High school Archives

08/01/202316/02/2023

1, 000 bikes for girls’ education and young women’s leadership in Malawi

As part of my bicycles-for-girls-education PhD, I am always on the look out for inspiring projects where bicycles create change. This week, I came across a join venture between CAMFED and The Clara Lionel Foundation from a few years ago. Enjoy! NG.

CAMFED and The Clara Lionel Foundation delivered over 1,000 bicycles to girls and young women in the Salima District of Malawi.

These bicycles are part of a comprehensive aid program offered to high school students, with the potential to revolutionize the opportunities for girls who confront up to 10km (6 miles) commutes to and from school.

The success and longevity of this initiative will depend on the CAMFED Association (CAMA) network, as they acquire proficiency in entrepreneurship, bike upkeep, and repair skills.

The collaboration between CAMFED and the Clara Lionel Foundation is facilitating the continuation of secondary education for 7,500 Malawian girls, a crucial effort considering the low 30% enrollment rate of females in secondary school due to insufficient facilities and long distances.

These bicycles has generated a lot of attention in rural communities where girls often face challenges commuting to school, such as exhaustion and hunger from walking and attending to household duties. The bicycles provide a pathway for academic success in rural areas.

This programme is part of a wider and multifaceted strategy to remove obstacles to girls’ education, which also includes paying for school fees, peer mentoring, supplying necessities like sanitary pads, and bridging huge distances from home to school.

The Malawian alumni of CAMFED programmes are essential to bringing about change for the next generation of females. CAMA members serve as mentors and role models in rural areas where there are few female teachers and professionals. So far alumni have helped 20,000 females pursue education in just five years.

See more on this project here.

THE CLARA LIONEL FOUNDATION

The Clara Lionel Foundation is a non-governmental organization founded by the singer and entrepreneur Rihanna in 2012. The foundation aims to support and fund education, health, and emergency response programs around the world. It prioritizes initiatives that promote education and provide access to healthcare in impoverished communities, particularly for girls and women. The foundation also works towards disaster relief and climate change resilience. The foundation partners with local organizations to achieve its goals and has provided significant support to countries in the Caribbean, Africa, and the United States.

CAMFED

CAMFED (Campaign for Female Education) is a non-governmental organization that aims to eradicate poverty and improve the educational opportunities of girls in sub-Saharan Africa by supporting them through primary and secondary school and into adulthood. The organization provides assistance with school fees, mentorship, and life skills training to ensure that girls are able to complete their education and become confident and economically independent leaders in their communities. Since its founding in 1993, CAMFED has helped over 4 million students in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, and Malawi.

22/11/202114/05/2022

#andshecycles, Irish girls and Green-Schools Travel

In Ireland, fewer than 1 in every 250 school girl rides a bike to school. This is despite the fact that bikes are an environmentally friendly and healthy mode of transportation. While the number of boys who cycle to school has been steadily increasing over the years, the number of girls remains relatively static. So why aren’t more girls cycling?

An Taisce is an Irish heritage charity that is working to address this issue. Their campaign is called #andshecycles aims at exploring the root cause of what makes teenage girls hesitant in commuting to their schools and colleges on bicycles. It was important to find out what was the cause, so the campaign involved interviewing many students, teachers, parents, and psychologists to get a solid grasp of what was going on.

One reason may be that teenage girls feel unsafe cycling on busy roads. They may also feel self-conscious about their appearance, especially if they don’t have the right equipment or clothing. Additionally, some girls may simply not have access to a bike.

The most common causes turn out to be peer-pressure, self-consciousness and harassment, which makes girls reluctant. Many girls said they feel ‘judged and intimidated’ by boys and men when cycling to school.

Many young girls expressed their concerns with the school uniforms which made it difficult for girls to bike. Some added on a lighter note that the helmets and high vis jackets can also scare off people from riding bicycles. It usually collides with the fashion statements. However, Caitriona Buggle from the campaign expressed that the addition of colourful helmets could make a statement that ‘Safety can be Sexy.’

Whatever the reason, it’s clear that more needs to be done to encourage Irish girls to cycle to school. The #andshecycles campaign is a step in the right direction, and with more awareness and education, hopefully more girls will soon be cycling to school safely and confidently.

An Taisce’s campaign #andshecycles was launched at Dublin’s Science Gallery. Many young girls attended the campaign and it went viral on social media.

