World Bicycle Relief has announced ‘Wheels in the Field: Malawi – Breaking the Cycle’, its July campaign to raise funds and provide life-changing bicycles for girls in need. All funds raised in July, up to £150,000, will be matched pound for pound by Backroads, citizenM Hotels, Quad Locks, and a group of generous individual supporters.
World Bicycle Relief is also partnering with FHI 360, a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving lives through locally-driven solutions, to implement a community-led program around reproductive health designed to improve the education, health, and economic future of students in Malawi.
In Malawi, systemic gender inequalities hold girls back in a variety of ways, particularly when it comes to education and sexual health. 46% of children in Malawi do not finish primary school while 42% of Malawian girls are married by age 18. Adolescent girls and young women also face a disproportionate risk of acquiring HIV as well as taking the burden of care and support in Malawi. By distributing 70% of Buffalo Bicycles to girls and offering strong, group-based mentorship programs, the World Bicycle Relief community can help girls achieve their educational dreams, build self-esteem, break the cycle of poverty, and HIV.
“A high-quality bicycle can have a transformational impact on students in Malawi where the average journey to school ranges from three to ten kilometres.” said World Bicycle Relief CEO Dave Neiswander. “By utilising the bicycle to increase access to educational health programmes as well, we hope to not only improve academic performance and attendance, but to ensure bright futures for these students.”
Access to a reliable, high-quality bicycle can reduce a child’s commute time to school by up to 75% and dramatically changes educational, health and economic outcomes. Specifically, a bicycle can help students overcome distance, time and safety barriers to completing their education, gain independent access to reproductive health counselling and services, and also improve attendance, retention and academic performance.
World Bicycle Relief’s Bicycles for Educational Empowerment Program (BEEP), which launched in Malawi in 2016, has so far mobilised 3,100 students in Malawi with durable Buffalo Bicycles to help them complete their education.
