{"id":23430,"date":"2025-06-17T14:36:35","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T12:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/velafrica.ch\/?page_id=23430"},"modified":"2026-03-05T17:43:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T16:43:17","slug":"bike-to-school","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/velafrica.ch\/en\/what-we-do\/bike-to-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Bike to School"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It takes pupils in Tanzania and Madagascar an average of 102 minutes<\/strong> to walk to school. That is 90 minutes more than it takes pupils in Switzerland. The routes to school are often not only long and tedious, but also dangerous<\/strong> – especially for girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mariam Nsimba Haruna (pictured), for example, walked three and a half hours a day to get to school before receiving a bicycle through the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u00abBike to School\u00bb project ensures that children and young people from poor, often rural backgrounds receive a bicycle at a reduced price. With a bike, pupils can get to school more safely<\/strong> and quickly<\/strong>. This gives them more time and energy to invest in their education<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

We work closely with various partner organizations<\/a>. In Tanzania, these are the Vijana Bicycle Center<\/strong> and the ABC Bicycle Company <\/strong>and in Madagascar the Centre Akany Risika<\/strong>. Our partners prepare the bicycles, coordinate and organize their distribution to the students. With the \u00abflying mechanics\u00bb, they take care of the maintenance and repairs of the bicycles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Within the first five years of the project (2020-2025), together with our project partners we were able to provide more than 10’000 students<\/strong> with a bike. About two thirds<\/strong> of the bikes went to young women<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of them is Nyota (pictured), a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Tanzania. In the portrait<\/a> on YouTube, she tells us how the bike changed her life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Facts and figures<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u00abFlying mechanics\u00bb for remote schools<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Bicycles need maintenance and repairs. This service is important so that pupils and their families can benefit from the bikes in the long term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That is why trained mechanics, such as Jackline Leonard from our local partner company Arusha Bicycle Center, regularly visit remote schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We call these mechanics \u00abflying mechanics\u00bb. Many of them have completed their training in one of our vocational training programs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sustainability in Switzerland<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Recycling the donated bikes extends the product cycle of the bikes and their individual parts. The \u00abBike to School\u00bb program also promotes social sustainability in Switzerland: we work with 27 social work integration companies and 11 prisons to process the bikes. This creates 250 jobs<\/strong> in the bicycle workshops at the partner companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Facts & figures<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Project active <\/strong>since 2019
Project countries<\/strong> Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Tanzania<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project partners <\/strong>
Faso Velo<\/a>, Centre Akany Risika, ABC Impact<\/a>, Vijana Bicycle Center<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bikes distributed <\/strong>11’082 (As of March 2026)
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Schools supplied <\/strong>270 (As of March 2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Average age of beneficiaries <\/strong>15

Sex ratio<\/strong> Two thirds of the beneficiaries are female
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Made possible thanks to<\/strong> private donors, a Swiss family foundation and other institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sustainable Development Goals<\/strong>
The \u00abBike to School\u00bb project has a direct impact on the following United Nations SDGs:<\/a> 1, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Support the project<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It takes pupils in Tanzania and Madagascar an average of 102 minutes to walk to school. That is 90 minutes […]<\/p>\n

Read More… from Bike to School<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":23361,"parent":5811,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-23430","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/velafrica.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/velafrica.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/velafrica.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/velafrica.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/velafrica.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23430"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/velafrica.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26209,"href":"https:\/\/velafrica.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23430\/revisions\/26209"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/velafrica.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/velafrica.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/velafrica.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}