By Sara Stevens Nerone | Founder and volunteer!
Dear Friends,
To each of you who have supported us this year and throughout the past years, I want to say thank you! I just returned from Vietnam at the beginning of August after a month long trip to review our programs, work with our Vietnamese staff, and lead a group of volunteers from the states. During the month of July, we gave out 80 new bicycles and helmets, well, 81 to be exact! And since January, 120 girls have received bikes thanks to you.
Each summer my family and I lead volunteers to Vietnam to teach in our art and music after school and summer programs, run our summer camps and take part in giving and repairing bicycles. While we are there we always spend time visiting new communities with our Vietnamese staff, and this summer we visited a small, ethnic minority village up, over and into the mountains of Khanh Hoa in the district of Khanh Son. It was a beautiful drive to a small primary school where we were met by 20 girls and their parents waiting to receive new bikes. It was a great day, ending in an incredible hike up to a remote waterfall with the volunteers and local officials.
By the end of July we had also interviewed 44 girls who had received bikes from us in the past to evaluate how they had been using their bike, how it had held up, who else in their family used it, and other similar questions. We learned so much, and thanks to our volunteers this summer, especially Kate, Kayla, and Michele and our student translators for making this happen. What we learned was that the girls were not only using their bikes to ride to school, but almost 100% they were also supporting a friend getting to school by riding them on the back seat. We also found that mothers often used the bikes to get to work, and other siblings to get to their schools if their school day hours were different than their sister’s. The great news for us is that the program is accomplishing what we set it up to do, and that there isn’t much that we would change! The bikes are so beneficial to the girls and their families.
Another important piece of information that we learned from the girls and their parents is how much safer they feel riding the bikes than walking. It seems that especially the girls in high school are often riding home after dark and if walking, this is a dangerous time for them to be picked up by traffickers, or unfortunately abused by men along the road. Parents were clearly concerned about this, and felt that the bicycle was a much safer way for their daughter’s to travel.
So please accept our greatest thanks for donating the funding for us to purchase the bikes and helmets for the girls. Some day if you travel to Vietnam maybe you’ll see one of your bikes ride by! And if you would like to help us fund raise this fall/winter for us, please send me an email!
Thanks again,
Sara
Links:
By Huynh Thi Quynh Giao | Vietnam Program Lead
By Huynh Thi Quynh Giao | Vietnam project leader
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