The campaign’s panelists stressed the fact that girls needed more role models on wheels. It is necessary for an active and healthy lifestyle. Young girls were encouraged to get back on their bicycles.

Sylia Thompson from The Irish Times published an article (and video) on this issue and reported Jane Hackett, manager of the Green Schools travel programme as saying: “We have been working with schools around the country to increase cycling numbers for over ten years. Because of this work we realised that although teen girls wanted to cycle the numbers weren’t increasing at the same levels as their male counterparts. So we asked why, and #andshecycles was born.”

Let’s hope the #andshecycles campaign gets more Irish girls on bikes!

14/07/202130/09/2021

Bike art as education

Working with bikes in creative ways is an ongoing theme for this blog.

So is education.

So it makes me particularly happy when I see these two passions combined.

Previously, I’ve posted on a wide range of bike art projects, like:

This week, I found an article written by Deb West (Adjunct Instructor at The Art of Education University). Deb is a retired art teacher of 25 years experience whose motto is ‘Together we ART better!’ The article I read was Why bike studies are the perfect end-of-the-year project (see below).

..and I loved how thoughtfully she had combined bikes, art, and education!

In her lesson (see below), Deb outlines an art lesson that uses various techniques focused on bikes as ‘the subject’. She also explains the reasoning for each step, ideas for extensions and how to ‘level up’ this activity.

As a teacher, I appreciate her generous ideas, resources, and suggestions – it is all outlined clearly with samples of students work-in-develop to illustrate each technique. So helpful!

Regardless of whether you are an art teacher or not, if you are teaching kids at school, home, or yourself, this is a great activity for everyone.

So let’s dive into Deb’s bike art class!

Happy art biking!

All below content and images are attributed to Deb West.

Why Bike Studies are The Perfect End-of-the-Year Project

You know you have a great lesson when you keep coming back to it, refining it, and changing it up year after year. That’s how I feel about this bike study drawing lesson. I’m always excited to introduce it to my students, and they always anticipate doing it!

Like many good lessons, this lesson is challenging. I save it for the end of the semester in my Art II class, so I know they are well-prepared.

Why bikes?

There are 3 main reasons I like to have my students draw bikes.

It helps develop their skills even further. Although my students draw from life daily, drawing bikes takes their skills to the next level. There are so many details to observe and capture.
The assignment can help build students’ portfolios. Some art colleges require bike studies as part of their application process.
It can lead to scholarships. This lesson can also be a great way to get your students to create a scholarship-winning piece because, let’s face it, drawing bikes is tough! Students have to look, measure, and be exact. And, they have to pay attention to details that often go unnoticed.

The Lesson

I’ve been teaching this bike study lesson for ten years. I’d love to share how to get started as well as some ways to take the lesson to the next level.

Step 1: Contour Studies

I always have students start with several contour studies of a bicycle. These are quick sketches to loosen them up and calm their artistic nerves.

Step 2: Graphite

Once the contour studies are complete, students begin focusing on specific areas of the bike and draw with graphite in full detail. We discuss how the light reflects off the metal and how to capture that reflection through drawing.

Step 4: Charcoal

Finally, students finish up their study by working in charcoal.

Throughout the first four steps, students are encouraged to take photos of the bike. They draw both from life and their photos. This method gives them the ability to evaluate the details needed to make these drawings believable.

Step 5: Putting It All Together

The most fun part of this lesson comes right when they think they are finished. This is when I give them three days to create a composition using their bike studies creatively. I set the art room up as an open studio. Students can create reliefs, collages, and add mixed media into their negative space. Of course, throughout this process, they are considering how these additions will help emphasize the bike work. These works remain black and white and are always a big hit when we display them!

Taking it to the Next Level

You could amp up this lesson in so many ways. This past year, instead of having just one bicycle, I added a few more. Our setup even included an antique Radio Flyer tricycle I found at a local thrift shop.

In addition, I had a colleague visiting from overseas who helped me brainstorm another way to make this lesson even more engaging. Dr. Lexi Lasczik is a mark-making master artist who came to my school to work with my students for several days.

Her idea was to have students use their whole bodies as they drew quick studies of the bike on 24” x 36” drawing paper in sixteen timed sections. We challenged students to complete studies in ten to thirty-second bursts. We even made them switch hands!

