much more than just a means to better transportation. All the bike recipients are required to go through a pretty tough training program in order to earn a bicycle.  Some didn't know how to ride at all and almost all knew nothing about changing a tire or cleaning a chain.

Just learning to ride offered a new sense of confidence to these beneficiaries. The local bike club joined the students on Saturdays and took them on community rides providing a unique mentoring program to the older students. Once the kids became more skilled they in turn mentored the younger students who received their bikes later. The donation process was staggered to allow for this students-training-students model.

The Boys of Baclayon

When I was there in February I not only met Joe (in the black shirt Left) but I also got to ride with him and all of the students from Baclayon National High School. What I found was a strong group of riders (who kicked my butt on the steep rocky hills of Baclayon) and a caring, considerate clique. Joe made sure I never got lost on the remote trails and delivered me safely to my hotel in the dark.

On one of the rides, one student fell coming down a steep hill. All of the boys we were riding with stopped, organized, and made sure she was taken care of properly. Some of the boys went and got help (she was pretty shaken up but not seriously injured) and the others stayed with Michelle holding and supporting her until help came. I was very touched by their sensitivity and maturity. The camaraderie our donated bikes brought this group of students was beyond inspirational.

Joe received training at The Rock a local bakery

Spring 2012 the first group of students have graduated from school and this pilot bike program, earning them the bike and more importantly, their high school diplomas. Several bike beneficiaries went on to train in fields such as hospitality and organic farming.

The community has recognized the impact this bike program has on the entire village.  In fact, several local businesses stepped up to offer internships to graduating beneficiaries. Joe went on to receive training at Rock111 a local bakery learning the basics of running a bakery business. He joined several other bike beneficiaries including Joan Igcas in this life sculpting opportunity.

The Little Bike That Could

JOAN IGCAS

Do you remember your first bike? Joan Igcas does. In fact it's only been about a year since she first learned how to ride it. You'd never guess it if you rode next to her. The roads she travels on her mile commute to school are steep and muddy...to say they are a challenge to navigate on a bicycle is an understatement. And she handles them like a pro.

Joan was one of about 80 students in Baclayon on the island of Bohol, Philippines to receive a bicycle through the program Bikes for the Philippines. Like many of her classmates, Joan had no idea how to ride a bike. She told us she was nervous and found it to be tiring:

As part of the school curriculum, the bike beneficiaries of this program are taught how to ride, proper handling skills, bike safety, and bike maintenance. Students are required to wear helmets and may only use the loaned bicycles to get to and from school.

Once they graduate, the bike is turned over to them and they may use it to continue their studies, get to and from work, or however they wish. The goal of the program is to keep kids enrolled in school. The bi-product has been creating hopes and dreams in young people who once had neither.

This program has been so successful in Baclayon, Bikes for the Philippines is now preparing to have a second container of bikes shipped through Bikes for the World to a new project in Maribojoc, a nearby community also on the island of Bohol.

You can follow their progress on facebook. To support the program, donations are accepted through Bikes for the World by indicating PHILIPPINES in the Designation Code Box on the donation form.
DONATE HERE

Bike Safety

Bikes for the World was founded in January 2005 as a sponsored project under the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA).  Our first bicycles went to Honduras, with shipments following to Sri Lanka (for tsunami recovery) and even Haiti.

BfW has grown over the years averaging about 10,000 bikes shipped per year making us the nation's largest non-profit bicycle reuse program. In April 2011 BfW became an independent 501(c )(3) agency.  Since its founding, it has donated more than 70,000 bicycles internationally and in the Washington DC Metro region; in this year alone, it expects to donate more than 13,000 bikes.

Donated helmets

BfW typically sends bikes to underdeveloped areas. That is to say, road infrastructure is deficient and bike safety is not part of the culture. Helmet use is of great concern to many people involved with BfW and we, therefore, have not only sent numerous helmets overseas but we have also encouraged partner agencies to distribute and support helmet use among beneficiaries.

Bikes for the Philippines requires the use of a helmet

Helmet use, however, is difficult to track. We have no way of knowing if beneficiaries are even using the helmets we ship overseas. Not so in the case of Bikes for the Philippines (BfP) where students are required to use a helmet in order to receive a bicycle.
Through a fundraising initiative, BfP raised money in order to purchase brand new helmets for all their beneficiaries. The local bike club in Manila, The Firefly Brigade, also donated lights to the students.

Peacock Garden resort sent a rescue vehicle for student

I can personally attest to A) the importance of wearing a helmet and B) the need for either lights or reflective gear. When I visited Baclayon (Philippines) in February I had the opportunity to ride with the students to and from school. Every night we returned home in complete darkness. And it is dark!

While on one of these rides I witnessed one of the students crash on the rocky terrain. Although she was pretty shaken up, she was not seriously injured in large part because she was wearing a helmet. She had a pretty good bruise on her shoulder, a cut under her eye, and a ding in her helmet where she broke her fall on a rock.

So when Carlos Ovalle, a BfW supporter and cyclist, approached us about a similar problem in Nicaragua, where his wife Angela is from, we were all ears. What Ovalle wanted to do was raise funds to purchase reflective tape and install the tape on bicycles while in Nicaragua visiting family. BfW agreed to 'sponsor' this project in order to learn more about the effectiveness of relatively inexpensive reflective tape as a means of safety among rural cyclists.

Courtesy BEN

This has also been a concern in Africa and is monitored by the Bicycling Empowerment Network (BEN). They distributed reflective sashes to some beneficiaries.

As Ovalle points out, as roads in Nicaragua become more congested the threat of injury to cyclists rises. Due to the economic status of many of our beneficiaries in all countries we serve, lights, reflective gear, even bike reflectors are often not an option for many riders.

Where bicycle safety is not a priority for a community beneficiaries are very much at risk. In the case of Baclayon, the Local Government Unit did take notice to the increased bike traffic and legal initiatives are being considered.

Unfortunately night riding cannot be avoided especially when the days get shorter. Even here in DC commuters start pulling out their lights in October when it's getting dark before the work day is over. Imagine how dark it would get in a rural village without street lights. Not to mention the pedestrians wearing dark clothing sharing the same streets. 

Stay tuned to our blog for an update on Carlos Ovalle's mission to install reflective tape in Nicaragua. And if you'd like to contribute to this fund or to help provide helmets in the Philippines you can do so through our website or the link on the side of this blog, just indicate "Nicaragua Safety"  or "Philippines" in the Designation Box at the bottom of the donation form.