Bicycles for Education

Volunteers in Olympia, WA load bicycles into
the shipping containter.

Once the bicycles arrived in Togo, it was
a long and difficult task to get them through
customs and onto the truck for transport.

Over 400 bicycles were donated to students
in central Togo.

Students were chosen based on family size,
income and distance from secondary school.

We are still accepting bicycle donations in the
greater Puget Sound Area in WA State.

Today in many rural areas of Africa, school children walk an average of 10 miles a day to and from school. As part of our efforts to empower disadvantaged students, we launched the Bicycles for Better Education project with the Global Alliance for Community Empowerment in the summer of 2004. We collect used bicycles to send to Togo and distribute to students in rural areas that have such a long way to walk to get to school.

View our Bicycles for Education project on Northwest Cable News.

Benefits for Communities and the Environment

This project has multiple benefits across the Togolese and American communities. The bicycles provide an incentive for children to participate in the educational process, since they greatly reduce the time students spend walking in the hot sun or rain. In addition, bicycles are a cheaper and cleaner way to travel than automobiles. This project also reuses valuable resources that would otherwise be thrown away.

First Delivery Completed

We completed the first delivery of bicycles in July 2006. We collected and distributed over 400 used bicycles to students in central Togo. The bikes were distributed in 14 small towns and villages, which were determined based on poverty level and distance to a secondary school. All secondary students in the target villages were encouraged to fill out an application for a bicycle, and the recipients were chosen based on household income, gender and distance from school.

While distributing the bicycles, we personally heard many positive comments, and we believe the bicycles will help increase the education participation rate tremendously in these villages, especially for the female students. We believe it was worth the cost and the many hours that it took to carry out this project. The gratitude of the students gives us strength and courage to continue with our socio-economic and environmental empowerment projects.

How to Participate

This is an on-going project, and we are preparing another shipment of bicycles to depart in the fall of 2007. Please visit the the Global Alliance for Community Empowerment website for details about donating in your area or other ways you can become involved.

Bicycle Project in the Media

Click here to see local news articles about our Fair Trade Shea Butter and our Bike Project:

• Northwest Cable News - Seattle 1-14-08
• The Seattle Post Intelligencer
• The Olympian
• Bainbridge Island Review