Update from the Philippines: Eunice and Cristy Graduate!

Eunice (left) and Cristy (right) were some of our first beneficiaries in the Bikes for Philippines program started in 2011. Both girls received bikes in their junior year of high school to help them stay in school and graduate.

Both Cristy and Eunice graduated high school in 2013 and both received a free scholarship to continue their education at the university level learning computer science.

Eunice and Cristy, continuing their computer studies, interned at NCR in Cebu, and in 2016 they received their computer science degrees from San Carlos University.

Eunice attended Baclayon High School and was selected to receive a bicycle in part because her house was one of the farthest from the school of all the students.

Her commute was also very steep and rocky and the bike skills she learned through Bikes for the Philippines in school really helped.

Many mornings the trails were covered in mud puddles and her bicycle made passing through them quick and easy and left her shoes clean and dry. Most importantly Eunice would arrive to school on time and ready to learn.

It was very exciting to continue on to a new school (and new island) alongside Cristy, her school friend and fellow bike beneficiary.

Eunice is now a Software Test Engineer at NCR, where she originally interned. Living in Cebu, she enjoys a very active lifestyle and likes hanging out with friends and experiencing new things. She can also be found rolling around on a bike occasionally with her boyfriend.

She is grateful for the trail of success that old beefy Magna took her down with Bikes for the Philippines and is excited to continue this new journey in her life.

Update from the Philippines: Crea

Back in 2014 we introduced you to Crea, who received a bike in the Philippines to help her complete school. This bike was donated through a Rockville youth who earned the bike through the city's Earn-A-Bike project known as TERRIFIC.

At the time Crea was a junior in school and walking nearly four miles to get to school. Her father was a laborer earning a living for his family. Her mom stayed home to take care for Crea and her three siblings. Money was tight but Crea loved school and wanted to graduate and continue her education to find a path to a better life.

Gabrielle Nadler is the generous donor who provided the bike to Crea. She was just 10 when she earned the bike and donated it back to our program. She's soon gearing up to drive and we thought we'd check in to see where Crea is and whether or not she graduated.

You know- she did! Crea is now studying communications in college and is looking to graduate in a couple years. She lives in Cebu, a neighboring island where she goes to school.

She is doing well, still loves school and loves spending time outside with her friends.

What a Trek!

This blue Trek has had a long and happy life. This bike belonged to Wendy and she learned how to jump logs, scream through streams, and even how to fall not-so-gracefully on many a mountain trail. It's been to the hills of West Virginia, the beaches of Cape Cod, even across the ferry and into the city streets of Boston.

After upgrading her ride with a better mountain bike we converted this one for a more urban experience and kept it going for our jaunts into DC. After time we bought a hybrid and this trusty Trek hung unused in the shed for many years. After learning of a shipment heading to students in the Philippines Wendy finally found the courage to say goodbye to a very good friend of many years, "It just made sense; this bike was still in great shape, it's why I held on to it. But I wasn't using it anymore and I saw the benefit it could bring someone overseas."

And so the Trek journeys on. Within months, Wendy's old bike found a new home in a very different environment.

This Trek now belongs to Danilo, a junior at Concepcion Integrated School in San Simon, Pampanga Philippines. Rather than taking up space in our shed it is now improving Danilo's life allowing him to stay in school, get an education, and follow his dreams of becoming a police officer.

Danilo is the son of a vegetable farmer and housewife. He wants to become a policeman so that he can aid and protect his community. He realizes the value of an education but struggles to help support his family while staying in school due to the long commute.

Wendy's old bike will enable him to travel to school more efficiently, saving him time and energy. Many kids his age are forced to drop out of school when the family is faced with the choice of sending a teen to school or putting him to work in the fields. With this bike, Danilo will be able to save time on his commute to school AND still help his father out in the fields.

Before becoming a bike beneficiary, Danilo used to walk to school with his younger brother. The trip took Danilo 90 minutes on foot but now he can roll to school in a quarter of the time.

Every morning before school, Danilo heads to the cabbage fields his father tends and helps water the crops. Given the extreme heat in the Philippines, Danilo has to return to the fields immediately after school to water the crops again. The money he earns is shared with his family to help with expenses.

Now, with his bike, Danilo can make the trips to school and the fields much faster, giving him more time to devote to school, work, and after a long busy day, some much needed rest.

But given his desire to serve and protect...Danilo doesn't stop there. With the hours saved every day Danilo not only helps his family, but also the bike beneficiaries enrolled in the program. Danilo enjoys leading the community rides aimed at improving riding skills and teaching road safety to all the beneficiaries.

