Bikes for Education - Service Learning

Like many cyclists during Covid lockdowns, I have benefited so much from Zwift and all the opportunities for group rides and races, to the stage that it could be called an addiction! Scrolling through different events, before then choosing the 3R Saturday Selection race has been a regular habit of mine. One day reading the blurb about 3R, I started digging further into the work of World Bike Relief, especially in how providing bikes to help students get to school results in higher academic achievement. It really resonated with me and the situation most students face here in Madagascar.  

As a result I set up a service learning project with ten grade 9 students, which we named Bikes for Education. We were donated some old bikes that were in a very bad state and we have spent the year learning all about bike maintenance, as the students have been repairing them. They have learnt to change the tyres and chains; maintain the brakes; replace cables, pedals and seats; tune the gears and even make new wheels. 

 

The final job was fitting locally made pannier racks, which turn a bike into a people carrier - it is a common sight on the roads here to see bikes being used to transport several people and the weekly shopping 

This week the students took the first nine bikes to CEG Ampangabe, a middle school 18km outside of Antananarivo. The school is located along a dirt road that many mountain bikers would enjoy riding, especially as apart from ox carts and bikes it is pretty much traffic free and full of potholes and opportunities to get airborne. 

 Many of the students at the school are spending several hours a day walking to and from school. The school will be allocating the bikes to the students who are living the furthest away to reduce the time they spend walking and hopefully giving them a helping hand in their education. Thank you 3R and WBR for the inspiration!