Non-profit organisation, Giving Hands Foundation, has given out brand-new bicycles to female students of the Gbulahagu D/A Junior High School in the Tolon Kunbungu District in the Northern Region.

The bicycles are aimed at empowering the beneficiaries to conveniently commute a distance of 16 kilometres from their homes to school and back each day.

It is also targeted at encouraging the students to remain in school to enhance their academic performance.

The students walk up to five kilometres every morning to fetch water for their households before walking another eight kilometres to school and back, covering a distance of 20 kilometers daily.

Transportation gap

Handing over the bicycles under its project “Bicycle Poverty Reduction Programme”, the Communications Director of Giving Hands Foundation, Bernard Sokpe, said the foundation believed that the bicycle was the answer to bridging the rural transportation gap. 

“We want to empower rural populations with focus on women and girls to shorten the distance between them and opportunities and to access basic necessities, including education, clean water, healthcare and markets for subsistence agricultural produce. 

“It is our commitment to help reduce poverty and have a positive impact in communities across Ghana and the rest of Africa,” he said. 

Mr Sokpe said the foundation decided to support female students in the Northern Region with bicycles to aid their mobility to and from school.

The initiative, he said, followed a five-year study and data analysis the foundation undertook about poor mobility of women and girls in the Northern Region.

“We found that providing low-cost mobility would go a long way in aiding female students to traverse these punishing distances and keeping them in school. Eighty per cent of our distributed bicycles go to women and girls,” he said.

In his view, the bicycle poverty reduction was a concept that showed that access to bicycles and the transportation infrastructure to support rural populations, especially women and girls, could dramatically reduce poverty. 

He said when female students endured walking long distances to school daily, it caused them to underperform in school, leading some of them to eventually drop out of school. 

Extending support

Asked how the foundation funded the initiative, Mr Sokpe said it was made possible through the support of Trans Sahara Industries, a local mobility company that assembled bicycles.

“With help from the assembling company, we are training mechanics in communities we go into, to maintain the smooth running of the programme and creating jobs and supporting rural economies in general,” he said.

He gave the assurance that the foundation would partner the Ministry of Education to enable more female teachers and girls to easily get to school in remote areas across the country.

“We have a few events planned for the rest of the year such as ‘Peace Ride’ in the spirit of promoting peace as Ghana goes to the polls in December. We hope to raise awareness and funds to distribute 5,000 bicycles to girls in deprived communities across the nation,” he said.

Appreciation 

The Head Teacher of the school, Mohammed Ibrahim, expressed deep appreciation to the NGO for coming to the aid of his female pupils.

“We want to say a big thank you to the Giving Hands Foundation for their show of concern and kindness towards these girls. 

“We, however, call for more help for other students within the same district and its environs facing the same plight,” he said.

Source: GraphicOnline