His leadership qualities shine through during these training rides and throughout the repair workshops at the school. He also stepped up to help build the bike room at the school. His bike coordinator reports that Danilo was always ready to do whatever job was needed whether that was mixing cement or laying the bricks for the walls. He is a very active volunteer in the program and always met everyone with a smile on his face.

"I am so happy that Danilo can use my old bike to stay in school. It is admirable that he wants to give back to his community by becoming a police officer. I'm also impressed how much he gives back to this program and the students who receive the bikes we donate. It makes so much more sense to give our old bikes a new home especially when we aren't using them anymore. Enjoy the ride Danilo!" Wendy, previous Trek owner, generous Trek donor said. 

A Girl With a Vision

This is Honey Jane, a determined young woman from a remote island in the Philippines. From her small village in Mindanao the opportunities available to kids her age seemed light years away.

In fact, her home city of Misamis Oriental might well have felt like living on another planet when looking at a map of her sprawling country of islands. Manila, the main city, was more than a day away and involved a trip by car and boat. The cost of a plane ticket was out of the question.

And yet, even as a young girl, Honey set her sights on what lay beyond Mindanao. At 14, Honey hopped on a boat and came to the main island of Luzon to see what she could find in the big city. While she was living with her cousin in Angono, she learned about the local arts school, Regional School for the Arts Angono (RLSAA).

Honey wasn't an artist. At this point she had even dropped out of school and was no longer a student. But her cousin's neighbor told her about RLSAA and how they offered free tuition. The school was also committed to re-enrolling out of school youth just like Honey.

Right about this time, Bikes for the Philippines (BfP) was being introduced into the school system. And out-of-school youth had become a focal point for the program. Getting students back in school earning diplomas was exactly what this education focused program was all about.

Len Carbonnel is the mathematics teacher at RLSAA and also the BfP bike coordinator for the school. When she heard Honey's story she couldn't get her a bike fast enough...and ultimately, back in class.

It wasn't long before Honey's grades started improving. At the beginning of this year, her senior year, she was recognized for her continued improvement. She loved her school, her family of bike beneficiaries, and her fellow photographers with whom she learned, played, and enjoyed life.

At graduation, Honey was all smiles as she clutched her diploma in one hand and her newly earned bicycle in the other. This girl had taken on the world and came out on top.

But now what? She was still the girl from a poor family on the far side of the Philippines. Opportunity still felt slightly out of reach.

Thanks to Bikes for the Philippines Honey still had a home around bikes. She was so thankful for the doors BfP opened for her she wanted to give back to the program after graduation. She joined the crew and volunteered to pay it forward. She became a mechanic, trainer, and overall mentor to younger cyclists, just like she had been.

Honey continued to impress everyone around her. This was a selfless woman who never gave up. She was clearly willing to learn anything and keep trying until she excelled at it. This would surely take her far in life.

Honey found out about a scholarship to a vo-tech school that would pay for her tuition, room and board, and any added fees associated with her training. Many of these scholarships actually go unfilled due to incomplete applications. But with the help of someone Honey met through the BfP program she successfully completed the application and turned it in. And she waited.

Then just this week, Honey took her first plane ride when she flew from Misamis to Manila for an interview to be accepted into the scholarship program. And within 24 hours, Honey found out she was one of the eleven scholars accepted into the program. She will now continue her education at the Technical Training Center where she will learn Mechatronics Servicing.

And yes, she is absolutely still biking!

Music Makes The World Go Round

“Music is the strongest form of magic,” Marilyn Manson. Bono says it like this, “Music can change the world because it can change people.” No matter your preference in music, band, or quote the message is the same. And no single act says it better than the collaboration between Canadian musicians from the band Unsung and the Orchestra from Regional Lead School of the Arts (RLSAA).

Music Makes The World A Better Place.

On December 21st students from the Philippines took the stage with students from Canada in a tribute concert affectionately named Musikleta. This effort was the brainchild of Christine Adela White, a Filipino-Canadian music director overseeing CW Music. 

Christine is also an avid cyclist and on a visit to the Philippines she met up with Bikes for the Philippines Director Joel Uichico who invited her to a graduation ceremony where some of our recent bike beneficiaries were being honored. She noticed that not many graduates were crossing the stage. Joel told her many students risked dropping out due to family financial burdens coupled with long commutes to walk to school. 

