100 Bikes for 100 Girls

Dear Friends,

We want to thank all of you so much for your donations throughout December and January! We are so grateful to all of you for helping us bring bicycles to girls in Vietnam, supporting them with their journey to school. Today I would love to share another story of a girl who received a bike.

This is Yen, she is 17 years old and a senior in high school. She received her bike from us when she was in 9^th grade. Yen’s mom passed away when she was in 3rd grade, and when we first met her in 2016 she was living with her Aunt and Uncle and their children. Her father works far from home in a southern province of Vietnam and he sends back home 2,000,000vnd ($86USD) every month for Yen, her brother and her grandmother to live on. School is not free in Vietnam, so school fees come from this as well.

Once Yen got into high school she had to ride her bike 12 km one way to school, this was taking her about one hour each way. Because of the distance kids often share a room somewhere close to the school and then go home on the weekends. Yen started doing this, but now in her last year of high school her grandmother, who was living with a relative near Saigon, moved back to her home, and Yen must take care of her after school there.

The rural road that Yen rides her bike to school on is considered very dangerous for someone who is traveling alone. Girls particularly try to ride or travel in groups because of this. There are many young and middle-aged men out of work and drinking; alcoholism is rampant in these areas. One of Yen’s friends was harassed by a gang of boys on her way home from school in the middle of the day, so many of the girls, including Yen, are very fearful of this. It’s known that even boys can be harassed by these gangs as well.

Every day after school Yen must take care of her grandmother and their house. She cleans, does all of the chores and tries to keep up with her schoolwork. The villagers in this area do not have access to clean, drinkable water, because the groundwater has been contaminated in this area. Although they use it for washing, they receive drinking water from the local church.

Yen is deciding on whether to continue school after high school, and if she does, she says she will go to the vocational school in Nha Trang city, about 1.5 hours away from her home by bus. We have encouraged Yen to stay in school and we are so proud of her for completing High School and doing so well.

Thank you all for this wonderful gift to Yen and to all the other girls, even something as simple as a bicycle helps these girls get to school each day.

Sara

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