It was beyond exciting to watch the students! They were so energized. After the first few studies, they lost their fear of failure and began to realize this exercise could be an amazing learning tool!

Once they completed the first sixteen timed studies, they turned their papers over and did another sixteen, but this time they used ink and sticks and again, the room palpitated with artistic excitement!

In this case, for the final project, students took their three detailed studies as well as their mark-making studies and combined them into a new composition.

I also had them incorporate one color into their piece, and the results were spectacular!

It’s always fun to see how the learning process shows up in the final work. I believe it’s learning at its best!

What objects do you use to teach your students still life?

Have you used bikes to teach your students to draw?

31/05/202127/07/2021

My Teaching and Learning Manifesto

I have been thinking a lot about what teaching and learning means to me.

I am entering the last year of my bikes-for-education PhD research while continuing to work amidst a range of significant social, political, economic, health and educational changes.

I thought about what informs, sustains and inspires my personal pedagogy – and I am grateful for the opportunities that I have – and the opportunities I get to share with others.

As part of this reflection, I wrote my first ever Teaching and Learning Manifesto.

I did this to identify what was most important to me – a kind of reinforcing personal statement.

It is a public declaration of my educational principles, approaches or intentions.

It was challenging, revealing and reassuring to do – and totally worth it!

My manifesto has 12 leading principles that encapsulate my current approach to teaching and learning.

My manifesto outlines what and how I co-create my educational passion.

I will update it regularly to incorporate changes over time.

Below is my Teaching and Learning Manifesto (2021).

My Teaching and Learning Manifesto. Bicycles Create Change.com. 31st May 2021. — Nina’s T & L Manifesto (2021)

27/05/202122/07/2021

Educational Case Study. Lewis and Clark Reloaded: The 3,041-Mile Bike Trail.

I was cruising the internerd (internet) looking for some bike-related teaching and learning resources, which I do from time to time … and see what and how teachers and subjects might use bicycles in learning environments – whether primary, secondary or at uni.

Keep in mind, this is using bikes IN the classroom (like to teach core concepts), not getting TO the classroom (which is my PhD focus). Previously, I have posted on:

The week, I came across Lewis and Clark Reloaded: The 3,041-Mile Bike Trail.

Lewis and Clark Reloaded: The 3,041-Mile Bike Trail.

This is a case study is written by Mary Rose Grant (School for Professional Services
Saint Louis University, USA) and it is a teaching resource for high school or undergrad students and best suited for classes like Biology, Physiology, Sports Science, Legal studies. A full copy of the case study is publically available on the National (USA) Centre for Case Study Teaching in Science (USA) website. Or click the link below.

The case study is a handout that has 4 parts:

Lewis & Clarke Reloaded Full Case Study Download

Part I—The Adventure Begins … and Comes to a Screaming Halt: provides the introduction and scenario and 3 questions.
Part II—A Change of Scenery: The storyline continues and provides more physiological details including dialogue and physiological/medical statistics for details and 3 questions.
Part III—A Dangerous Detour: brings the case study to a close and the dialogue leads to an analysis of what happened to the characters. Includes a role-play activity and 2 questions.
Summary Questions: 9 summary questions for discussion and further analysis.

Overall Scenario

Frank and Joe are 24-year-old fraternal twins who share similar interests, including cycling. The brothers decide to attempt their first long-distance bicycling trip, retracing the journey of early American explorers Lewis and Clark to the Northwest. Along the way, serious problems arise. Students review normal physiology of organ systems as well as changes that occur during physical exertion to piece together an understanding of the medical condition of one of the cyclists. The pivotal point in the case is learning that seemingly harmless and legally available substances can lead to potentially fatal outcomes, affecting organ systems already taxed beyond normal limits. This case is designed for use in a human biology course after students have learned about the integumentary, respiratory, cardiovascular, neuromuscular, and urinary systems.

Objectives

Understand physiological changes and adaptations organ systems make with physical exertion over an extended period of time.
Define the term “ergogenic aid” as applied in sports and exercise.
Identify the effects of caffeine on different organ systems.
Discuss the role of caffeine as an ergogenic aid in endurance sports.
Explain the side effects of caffeine intoxication.
Identify potential dangers of caffeine use in combination with other substances.
Practice critical thinking and analytical skills to make a diagnosis.
Examine legal implications of caffeine use, or “doping,” before competition.
Analyze ethical issues of using caffeine, or any ergogenic product, to enhance performance in amateur and professional sports.