But Joel had a solution: bikes. And Christine wanted to help. She took all this back with her to Canada and introduced this struggle to her young music students, many of whom are also Filipino. They too wanted to help. So they did what they do best, played tunes.

They started doing benefit concerts to help the students Christine met during her visit to the Philippines. That's when Christine got the idea to do a collaborative concert with the students at RLSAA.

Why not just raise funds at home? Well they did. When the young Canadian musicians learned that the orchestra members they would be playing with didn't have money for fresh strings, they hit the stage. They held a benefit concert at a local restaurant to help buy new strings for their instruments.

"The orchestra has been using the same strings for 10 years. Some kids even used fishing line to practice." So new strings were purchased and delivered to the RSLAA orchestra members. "Their reaction to hearing the new sound of their strings was absolutely priceless."

And Christine wanted her students to see that joy for themselves. "For kids to actually be here (in the Philippines) to witness where their efforts are going, who is benefiting from it? It's gonna open their eyes."

"It feels good when you help somebody especially when you help them to get better education," Max , 12 year old guitarist for Unsung.

"Most importantly I'm looking forward to seeing all the smiles on the kids faces because they deserve these bikes," Aldrin, lead singer of the group.

The main objective of the concert was to raise funds for the bike program, but it became apparent early in the planning that both groups wanted to share this musical gift with everyone, especially students. They implemented a ticket purchasing program which would provide free tickets to school kids with the purchase of bulk ticket sales. 

“In the end, the purpose of raising funds for the foundation played second fiddle to sharing this concert performed by children for children. We had public and high school children watching as well as a group from an orphanage,” Joel Uichico, Director of Bikes for the Philippines.

The money raised during the benefit concert will go to help bike coordinators increase their impact on the program. The geographic challenges of operating a program in a country comprised of smaller islands with limited internet has been a consistent obstacle, but not one insurmountable.

Director Joel Uichico has added bike coordinators in the schools to monitor the bike beneficiaries who are also trained in safety, maintenance, and safe riding skills as part of the program. His goal is to supply phones to the coordinators for better communication and to also provide a travel stipend so they can visit other school programs to learn best operational practices.

Currently Bikes for the Philippines has donated bikes to 18 school districts on all three larger regions of the Philippines. Four schools remain actively involved in the Bikes for Education project. RSLAA, Concepcion Integrated School, Fatima, and Lourdes make up those four school districts and support hundreds of students enrolled in the program struggling to stay in school and graduate.

MABUHAY!

How My Bike Ended up Changing Lives in Mindanao

Maria Park graduated from the Friends School of Baltimore last year. For one of her final projects she contacted Bikes for the World to do a bike collection in honor of Earth Month at the school.

Maria and her father used to ride together on a trail near their house before she went away to college. Maria's dad bought a purple Huffy bike from a university student so he could ride with Maria. They donated it to Bikes for the World.

After that April collection, we loaded a container of bikes heading to the Philippines. We told Maria that her old bikes (she donated two) would likely end up helping students there. She was happy to know that her bikes would bring someone the same joy they had her.

Maria shared this memory soon after she donated the bikes: "One of my favorite things to do is ride on a wooded trail with my dad. The trail used to be a railroad line, and it runs by a river, grassy hills, and little towns. One little town called Monkton has a cafe with the best milkshakes. That cafe was the destination of our trips, but the journeys to and from it were almost more important. Quality father-daughter bonding time, the feeling of wind rushing by your ears, the beautiful leafy green that surrounded everything, the nice people we met along the way...I will always treasure the memories of riding these bikes together with my dad."

So we tried to track that purple Huffy to its new owner in the Philippines. And just last month it surfaced in Laak, Compostela Valley in the region of Mindanao, Philippines.

This is Jubanie Marquez, the new owner of that same purple Huffy from Baltimore Maryland. Jubanie lives in Laak and is an eighth grader at Don Vicente Romualdez National High School.

Jubanie is from a large family in a very poor community. Jubanie is at an age when many students are forced to drop out of school to either help out around the house or work outside the home to help with family expenses.

One of the reasons many students drop out of school is long commutes to school on foot. Jubanie was loaned a bicycle through Bikes for the Philippines to help cut down on his commute time.

Jubanie stands here with his new bike in front of his house. He has six siblings and two of them are married with children of their own. They are all living here in this small house, 13 total.

Like many people in this area the family's main source of income is from farming. His parents are harvesting corn this year, but they lease the farm so they can only keep 1/3 of the crop.

