BICYCLES FOR EDUCATION

Senegal

In Senegal, hundreds of boys and girls walk more than 5 kilometers to go to class. They get up before dawn, barely eat breakfast and start walking. At the end of classes, they start walking again to go home. They come back exhausted and without any energy to study.

And the next day, it starts all over again

more than 10 kilometers a day

What do we want to achieve?

Since 2015, the Bicycles Without Borders Foundation has developed the Bicycles for Education project in Senegal. The project aims to:

Facilitate the access to education for students living in rural areas in Senegal

To achieve this, we have developed a bicycle school transport system, and we have designed the baobike , the bicycle for education, so that students in rural communities gain time, quality of life, and get equal opportunities for their future.

What are the results?

With the implementation of the project, its recipients obtain the following results:

School absenteeism is reduced;
Students arrive on time to class;
Pupils are less tired ( 1);
Pupils Increase their school performance ( 2).

(1) Energy consumption is five times lower when you ride a bike than when you walk.

(2) The Lycée de Palmarin has obtained in 2017 the highest number of BAC (University access) pass in the entire Fatick region (57% success rate vs a national average of 31%)

How do we do it?

The project consists in:

Delivering bicycles to Senegalese institutes for the students who live the farthest from the school;
Building a bicycle workshop in each institute;
Training a mechanic for each workshop;
Building a parking lot for bicycles;
Involving the families to contribute to pay the mechanic's salary so the project can be self-sustainable;
Raising awareness and educating pupils and the community about the use and maintenance of the bicycles;
Accompanying each center during the first years of project implementation;
Continuously evaluating the project and collecting impact data in order to introduce improvements.

Project guide book

As a first step, the workshop and parking lot are built, and a mechanic is selected and trained. They will be in charge of reparing the bikes on a daily basis and keeping the fleet in perfect condition.

The school then communicates and spreads the information on the project to students, families and the community and opens the enrollment process so that interested pupils can register. Once the list of students has been completed, the bikes are delivered to the school, which distributes them to the pupils who live farthest from the school.

Families pay an annual fee of 6,000 CFA (€ 9) to finance the mechanic's salary and spare parts.

All these actors are involved in the implementation of the project:

The Senegalese high school management team
The students, their families and the entire community
The sponsors
The Bicycles without Borders Foundation

Where do we work?

Consult here all the centers where the project is implemented and working. Or consult directly the location map of the centers.