Gender Equality Vietnam Project #13980

100 Bikes for 100 Girls

by Rock-Paper-Scissors Children's Fund

Project Report | Nov 27, 2017
Giving Bikes in Cam Tam Vietnam

By Sara Nerone | Founder

To each of you who have supported us this year, we want to send our thanks and best wishes for the holidays! By the end of December 400 more girls will have received new bicycles and helmets!

Over the summer my two daughters and I lead another group of volunteers to Vietnam to teach art, music, run our summer camps and take part in giving 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 called Cam Tan. The families living in the village are very, very poor, we learned that the school in the village only goes to 5^th grade, and that after 5^th grade the majority of girls drop out and begin working in a fish packing plant near the coast. We spoke to some of these girls about their dreams and desires to return to school, and the difficulties in working 6-7 days a week, and very long, long hours packing fish. This job is very hard for anyone to endure, no matter young 14 or 15 year old girls…but this is common in Vietnam.

All of us feel so helpless when we hear these stories, it’s overwhelming to know that as a small non-profit that we are so limited by our funding. That being said, we still had funding to be able to buy 20 new bicycles and deliver them to some of the girls and families in the village. We wanted to share this joyous day with you all, and remind you of the incredible joy that your donation brings to these beautiful girls.

Happy Holidays, and if you would like to continue to help us support the girls, please spread the word by sharing this report for us on your Facebook page.

Thanks again everyone!

Sara, Sophie, and Phoebe Nerone

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Aug 28, 2017
Love Your Bike

By Sara Nerone | Founder

RPS Bike Repair

Dear Friends,

After living and spending a great deal of time over the years in Vietnam, and of course creating our Bikes for Girls program thanks to all of you, my daughter’s and I started to realize that we can’t obviously just give new bikes to girls and then not provide any follow up with tune-ups and repairs. So, over the past year we have been piloting a small program in Vietnam where we go to schools in poor, rural areas and repair student’s bicycles who are in need, spending up to a week or more at each school. Although we decided to include boys in this program as well, the girls who receive our bikes can bring their bikes to school to have them repaired as needed. We call this the “Love your Bike” program!

While in Vietnam, leading a volunteer trip during the month of July, we finally got to see our program in full swing. Although school was out, a local Red Cross office invited 60 poor children from a small, rural, village to bring their bikes to us for repair, and over the course of three days, along with our volunteers, and our bike mechanic, we repaired all 60. The kids rode their bikes in, some without seats, only a few with working brakes, some with no brakes at all, and even some without chains, and rode home on a safe, working bicycle.

Also, while we were in Vietnam we held four bike givings and gave 80 girls new bikes. No matter how many times we attend our bike giving ceremonies, they are still so wonderful. As you may already know, we give 20 bicycles out at a time so that we can make sure that we learn about each girl, and make sure that the bike that they are receiving is adjusted properly for them. At the end of each bike giving we also provide a quick bike maintenance training to the girls so that they know exactly how to store their bikes, how to clean their bikes, and make sure that they know how to adjust and pump up the tires. We also discuss safety with them and how to properly wear their helmets.

So far this year, because of you, 240 girls have already received new bicycles, pumps, tubes and helmets!

Please help us to continue to give more bikes to girls in need, consider sharing our story and/or give the gift of a bicycle to a girl in the name of a friend or family member on their birthday, during the holidays, or just for love.

Thank you everyone! Happy soon to fall!

Sara

Bikes for Girls, Cam Tan Village

Bike Repair 2017

Bikes for Girls

Bike repair day

Bikes for girls

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May 31, 2017
Bikes for Girls-A GlobalGiving Girl Fund Winner

By Sara Stevens Nerone | Founder

April 2017 giving bikes

Dear Friends,

First, let me just say, thank you to all of you, from myself and my two daughters and our volunteers for helping us win the GlobalGiving Girl Fund! At the end of March, thanks to so many; our personal friends here in Rhode Island and around the country, and so many more that contributed to our bikes for girls project, we won first place in the GlobalGiving Girl Fund for 2017! What this means is that GlobalGiving will be helping us fundraise for the rest of the year and helping us to provide more girls living in poverty in Vietnam with bikes and helmets to get to school! Thank you everyone!

As has been throughout the history of Vietnam, the motorbike and the bicycle are the two main forms of transportation, and remain so today. For those who can’t afford a motorbike or bicycle, walking long distances to buy food, go to school and even getting to medical care, is often their only choice. When my daughters and I lived in Vietnam in 2011-2012, before starting this non-profit, we rode bicycles all around the countryside, often being swept up in a sea of bicycles leaving the local schools in the afternoon. It was an amazing experience. We couldn’t help but notice how many kids carried other kids on the backs of their bikes, and how many bikes were broken in disrepair, with flat tires, no brakes, etc…hence the lightbulb to start this program was turned on!

Many people have asked, “why only girls?” Well, first of all, my late husband and I adopted both of our daughters from Vietnam, and I wanted to celebrate them and where they came from. I read a lot about the lack of assistance provided to girls in Southeast Asia in general, and the difficulties young girls face in trying to go to, and remain in school. Many are laden with the additional responsibility of their younger siblings when parents work, and often are the first to drop out of school because of the extra domestic dependency put upon them. We wanted to celebrate and honor these girls in giving them new bicycles and continue to encourage and empower them to stay in school.

Please, if you haven’t seen it already, take the time to watch this live Facebook feed of one of our bike giving ceremonies. Some friends of ours from Rhode Island were in Vietnam volunteering in our art and music classes and took part in one of the bike givings. Go here--it’s a great way for you to see your donations at work:

https://www.facebook.com/RockPaperScissorsChildrensFund/videos/1474050589274515/

Again, thank you so much to all of you who donated in March as part of the Girl Fund and to all those who continue to support us year round!

Sara Nerone

Bikes for girls

Happiness

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