Jubanie's dad also picks up work as a chainsaw operator, but the work is temporary and doesn't provide much income regularly. They make just enough to get by day to day.

Jubanie's dream is to become a mechanical engineer someday and he is so glad to have this new bike to help him commute to school. His brother, Julito, and sister, Jeralyn, also received bikes this year through the Bikes for Education project.

95% of the bike beneficiaries at Don Vicente Romualdez come from households that earn less than $25 a month. For many families that is split between 5-10 people living under the same roof.

This house to the left is shared by seven people and it has no water or electricity. A beneficiary named Jericho lives here. Jericho's father used to have a good mill job, but after hurting his back has trouble finding work he can do without pain. Jericho wants to stay in school and hopefully get a good job after he graduates so he can help his father and his entire family.

Jericho lives more than three miles from school. He saves over two hours a day now that he can ride that distance to school.  He is also able to use his bike to help gather firewood and sometimes water for his family.

90% of the households in this area have no drinking water. Many people use corrugated sheets of metal to help collect rainwater because bottled water is just too expensive for many of these poor families. Bike beneficiaries are allowed to use their bikes for school and some home errands, like carrying clean water back to their houses. Bikes help cut costs and travel time which helps families save money for school fees, medications, and food.

With the recent addition of Don Vicente Romualdez NHS to the Bikes for the Philippines Education project, BfP is now the only bike project operating in all three regions of the Philippines.

We Can Do This

"We can do this!" the words of a little girl growing up too fast. Stressed by the hardships of her family, this young student will do anything to help her parents thrive.

"The reason why I haven't stopped going to school, it's so we can have a better life. So I can help my parents. It's been really hard."

Sheila Punzalan has eight brothers and sisters, two of them married and one that is physically challenged. Her family struggles to make ends meet and feels the burden of having a family divided between the classroom and the family business.

Many poorer families in the Philippines rely on the children in the household to help take care of younger siblings, to help with errands around the house, and in some cases to help bring in money from outside jobs.

Attending school often adds an increased burden on these families who need those helping hands at home rather than commuting to school and sitting through class. That can steal up to 12 hours a day and for a family with more than one student enrolled in school that can be quite an impact.

For many of these parents who have never finished school themselves, the time restraints often force them to similar conclusions. As their children struggle with long commutes that affect their attendance, attention in class, and ability to complete their school work, their grades often suffer. Some parents fail to appreciate the importance education can have on their lives and allow their kids to simply drop out.

Sheila's parents work in the fields

Sheila's mom is not one of those parents. "I'm proud of them because even though the distance to school is far, they still walk." But that said, she also expects Sheila to help around the house and care for her younger siblings as much as she can.

Sheila tearfully admits the long walk makes staying in school tough. She is often hot and tired after school and has a hard time concentrating on school work. Sometimes, on the way to school, they study for quizzes or think through projects during the walk. The last thing she wants to do when she gets home is work in the field or take care of her special needs sibling.

Sheila's dad is also a carpenter

Sheila shares all the same responsibilities of her parents. Everyone helps in the family business making and selling tables. Carpentry is a popular form of work in San Simon so competition is tough.

The family also tends to water spinach fields that can be found growing wild all over Pampanga. Unfortunately, because it is an abundant crop there isn't much money to be made. Some of the rice fields in the area are being converted to mango fields, but the fear is if too many of them switch over prices will drop due to over supply.

In addition to helping around the Punzalan household, Sheila is also in high school at Concepcion Integrated School. She knows the importance of staying school; she wants to be the first person in her family to graduate knowing that is the best path to helping her family survive and do well in life.

She is a role model to her younger siblings who look up to her and hope to follow in her footsteps. Only now, since Sheila and her sister and brother recently received bikes through the Bikes for Education program, they are weaving behind following her tire tracks at a much faster pace.

Since Sheila received her bike in August her teacher already sees a difference in her school work. Sheila herself admits, "My grades are improved. I'm rarely absent and I'm much happier."

She also enjoys taking part in community rides on the weekends. The activity improves her productivity both in school and at home. She is enjoying getting out on her bike to see where she lives and is appreciating her surroundings more and more every day.

More importantly, she is still in school and loves learning. She and her siblings have shaved more than an hour off their daily commutes leaving more time for homework and helping out around the house.

Covering a lot of Ground

More students. More bikes. This month marks another turnover of bikes for Bikes for the Philippines.

The latest group of students pedaling their way to class is from Lourdes High School on the island of Bohol, Philippines where the project first began in 2011.

