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One Bicycle Matters

The Program has an immediate impact, ensuring that all students continue their studies

January 2024 

“This is a very special year for our school. In previous years, a high percentage of students who completed 6th grade dropped out of secondary school due to the distance and lack of transportation resulting from their families’ poverty. This year, all 6th-Grade students are attending secondary school, thanks the bicycles provided by The Reaching Out Project.”

Ly Bundarath, Principal of Wat Sdei Primary School

September 2022

En route to the floating village of Kampong Khleang, we asked our guide if we could visit a school in a village that was on the way to our destination. About 3-4 kilometres from Wat Sdei Primary School, we observed children walking to school, some without shoes and others without school bags, clutching their books in their arms.

When we arrived at the primary school, what seemed to be a loud children’s song piqued our interest, and we eagerly entered the classroom. The children greeted us with smiles and continuing to sing. We promptly asked our guide about the meaning of the song. To our surprise, we learned that it was not a children’s song as we had initially thought, but a prayer song expressing gratitude to their parents for working hard so that they could attend school, learning, and playing with their friends.

Two years later, I now understand the significance of that prayer.

After the lessons concluded, we met the principal of Wat Sdei Primary School, Mr. Ly Bundarath. He welcomed us and began to explain to us the challenges faced by the children and school. The primary issue, as he explained, is that children drop out of school due to poverty and lack of transportation. The problem becomes more severe after primary school owing to the distances involved: secondary and high schools are located some distance from where the children live, as much as seven kilometres away in fact. This very often leads to a high dropout rate because their families cannot afford to buy the bicycles that would make the commute more manageable. Extreme poverty forces parents to make difficult choices regarding which child would go to school, which would stay at home helping to babysit younger children, and which would go to work or beg for money.
With these words echoing in our minds and the images of children walking many miles, sometimes without shoes and without books in their hands to reach their school (merely to receive what is a fundamental right of every child in the world), we continued our journey to the floating village of Kampong Khleang.

Everything we witnessed and learned was brutally confirmed by the Cambodian government and global organisations. According to the World Bank, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, and the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training, over 60% of children in Cambodia drop out of secondary school at some point.

Every morning, some “fortunate” children ride their old, damaged bicycles to school with smiles of happiness. Regrettably, not all of them are as “fortunate” and so they must walk approximately seven kilometres every day on flooded and muddy tracks, which can not only be exhausting but also extremely dangerous due to adverse weather conditions.

Children must often walk for hours under the scorching sun or through heavy tropical rain. Poverty has a massive impact on education in Cambodia, and the lack of transportation is frequently an insurmountable barrier. Given that the majority of the population in Cambodia resides in rural and remote areas, the dropout rate of children from secondary school often exceeds 60%, a figure that is already unacceptable.
To reverse the high dropout rate caused by the lack of transportation and poverty, we provide bicycles to impoverished children through our ‘One Bicycle Matters’ program, ensuring that every child can stay in school and keep smiling.

28th September 2023

“Children in School: We are dedicated and committed to supporting all children at primary school, creating a pathway out of poverty for them through education”

Among other achievements we delivered 53 bicycles to students at Wat Sdei Primary School in Kampong Klheang, Cambodia, and covered all school expenses for 353 students for the duration of an entire academic year.

Bicycles have a profound impact on children’s lives.

“I’m so happy with my new bicycle. Without a bicycle I had to walk 1 and a half hour to go to secondary school. Now, I can go with my bicycle and have more time to study at home”

Vy Muysen

Vy Muysen, a 6th-grade student and one of the top students in her grade, dreams of becoming a primary school teacher. However, the distance to the nearest secondary school was a significant obstacle to her realising her dreams.

“Even though I live on a boat, now I have my own bicycle, and that is the best gift I could receive. The bicycle will also benefit my family because my mother can use it for work when I’m not in school”

Nil Srey Nich

Nil Srey Nich, a 5th-grade student, lived in harsh conditions with her parents and two brothers on a boat boat that served as their “home”

The program has immediate benefits for the 6th-grade students as all of them are now continuing with their studies having advanced to secondary school. By providing bicycles, we managed to alleviate poverty by reducing the families’ expenses.

ONE BICYCLE, GREAT IMPACT

“The most important impact of the bicycles is that now all the children of Wat Sdei Primary School attend primary school daily so that they can receive their own bicycle and progress to secondary school. The program serves as a great motivation for children not to drop out of school after 6th grade.”

Ly Bundarath, Principal of Wat Sdei Primary School

The Reaching Out Project follows all children from 6th grade to secondary school, ensuring that all their needs are met and preventing them from dropping out of their studies.