I was surprised to see how popular this case study was!

Apparently, it is has been picked up by many schools and unis.

A quick online search showed this resource has been widely used and adapted as you can see here. Below are some examples of various reiterations.

Kristal Huber published her Prezi adaptation which included a few original additions:

GraduateWay extended the original case study to include two parts. The first part was mostly on par with the original case study. The second part is more developed in the role play and has more probing questions:

Educational Case Study. Lewis and Clark Reloaded: The 3,041-Mile Bike Trail. Bicycles Create Change.com. 27th May 2021.

For answers, I appreciate the factual simplicity and directness of student Valarie Parra’s approach, which was:

Educational Case Study. Lewis and Clark Reloaded: The 3,041-Mile Bike Trail. Bicycles Create Change.com. 27th May 2021.

I was surprised at how popular and well-used this resource was. It is well thought out and there are lots of details in there to get discussion and debates going as well as factual knowledge and concepts that in some courses might be considered ‘must-know’ content.

As a bike rider, I prefer to see bikes (and riders) portrayed in a positive light (and not having accidents or ‘health or medical issues’ while riding), but I can overlook that for the sake of pedagogy.

It is also nice to see a more advanced resource out there for adults learners as well.

More learning with bikes, please!

17/09/202021/11/2020

Korean teacher uses bike to teach classes for students missing out on online COVID lessons

Teachers who use bikes to make education and learning more equitable is always inspiring. Previously, I posted on Afghani teacher Saber Hosseini who rides his bicycle laden with books out to rural villages in the mountains so locals there who have no access to books can learn to read and have an opportunity to read. The story is about Korean teacher Rudra Rana who rides his bike out to teach kids who do not have access to online classes during COVID lockdown. Although the bike in this story is motorized, given the rough terrain, I’m counting Rudra’s story as an opportunity for all riders and bike types (motorized and pedal) to be better utilized in educational access. This story comes via Asian News International (posted by Amrita Kohli). Enjoy! NG.

Rudra Rana is a government school teacher in Chhattisgarh’s Korea district. He travels on his bike with a blackboard strapped to his back to educate children in ‘mohalla’ classes amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

While speaking to ANI, Rana said that since many students did not have access to online education and all schools remained closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, he thought of educating them by bringing ‘school at their doorstep’.

“Very few students were able to join the online classes, so we started mohalla classes. So I thought of this method. This also ensures the safety of both teachers and students as there is no contact. As students can’t go to schools, I’m bringing education to their doorstep,” said Rana.

“I have also kept a blackboard, books and placards with me. I ring the bell and then students come, just like normal school routine, then students perform their prayers and we start with the classes as per syllabus,” he added.

Rana further said, “I travel from one region to another, gather students and educate them about coronavirus and their subjects. Even students are coming forward and showing interest while the locals are appreciating the initiative.”

“The umbrella on my bike represents a new way of educating students. It also protects me from heat and rain,” he added.

Speaking about the importance of these classes during the pandemic, Shilp, a student said: “We get to learn a lot from these classes. Sir comes here daily and teach us and also answer our doubts. We are enjoying this method of teaching.”

“Sir teaches us different concepts and later we study them on our own. We miss school but this concept is also nice as it feels just like we’re at school,” said Suraj, another student.

Earlier, a government school teacher Ashok Lodhi pleased many with his efforts of educating students by travelling on his bike with an LED TV to educate children via cartoons and music. He had also garnered heaps of praises for his unique initiative and was nicknamed ‘Cinema Wale Babu’ by the local residents of the Korea district.

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the Chhattisgarh government had earlier launched an online portal, ‘Padhai Tuhar Duar’, that provided education to students stuck at their homes amid the lockdown.

The state government took the scheme further in August and introduced ‘Padhai Tuhar Para’, which aims to teach children with the help of community in their localities and villages.