Since that time, Bikes for the Philippines (BfP) has expanded to over a dozen school districts on all three island groups of the Philippines, with even more new schools slated for 2017.

Since BfP joined forces with the Department of Education, the Bikes for Education program really gained momentum. With DepEd behind the effort to bring bikes to students, the all-volunteer team behind BfP could barely keep up.

All donated bikes coming from Bikes for the World are inventoried and repaired by a dedicated team of volunteers in the main warehouse in Manila.  From there bikes are transported to schools up and down the island chain. What originally began on Bohol is now spreading across the nation.

While this is ultimately what the organization hoped for, the expansion brings plenty of challenges...all of which BfP is up for and figuring out. The growing impact is also strengthening the program as well as making better use of the shipments coming from BfW.

With the new school additions, came new terrain, making more of the bikes donated from the US useful to the program. Previously only mountain bikes were being used in some of the more mountainous areas. BfP has also expanded to include all ages of riders.

This past two years, BfP expanded to its first elementary school (Sto. Nino Baloc Elementary School) making use of smaller bikes. The first urban school (Regional Lead School for the Arts in Angono) started using road bikes for beneficiaries.

Moving the program to Luzon brought a lot of attention to the Bikes for Education program. Media coverage and visits to the more accessible schools introduced this successful idea to more supporters and corporate partners.

BfP is now partnered with DepEd to support their popular Pedals and Paddles Program to help students with difficult commutes to school. They have also found support through sponsors such as Metrobank, San Miguel, and Mitsubishi.

But boots on the ground, continues to impede progress. It's tough to keep so many schools rolling with so many miles and bodies of water in between. Like many of our other rural projects, BfP also struggles with the simple task of communication. Internet connectivity among the schools varies greatly throughout the Philippines. Each school budget also varies and possibly affects the quality and amount of equipment necessary to report back to BfP.

Barry is a teacher and bike coordinator

In an effort to combat this issue, BfP now requires each school district participating in the program to identify a bike coordinator who will be reporting back to BfP. The coordinators will be making sure the program is implemented properly, students receive the required training, and the overall success of the program continues to be measured.

As we saw in our African programs focused on volunteer health workers, motivation among volunteers needs to be addressed and efforts rewarded to ensure the success of the model. BfP is now working on incentives to inspire these volunteers.

The proper implementation of the program is very reliant on the reports of these bike coordinators. Bikes are issued to hand selected beneficiaries who struggle financially and live a great distance from school.

Support of the program within the school itself is essential but difficult to monitor from afar. BfP is now looking to ensure continued success of the program by training and supporting these bike coordinators at every school enrolled in the Pedals and Paddles Program.

Turning Talent Into Triumph

We are writers. We are graphic designers. We are musicians. We are actors. We are dancers. We are painters. We are photographers. WE Are Artists. We ARE Regional Lead School of the Arts.

These students are nurturing their talents and honing their crafts. Some want to use these skills in their careers; some want to come back and teach; some will go on to college; ALL will inspire the world through art.

The Regional Lead School of the Arts (RLSAA) was established in 2004 to help encourage and educate young artists. Today, they are inviting back graduates to continue their educations.

Previously, education in the Philippines was structured so that the academic year ended in what we know as their sophomore year. Those going on to college sometimes had to sit out a few years before being accepted. Because youth are not legally allowed to work until they are 18 this left a significant gap in their lives. 

RLSAA, last year, became one of the roll out schools in the Department of Education's new effort to close the gap by adding the final two years of education to their academic structure.

In addition to increasing the value of their education to students currently enrolled in school, this  also opened the door to previously graduated students to come back and further their educations.

Kwin graduated from RLSAA in 2008. He is now 22 years old and just re-enrolled in school. Kwin loves to dance and he is excited to continue his education in hopes of becoming a teacher to share this passion with his students.

Kwin lives with his father, grandfather, and four brothers and sisters. His commute to school included a 50 minute jeepney ride that cost $1each way. His bike saves him time and money, valuable resources to his family, where Kwin is a huge asset.

Kwin was selected as a bike beneficiary by Bikes for the Philippines to help make the transition back to school easier and lessen the impact on his family.

Thea graduated from RLSAA in 2014 and is now enrolled in college. Thea was among the first beneficiaries to graduate from RLSAA and we are proud to report...she is still riding a bike!

In fact, Thea now works at Skylark's Bike Shop where she picks up a couple shifts a week helping out in the shop. This extra income helps her family with school expenses while she continues studying fine art at the University of Rizal System in Angono.

