100 Bikes for 100 Girls

Dear Bikes for Girls Supporters,

We are happy to be updating you on the progress we have made in Vietnam. First of all, thank you all for buying bikes for the girls! Everyone in Vietnam thanks you. Please see the link below to a short video promoting our Bikes for Girls program and see some of your bikes and the girls who have received them.

 As you can see on the faces of these beautiful girls, receiving a bike is incredibly special for them. Although I am not able to attend each and every ceremony, I have been to many and for me the most wonderful part is to see the girls climb onto the bikes and head off down the road together. It’s an unbelievable site. 

This year, depending on funding of course, we would like to try and give at least 20 bikes each month. We have already started with 20 bikes being distributed at the end of January, and another 20 planned for February.

We also have plans to bring another group of volunteers to Vietnam in July 2015 to work with us on the bike program, as well as take part in our art and music camps in ethnic minority villages. As you may know from previous reports, our staff in Vietnam, along with the employees from local bike shops, visit the girls 2-3 months after giving them their bikes. We provide a check of the bikes and repair what needs to be repaired. This approach has worked out OK so far, but as we provide more bikes, we definitely need a more sustainable plan for bike maintenance and training.

So this summer, we hope to team up with a U.S. group who teaches high school students here in the States to repair and conduct bike safety checks. Our goal is to provide similar training to some of the girls, and at least one woman in each village or school system so that we have someone local that the girls can go to if their bikes need repairing, or they need supplies. We are excited to get this part of the program off the ground.

Lots of people ask why give bikes only to girls, and why train a woman to repair the bikes and not a man. Well, the answer is simple; we want to empower girls and women to be self-reliant, especially when it comes to something as simple as their transportation. The more knowledge these girls and women own, the more likely they will have the tools to help themselves through life, and hopefully, eventually out of poverty. We want to give them a bike to be able to travel to school, but we also want them to know that we have confidence in what they can do!

So, we hope to put the “Bike Repair and Safety” team together for the summer to begin the training program and make this a permanent part of our Bikes for Girls program.

Again, we would like to thank all of you for buying bikes, and for helping sustain this program now for almost two years! Please let us know if you would like to volunteer somehow with us.

Thank you again,

Sara Nerone (Founder)

sara@rockpaperscissorschildrensfund.org

Links:

• 100 Bikes for 100 Girls on YouTube
• Join us on Facebook
• Visit our website