20/07/202012/09/2020

Belize: Bikes for Caye Caulker’s Ocean Academy students

This blog prides itself on brings you stories and projects from around the world where bicycles create positive social and environmental change. It has been while since we visited Central America. Last time we were there, we looked at the growing popularity of Ciclovía de Los Domingos or Sunday bikeways. We also checked in to meet Mexico City’s first Latin American Bike Mayor, Areli Carreón and heard some reflections from our guest blogger Diana Vallejo on what it is like to be a Colombian non-rider. Today, we are heading to Belize to see how bicycles are helping support local kids not only stay in school, but also generate some income. Enjoy! NG.

Screen Shot 2020-08-25 at 5.31.00 am — Ocean Academy student Micheal. Image: Planterra Foundation

Belize is a small Caribbean country in northeastern Central America. It has many beautiful islands and atolls and is a popular tourist destination.

However, life for locals can be difficult. Belize is ranked 166 in the world based on GDP, around other lower-income countries like Lesotho, Suriname and Timor Leste.

Caye Caulker is one of Belize’s beautiful islands. Like many other islands, it has shifted from traditional life to embrace a different way of life in order to survive. Caye Caulker’s now depends on ts hospitality and tourism industry. While tourists enjoy natural environs and leisure activities, life is very different for locals.

Being such a small island, there are limited services. Previously, the Caye did not have a high school. This meant that when local children turned 12, they would have to move to the mainland if they wanted to continue their studies. This is not only financially difficult, but having a young family member away can be stressful and add extra pressure for struggling families, so many would not continue their studies and stay on the Caye. This meant there was a growing population of youths who had not completed their education.

Addressing a Critical Need

This situation is an obvious problem for the young students and families of the remote island of Caye Caulker. In many cases, it is not possible for students to travel to the mainland to receive a quality education.

This barrier leads many by the age of 12, to choose to quit school and join the workforce. Nation-wide, only 40% of secondary-aged youths are enrolled in school.

Opening a local high school – Ocean Academy

The Ocean Academy school opened in 2008 as the very first community high school on the island of Caye Caulker.

There are currently 58 students enrolled in the Academy.

Its programs aim to reduce school dropout rates and reverse the growing unemployment issue by providing hands-on and practical tourism education, in addition to the traditional curriculum.

How Planterra Foundation helped

Planeterra raised donations to fund needed bicycles and other materials for the Ocean Academy to develop a student-led bicycle tour of the island. Planeterra also connected the Ocean Academy to a market, G Adventures travellers, on some of G’s tours that visit the island.

This activity is included into some of G Adventures, and bike rentals are available for all travellers, with proceeds funding educational programs for the students at Ocean Academy.

Impact: Student-led bike tours

This project aims to provide youth on Caye Caulker with training for future employment opportunities. It is a social enterprise in tourism, giving students from Caye Caulker’s Ocean Academy the chance to practice guiding skills while giving traveller’s a unique experience on their visit to Caye Caulker.

Ocean Academy prepares students for careers relevant to island tourism and conservation science. In order to ensure the success for the new program, Planeterra supplied Ocean Academy’s Bike with Purpose program with 40 extra bikes at the beginning of the partnership.

This meant students could show tourists around, gaining valuable leadership, communication, business and tourism skills that can then be taken forward. Costs for the student-led bike tours all go to the students.

This is a wonderful example of how bicycles can be used to help support local education, families and employment opportunities. Key to this approach is integrating and enhancing already established local initiatives (the Academy) as well as addressing a need that has immediate and long-lasting positive impacts for local youths and their families.

Bicycles really do create change!

Content for this post sourced from Planterra Foundation

09/12/201901/01/2020

AARE – Australian Association of Research in Education 2019 Conference

The Australia Association for Research in Education (AARE) annual national conference was held in Brisbane this week.

I was supposed to be in Cape Town (South Africa) presenting at two conferences: The 2019 New Materialist Reconfigurations of Higher Education Conference (Dec 2-4th 2019)and then straight after that conference Pedagogies in the Wild – the 3^rd South African Deleuze & Guattari Conference on 4-6^th December.

But I withdrew due to rising safety concerns UWC was shut down following heated local protests against gender-based violence, rape and femicide during the recent World Economic Forum that continued to escalate.

What is AARE?

AARE is Australia’s premier network for educational researchers. A key aim for AARE is to inform and improve policy and practice in education – and share these insights with other interested parties.