Thea's boss, Carlo, has offered to pay her school fees next year.

Juni also graduated from RLSAA last year. Juni did not receive a bike through our program, but our bikes had an impact on him and in return he also left an impact on the program. Juni entered a logo redesign contest with Bikes for the Philippines and the current new logo is based on his design.

Juni is now enrolled in a training program at MFI Foundation where he is learning about automobile and motorcycle technology. Berjaiya/Mazda corporation is helping to make this possible.

Juni hopes to become an architect some day and return to RLSAA to train students. 

Getting Back To School

The desire to stay in school is often challenged by the need to drop out for many poorer children in remote areas of the world. In villages around the globe, where students often live several miles from school without affordable transportation, drop-out rates in high schools and even middle schools are soaring.

Yellow Boat of HOPE provides boats for Filipino students

Many rural communities often have rocky, narrow paths leading from students' homes to their far off schools. In the Philippines, which is a country of small islands, some students even have to cross water in order to attend school.

Adding to the challenge of simply getting to school, many families cannot afford to have their children away from home for long periods of time. Many are responsible for household chores, caring for siblings, and even working in the community to help their families.

As students become older and enter high school, their commutes often become longer, sometimes 2-3 hours of their days. They have less time for homework and find themselves tired in the classroom. For a family that may earn only $25 US a week, having that child drop out to help around the house is often better for the family.

But ultimately not better for the child. Or the community. Education is the key to making their communities better and their governments stronger. Shortening commutes and giving back the to the families the precious resource of time is a good place to start. And a bicycle is a great way to accomplish that.

In Honduras, one family is struggling with more than just how to get to school; Norma, the mother of three sons, cannot afford to send her oldest son back to school. When Ronaldo entered seventh grade, he was walking two hours every day in extreme heat, just to get to and from school. He ended up dropping out.

Now Ronaldo is 15 and wants to go back to school. He is the oldest of three boys and wants to set a good example for his brothers. He also realized he couldn't reach his potential without a degree. Unfortunately, his family did not have the economic resources to help him re-enroll.

But just this month, thanks to the partnership with Bikes for the World, Adelante, a micro-finance program in Honduras, is addressing this problem. They are not only assisting by getting bikes to rural areas to help kids with transportation to school, but they are also helping provide loans for school associated costs.

Profits from the bike project will help fund a Secondary Education Loan initiative created to support family's like Ronaldo's. This will help with the high cost of uniforms, textbooks, and administration fees required at the beginning of a school year allowing Ronaldo to fulfill his dream of continuing his education.

Bikes For Education

SHERWIN and RON NARBAY

For Ron and Sherwin a bicycle could be the difference between graduating and not finishing school at all. In fact, many students in Baclayon, a remote community on the island of Bohol Philippines, travel many miles every day just to get to and from school. With only one high school in the village, students are often forced to travel more miles once they move up in school. This burdens not only the student but the entire family as less time can be devoted to necessary household chores.

The road to the Narbay's

Ron and Sherwin leave their house at 5am every morning in hopes of arriving to school on time after walking the two hour commute. The rough roads of Baclayon are long and rocky. After the rain, the roads become dangerously slippery. Some students do not even have shoes and most cannot afford transportation IF it even approaches their homes.

Both Ron and Sherwin have fallen on the slippery terrain after running in an attempt to make it to school on time. Students are not allowed to enter the classroom if they are late. They must wait until the afternoon session, causing them to miss half the school day.

Rowena Narbay, mother of Sherwin and Ron

The boys admit it would be easier many days to just not go to school. But they also know that the small sacrifices are worth the end result. Their parents did not finish school and struggle to find work to make ends meet. When Sherwin asked his mom for a bicycle to make the trip to school easier, she reluctantly had to tell him they could not afford it.

After a long day at school and a two hour commute home, students are exhausted and often racing daylight. Sometimes they don't even have enough time to finish their homework after completing the household chores at night. Teachers have also found students tired and distracted in the classrooms.

Since Bikes for the Philippines partnered with Bikes for the World students who live over 3km from school became eligible to receive a loaned bicycle through the program. Students who had once dropped out completely came back to school through this program and at least one of them has graduated back into the mainstream education system. Teachers tell stories of students who are more focused and on time for school. Parents are proud to have their children enrolled and thriving in school. There's plenty of time of chores and homework and most importantly, hope for the future.

Ron and Sherwin tell their story to Ako Ang Simula, a local television program:
(with English subtitles)