AARE blog is where experts share opinions, raise questions and explore education themes and issues.
AARE has an impressive range of special interest groups (SIGs).
The annual conference is the most popular AARE offering. Each year, local educational professionals from Australia and around the world come together to network, share ideas and hear about the latest educational research, projects and approaches. Here are some keynote presentations from past conferences and some past papers.

AARE 2019 Conference

The theme for this conference was ‘Education for a Socially Just World.

The sessions on offer are extensive (dare I say overwhelming?).

The truncated program of abstract titles only alone is 274 pages – click here.

The complete program (full abstracts) is a whopping 1162 pages – click here.

So many great sessions to choose from – and some very big names.

As I am a researcher working with New Materialisms, I definitely wanted to go to and see independent (New Materialist) scholar Bronwyn Davies.

In order to save my sanity, time and effort I just decided to stick with seeing what the Post- Structural Theory SIG had on offer – and then go to any other sessions/speakers who caught my eye.

Here, in no particular order are some of my hot tips for AARE 2019 sessions:

Sarah Healy (Melbourne Uni), Alli Edwards (Monash Uni), Alicia Flynn (Melbourne Uni). Welcome to the Playtank! Re-_____ing research.
David Bright (Monash Uni). Qualitative inquiry and Deleuze and Guattari’s minor literature: In which I consider verisimilitude as a criterion for judging the quality of qualitative writing with reference made to Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse 5 albeit not really in the telegraphic schizophrenic manner of tales of the planet Tralfamadore. (I went to this session and it was amazing! It ended up winning the Best Session Award 2019 for the whole conference – and rightly so!).
Parlo Singh (Griffith Uni) and Gabrielle Ivinson (Manchester Metropolitan Uni, UK). Radical Inclusion Research in/with Schools Serving High Poverty Communities.
Sarah E. Truman (Melbourne Uni), David Ben Shannon (Manchester Metropolitan Uni, UK). Queer textualities and temporalities: speculating-with Alpha Centauri.
Lucinda McKnight (Deakin Uni), Melissa Wolfe (Monash Uni) and Bronwyn Davies (Independent scholar). Is new materialism incompatible with social justice? Panel Discussion with Professor Bronwyn Davies.
Maria Ejlertsen (Griffith Uni). “I don’t fit in, I fit out”: Enabling more-than inclusive spaces for student belonging and engagement with school through attention to more-than-human entanglements of spacetimematter.

I went for the full three days and to as many sessions as I could (these were just a few).

I also went to the below session which was the first in a series of AARE Post-Structuralist SIG Event Series feat. Professor Bronwyn Davies funded by AARE Poststructural Theory SIG Major Grant 2019. See abstract below.

Exploring the poetics and the ethics of new materialist inquiry: Professor Bronwyn Davies

As researchers, our task is to get inside the processes of those materialisations of the world that we encounter (where encounter is not a collision but a mutual affecting and being affected); it is to find or generate the concepts that will enable us to see those encounters not in normative, already-known terms, but in ways that open up new possibilities for sensing and responding, for becoming sense-able and response-able. That is the ethics of new materialism.

And what of the poetics? New materialist research is necessarily playful. It crosses disciplinary boundaries, messing those boundaries up; it works with new and emergent philosophical concepts, bringing them to life through art, poetry, literature; it enters into the very specificity of sensual existence as it is caught in a moment of spacetime and simultaneously opens up, or finds its way into life itself. Through such explorations it seeks to break loose from old dogmas, old methods, old binaries—all the paraphernalia of a normalized set of thoughts and practices that place the individual human above and separate from the world, and that constrain research through the repetition of the already-known. It seeks to open up thought, giving space to emergence of new ways of understanding, new ways of becoming, throwing off the shackles of the clichéd conventions of rationality and order.

In the workshop following this paper, I will present one or more of my own explorations that begin with where I am, or slip right into the middle, and then reflect on what was involved in going there. What re-conceptualising was involved? What new practices? What ethics? What poetics? I will then open up that exploration with the audience, inviting them to shift from being audience to becoming participants, giving them an opportunity to talk and write about something that matters to them in their encounters with more-than-human relationality, that called/calls on their sense-ability and response-ability.

27/01/201918/02/2019

The Orange Bike Project in the Phillipines

For many years, World Bicycle Relief (WBR) has supplied bicycles to some of the world’s most vulnerable people to help increase access to education, healthcare and income-generation opportunities. WBR has a number of corporate sponsors and partnerships. This story details a unique collaboration between WBR, ING Bank and World Vision, called the Orange Bicycle Project. This story comes courtesy of WBR and serves as a reminder that bicycles really do create change. Enjoy! NG.

Dutch financial institution ING has built their corporate purpose around “empowering people to stay a step ahead, in life and in business.” While ING remains committed to this purpose in their day-to-day banking work, they also wanted to integrate it into their corporate giving efforts.

And if they could find a way to honor their Dutch bicycling heritage at the same time, even better! The organization did just that by developing a sustainable transportation relief program: the Orange Bike Project.

The Orange Bike Project in the Phillipines. Bicycles Create Change.com. 27th Jan, 2019. — Image: World Bicycle Relief

ING collaborated with World Bicycle Relief (WBR) and World Vision Philippines to bring bicycles to children living in remote locations in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand.

The project is modeled after WBR’s Bicycles for Educational Empowerment Program (BEEP) and aspires to raise enough funds over five years to build and distribute 5,000 bicycles to students who must walk long distances to school every day.

WBR’s educational programs in Africa have demonstrated that reducing students’ travel time to school helps improve attendance and performance.

Bicycle-riding students are more likely to stay in school, improving their career prospects and future income potential as well. As Mark Newman, CEO of ING Asia, says, “We hope that the ING Orange Bike project will be able to create a lasting impact that empowers the students, their families and the community to keep moving forward in life.”

The project’s orange ING-branded Buffalo Bicycle is specially designed for rough, rural terrain and can carry loads up to 100 kg – making it useful for the student’s family to transport crops and goods to the market when school is not in session.

As of December 2016, 3,200 bicycles have been distributed through the Orange Bike Project. The program’s impact is carefully monitored by a local implementing agency, and the results have been spectacular!

In several beneficiary schools in the Philippines, attendance has increased by at least 33% and grades by at least 51%. The bicycles have also helped recipient families bring more goods to market, increasing their income.

ING has plans to raise $200,000 annually to continue the program through 2018. Employee fundraising groups like the ING Orange Bike Cycling Challenge have helped ING reach its goal by raising $75,000 in 2016. The program has benefited from the enthusiastic support of ING employees and friends who all share the organization’s commitment to empowering individuals.

Shayne Prashan, ING employee and team leader for the ING Orange Bike Cycling Challenge, was motivated to fundraise for the project because of the emotional enlightenment it offered him. “It’s about the only superpower that makes us human: empathy.”

Shayne says. “It invites us on one of the greatest and most courageous adventures of our lives: to step into someone else’s shoes to understand their struggles and to help them walk through life with confidence and faith.”

17/07/201605/08/2016

Bihar – Mukhyamantri Cycle Yogina

While reading though some research for my Lit Review, I came across this article: Ghatak, M., Kumar, C., & Mitra, S. (2013). Cash versus kind: Understanding the preferences of the bicycle-programme beneficiaries in Bihar. London, UK: International Growth Centre.

I have previously posted about this program, as it looks like a great initiative, so I was interested to read more about it, but was shocked by a few of the program details and findings that (of course) were not included in this programs’ previous promotions.

Review of the report.

This article is looking at cash transfer schemes and specifically using one case study, the Bihar Mukhyamantri Cycle Yogina (Chief Minister’s Bicycle Programme) a Cash for Kind (Bicycle) program to discuss some of the preferences of the bicycle beneficiancies of this program. It is not analyzing the program as such, although some interesting program results are given which I will expand on, but this paper is looking at to the recipients prefer to get the cash or the bicycle – and why.

Cash for Kind program are where the government disperses cash to recipients, who then use the cash to access a certain ‘kind’ of goods (or service) – usually something that is predetermined and linked as a condition for receiving the cash – in this case the money was to purchase a bicycle for all 9^th grade students enrolled in school.

This report is 22 pages, so I am not going to give you all the results and details, but here is a few of the more interesting aspects of the report.

Program Background

The Bihar bike program is a well-known Indian program which provided ALL the 14 year-old girls (9^th grade) in the whole state with bicycles. Bihar is one of India’s Eastern States that boarders Nepal and is considered to be one of the most impoverished states in India. The Mukhyamantri Cycle Yogina originally started in 2006 and provided Rs 2,400 for purchasing bicycles but was only for the girls. In 2009-2010 the program was expanded to include all the boys in the state of the same age and for the academic year of 2011-2012 the cash was increased to Rs 2500 per student. In 2012 – 2013, a conditional change was made that only students who maintained a 75% attendance at school were eligible.

So this report is a follow up of this program and was undertaken Sept – Oct 2012 over 36 villages and involved surveying 840 households (as a representative sample of the whole district) of which 958 bike recipients lived (some households had more than one child in the program).

Some of the key results

Do the benefits reach the intended beneficiaries – overall, yes.

Overall 90% of the beneficiaries reported being happy with this program (no grievances)

Issues of corruption – corruption can occur by various actors at various stages, but for this program it was difficult to do and corruption was considered to be very low.

Corruption opportunities:

Ghost beneficiaries
Enrolled in multiple schools – double benefits
Was the accurate amount of $$ received?
Receiving other benefits/services (not a bike)
Program administrators skimming a commission by using their own voucher or coupon system

Even though there were areas where corruption could occur, not much did with 93.3% reporting having received the correct amount – meaning 56 households received less than they were entitled to.

Results show that 98% of those who received the cash/voucher used it as required to purchase a new bicycle – over the course of a whole state – that is a pretty amazing result.

45% said they would prefer cash instead of a bicycle

Rest of the report – some scary details

The rest of the report discusses the determinates of why certain households choose a preference between cash and kind (bicycle) – for example the quality of the bike was mentioned as one of the determinants for choosing cash or bike.

In the discussion, the report indicates a few interesting and very disturbing features of this program.

For example, one of the supply side conditions, and the way the program was set up, was that the beneficiaries were provided with cash (provided by the state, but distributed by the teachers at school), then they went out and purchased a bicycle with that cash and brought back the receipt as evidence of a bike purchase. Interestingly, this was not how the full program was implemented. Some districts deviated from this system and 30% of the beneficiaries were required to submit a receipt BEFORE they received the cash for the bike.

This meant 3 things: 1. People had to either purchase the bike with their own money, or 2. Get a fake receipt and 3. This would put extra financial strain on the poorest of the poor, of which this program was trying to help, but forcing into a compromised situation.

There were huge delays of payment to the recipients of up to 6-months.

Most troubling is, that the program provided an inadequate amount of money to purchase a bike in the first place – 98% of beneficiaries had to add money a significant amount of money to the program cash to buy a bike – on average Rs 979.

The market price for the three CHEAPEST bike brands in the area Atals, Avon and Hero (of which about 80% of the beneficiaries selected) range in price of Rs 3100 – 3300, but the government supplied only Rs 2500 – meaning that pretty much all of the recipients had to make up the difference themselves. For the richer households this comes out of savings, for the poorer families – this puts them further into debt, with 25% of all the recipients having to BORROW money to buy a bike – thus indebting them into poverty even further.

And this report states that 90% of the recipients were happy with the program!!??

Don’t get me wrong, the program is ambitious on many levels and you cannot get everything right – and the premise of supplying a new bike to increase school access is something I am very supportive of. However, ethically I have a major problem with programs whose conditionality has a direct and immediate negative consequence for the recipients when program organisers tout the program a success.

Such an error is easily rectifiable with A) doing the right homework to find out how much money is actually needed to buy a bike before implementation and B) increasing the government’s allocation to all beneficiaries if the program is already in effect.

Loan sharks anyone?

The report acknowledges that there is a ‘trade-off between universality and corruption’ meaning that beneficiary needs need to be balanced with the level of leakage and corruption. But given the opening stats on the low corruption level for this program (98% of recipients got the right amount of cash = no corruption), it is hardly justifiable to decrease the reimbursement amount so much that being involved in the program diminishes the possible benefits to such a point where the needs of the beneficiaries are negatively compounded now three fold from having borrowed money to be in the program. Loan sharks anyone?

As a community development practitioner, I find these kind of programs disturbing, as many of them look good in the NGO reports and social media, but by digging a little deeper there are some interesting lessons to be learnt for future review, modifications and application.

I appreciate that this program is on a massive scale and is one of the first of its kind in the world, but critical features such as supplying the correct amount are basic provisions that should have been addressed before implementation.

I would be very interested to hear the rational given for this cash transfer amount for this program.